TWG, a national real estate development company specializing in commercial, market rate, affordable and senior housing developments, announced a new affordable housing project in Kirkland called Grata at Totem Lake.
Located at 12410 NE Totem Lake Way, Grata at Totem Lake will be a seven-story housing development featuring 125 units ranging from studios to four-bedroom apartments.
The $50 million property is set to reserve 88 apartments for residents earning less than or equal to 50% of the county’s area median income and 37 apartments for those earning less than or equal to 60% area median income. The new building will also be within a few miles of campuses for Google, Facebook and Microsoft.
“King County is one of the wealthiest counties in the country with some of the highest costs to build, making affordable housing difficult to produce and oftentimes impossible for individuals and families to find,” said Megan Adams, Development Director at TWG. “We are honored to be partnering with a local community based non-profit that has served 150,000 people in east King County over the last four decades.”
TWG is partnering for services and co-ownership with a nonprofit services agency to increase housing options for survivors of domestic violence in east and north King County. The Grata development is also supported by the Evergreen Impact Housing Fund – which received a $50 million investment from Microsoft last year.
“Rents are skyrocketing in the Puget Sound region, and we simply do not have enough affordable housing for working families. The Evergreen Impact Housing Fund is using private capital to fill a critical gap in funding for large-scale projects like Grata. Our investors aim to have a positive social impact by ensuring that nursing assistants, teachers, caregivers, sales clerks, first responders, and all hard-working folks can continue to live here,” said Kris Hermanns, Chief Impact Officer at Seattle Foundation, which manages Evergreen Impact Housing Fund. “This is about providing housing stability and ensuring greater equity across our region.”
Grata at Totem Lake will feature amenities such as views of Totem Lake, maximized ventilation systems, on-site parking, bicycle facilities, shared laundry facilities, being pet-friendly, adjacency to a brand new City of Kirkland playground, and is a few hundred feet from a brand new shopping center with a movie theater, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, numerous eateries, a gym, numerous other stores, and high capacity transit.
TWG says the property will also be energy efficient, with solar arrays on the building’s roofs, electric vehicle battery charging stations, specialized envelope systems to preserve energy use, green-rated appliances in-unit and more.
Groundbreaking and construction is expected in the coming months, as the project is scheduled to be completed in early 2024.
