Housing Resources Bainbridge announced Monday it will join with a Bainbridge developer to buy the 550 Madison Apartments.
The impending sale, however, will mean the current residents of the apartment complex will eventually have to move so the property can be redeveloped.
The Bainbridge nonprofit said it submitted a $1.75 million offer for the property Monday, in partnership with Madison Avenue Development.
Housing Kitsap, the current owner of the property, has been looking to sell the 13-unit apartment complex on Madison Avenue, as well as other property it owns, due to the agency’s continuing financial crisis.
The board of commissioners is expected to meet Tuesday to review the sale of the 550 Madison Apartments.
Housing Resources Bainbridge said the purchase of the building would help retain low-cost housing on Bainbridge Island, where affordable rental properties are rare.
“The partnership between our organizations will protect the current residents in the short-term by maintaining the existing housing and rents during any redevelopment planned for the overall site,” officials with Housing Resources Bainbridge said in Monday’s announcement.
The nonprofit has been working with Madison Avenue Development, a development company owned by Mike Burns, to form a partnership to purchase the 550 Madison Apartments “and ultimately redevelop the site into a mixed-income, multifamily community,” according to Housing Resources Bainbridge.
HRB and Madison Avenue Development, in the announcement, detailed the advantages to a partnership between the organizations. Madison Avenue Development had earlier offered $2 million offer for the apartment complex, but Burns retracted his offer amid community criticism, and said he did not want to compete against Housing Resources Bainbridge for the property.
Housing Resources Bainbridge said it hopes the partnership will lead to a redevelopment of the property and adjacent parcels “into a mixed-income community that would contain market rate units and retain at least 13 permanently affordable units for households at or below 50 percent of area media income ($29,950 for a single individual).”
Current tenants will be relocated as the property is redeveloped, however. They will receive temporary relocation assistance, the nonprofit added, and eligible residents will be able to return to the property after new multi-family housing is built.
Burns has had in previous discussions on a potential purchase and redevelopment of the 550 Madison Apartments, as Madison Avenue Development owns parcels next the apartment complex and has explored potential development scenarios for its parcels in recent years. The developers have said the current zoning on the 550 Madison Apartments property would allow twice the number of housing units that are currently on the land.
Housing Resources Bainbridge also said it has reached an agreement with Madison Avenue Development to take over property management responsibilities for the 550 Madison Apartments once the sale is closed.
Current tenants have been notified of the new agreement and partnership by Phedra Elliott, executive director of Housing Resources Bainbridge.
