Amazon Supports Affordable Housing Purchase With $22 Million

Bridge Housing has made a major market-rate acquisition with a little help from its friend Amazon.

The San Francisco-based affordable housing developer bought the Vue Kirkland apartments at 11733 Northeast 131st Place in Kirkland for $55.2 million, the Puget Sound Business Journal reported. The 200-unit complex transaction works out to $276,000 per unit from seller SEA 131 2012, an affiliate of Acacia Capital Corporation.

Amazon’s Housing Equity Fund provided a $22 million junior loan for the acquisition. The nonprofit National Equity Fund supplemented Amazon’s contribution with a $33.2 million senior loan. Interest rates for the loan were not disclosed.

The project will be Bridge’s largest conversion of market-rate apartments into affordable units.

It marks Amazon’s second partnership with Bridge after the Jeff Bezos-led conglomerate’s Housing Equity Fund provided a $22.1 million loan for a 234-unit affordable housing construction project in Bellevue’s Spring District last year. That project is expected to be delivered next year.

The Vue Kirkland complex was built in 1977 and consists of 13 two- and three-story buildings across 11 acres. The development comes complete with a clubhouse, community pool and fitness and business centers.

Vue Kirkland apartments will be available to households earning 50 percent to 80 percent of King County’s area median income, defined as $48,562 to $77,700 a year for an individual. Three-quarters of the units will be set aside for households earning 60 percent of the AMI or less.

Bridge will receive a property tax exemption on the site thanks to a partnership with the city of Kirkland and A Regional Coalition for Housing. The exemption progressively rises to 100 percent as the units at Vue Kirkland are converted.

To date, Amazon’s Housing Equity Fund has committed more than $3.6 billion to building and preserving more than 35,000 homes for low- and moderate-income households in the Seattle area, the Washington, D.C. region and Nashville, Tennessee.

Bridge is focusing more on acquisitions as a way of expediting affordable housing delivery, according to a statement. The nonprofit developer is planning to add 5,100 affordable units to its stock by 2027. The purchase of Vue Kirkland brings Bridge to more than 800 apartments acquired in three states over the past year.

— Chris Malone Méndez