Construction will start this month on 73 permanently affordable rental homes in Longmont, Boulder County announced in a Friday news release.
Clearing the way for work to begin was the successful closing on the construction loan for the project, according to the release.
The Spoke Apartments, at 518 Coffman St., will be part of a mixed-used development that includes at least three residential floor plans, a 260-space parking lot for residents and downtown employees and 8,800 square feet of commercial office space, Kathy Fedler, Longmont’s Housing and Community Investment Division manager, said last month.
The site is across the street from Boulder County’s St. Vrain Community Hub.
The affordable homes will serve families and individuals with income up to 60% of the area median income, which this year in Boulder County is $69,060 for a family of four or $48,360 for a single-person household, the typical income for a nurse, firefighter or bank teller, according to the release.
The Spoke on Coffman is the result of a four-party partnership between Boulder County, the Boulder County Housing Authority, the Longmont Downtown Development Authority and the city of Longmont.
“We are very excited to bring affordable housing to the heart of downtown Longmont, just one block off Main Street and directly across from Boulder County’s St. Vrain Community Hub service center. There are so many people in our community who are struggling with the high cost of housing, and this has only been made worse by the current pandemic,” Norrie Boyd, interim director of the Boulder County Housing Authority, stated in the release. “The Spoke on Coffman will provide housing stability close to jobs, transportation, and service supports. We’re eager to start building and have been closely coordinating with local businesses, the Longmont Downtown Development Authority, and our construction contractor to carefully plan the work to minimize impacts to downtown businesses.”
The Spoke on Coffman will provide a boost to the work of the Boulder County Regional Housing Partnership, which has set a goal of tripling the number of affordable homes across the county by 2035, according to the release.
“We look forward to the addition of 73 affordable homes for Longmont residents. We are proud to be part of this collaborative and creative effort, and we are so happy to help put forward a centrally located community in our beautiful downtown that so many of our neighbors in need can call home,” Fedler stated in the release.
The project also will be good for the vitality of downtown Longmont, Kimberlee McKee, LDDA executive director, stated in the release.
“Our mission is to develop, support, and promote a vital and valuable downtown Longmont. The Spoke on Coffman will be a big contributor to this, providing homes for people who will have easy access to all that downtown has to offer and who themselves will help boost the vitality and vibrancy of our community,” she stated. “Additionally, this project brings needed public parking into the downtown footprint for businesses and visitors to the area.”
Some of the funding for the project is coming from Colorado Housing and Finance Authority Low Income Housing Tax Credits, “a federal program through which investors help fund construction of affordable housing by purchasing tax credits that provide a return on their investment, while enabling rent levels for the homes to be set below market rates,” according to the release.
Other sources of financing are $11.8 million in affordable housing tax credit equity from Enterprise Housing Credit Investments, $1.6 million in Boulder County Worthy Cause funds, fee waivers from the city, $1.5 million from the Boulder Broomfield HOME Consortium, $3.7 million in of Colorado Department of Local Affairs grant funds and a $15.3 million construction loan from Citi Community Capital, according to the release.
Construction is scheduled to be completed by spring 2022.
