Planned apartments affordable, near jobs
Two affordable-housing developers are teaming up on a Far West Side project that would create 116 apartments geared toward people working at nearby warehouses, retail centers and similar workplaces.
Columbus officials and advocates have been pushing for more affordable “workforce housing” close to job centers so that more people can live closer to where they work. That would prevent long commutes that for many lower-income workers can prove troublesome if they lack a reliable car or if bus routes are too far from their home or workplace.
The Columbus City Council approved zoning changes last week that will allow the Arthurs Crossing development at Walcutt and Roberts roads to go forward.
Woda Cooper, a Columbusbased housing-development and property-management company, is developing the project. Woda Cooper and Homeport, a nonprofit housing developer based in Columbus, are applying to the state for low-income-housing tax credits to help finance the development, said Bruce Luecke, Homeport president and CEO.
The week before, the council approved a zoning change for Woda Cooper to build 60 workforce apartments on West Jenkins Avenue, just west of South High Street near Merion Village.
Woda Cooper also is to soon begin construction on 62 apartments at the $13.8 million Wendler Commons development on the Northeast Side, near Easton Town Center and New Albany.
“Where do the people who work in those stores actually live?” said Joe Mccabe, Woda Cooper’s vice president of development.
The annual income levels for residents are expected to range from $16,050 to $42,800 for single-person households, and up to $61,120 for a four-person household.
Mccabe cited the intermodal companies that set up shop at the Norfolk Southern Buckeye Yard off Roberts Road on the Far West Side, near the Arthurs Crossing site. The growth of the lightmanufacturing sector has produced jobs that pay those types of wages, he said.
And even though the 45-unit Livingston apartments under construction in Driving Park east of Downtown are geared toward senior citizens, the site is on a bus line and about a mile from Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
“We’re trying to be really strategic about it,” Mccabe said.
The Jenkins Street Lofts project makes sense because it is just off South High Street, which offers bus service to Downtown and connections there, Mccabe said. Plus, some people who want to live in that part of town are discovering a bit of sticker shock.
“Merion Village just a few years ago was affordable,” Mccabe said. “(But) home values are skyrocketing, quickly becoming unaffordable.”
Brian Higgins’ Arch City Development collaborated with Metropolitan Holdings to build the Out of Town apartments in Franklinton: 45 one- and two-bedroom apartments ranging from $965 to $1,545 a month. Higgins said 93 percent of the apartments are affordable for those who make at least 80 percent of the area’s median income; the 80 percent level is $42,800 a year for a one-person household and $48,900 for a two-person household.
Higgins said more people have become aware of the need for more affordable housing locally and nationally in the past 12 to 18 months. Creating that type of housing near job centers helps minimize transportation costs, he said.
Columbus Development Director Steve Schoeny said, “We absolutely believe it’s the right thing to do to create affordable housing close to jobs.”
Rob Vogt, managing partner for the Columbus-based apartment-consulting firm Vogt Strategic Insights, said there is a growing market for this kind of affordable housing.
“People are sick and tired of the commutes they have to put up with,” he said. “Especially the workforce that does not have personal transportation.”