Cascade Landing - Housing People Can Afford

Each apartment home has 9’ high ceilings for a feeling of spaciousness, large windows allowing lots of natural light, new energy-efficient appliances, and thoughtfully designed kitchens and bathrooms. Each apartment home includes heat exchange venting, LED lighting, heat pumps, water heaters, and mini-PTACs, these are Packaged Terminal Air Conditioning units.

Cascade Landing offers:

• 28 studio apartment homes, approximately 272-312 square feet
• 4 one-bedroom apartment homes, between 409-508 square feet
• 2 two-bedroom apartment homes, approximately 740 square feet

The building design includes major energy efficiency upgrades including new windows, sound barriers between units, onsite laundry, community rooms, outdoor patio, and ample parking for residents, first-floor commercial tenants, and visitors.

Skagit County’s current housing market is the worst in the state.

Community Action has plans to change this!

The individuals and families Community Action serves are struggling to secure affordable housing due to rising housing costs, a limited supply of homes people can afford, and limited access to housing resources. In 2021, Skagit County has the biggest shortage of apartments of any county in the state. According to the Skagit Council of Governments “Skagit County Housing & Transportation Analysis”:

• Skagit hasn’t built enough housing, especially affordable rental homes.
  • 2010-2020 produced fewer housing units than any decade in the last 40 years.
• Skagit’s housing stock does not match the diversity of its residents.
  • The population is growing, aging, and becoming more diverse. Over 60% of existing housing is single-family homes. But young families, workers, downsizing seniors, and others need smaller apartment homes.
• Most emerging demand is for lower-priced housing.
  • Low- and moderate-income households are a growing share of the population.
• Building new apartment units is the most direct strategy for addressing the shortage of affordable housing.
  • New housing development requires upfront resources, and gap financing to deliver rents that are affordable long-term.

Creating substantially more housing people can afford will require for-profit and nonprofit development communities and local governments to bring their commitment, expertise, and resources to build smaller apartments and other homes people can actually afford.

The Cascade Landing model: Renovate existing commercial space to provide beautiful, energy efficient apartment homes. The partnership of nonprofit with for-profit provides significant economic advantages to the community.

We are making a courageous commitment to our community.

By partnering with a for-profit developer to create homes in a commercial space, the project offers benefits to the developer, the agency, and the community – a true win-win-win. This was made possible, in part thanks to major contributors including: Robert and Becky Gates, Mike and Lisa Janicki, PeaceHealth, United General Medical Center, Jerry H. Walton Foundation, the Blackburn family, Herbert & Theresa Goldston, Skagit Community Foundation, Pacific Woodtech Corporation, Skagit County, Paccar, and many kind donors.

Cascade Landing is considered a pilot project. The success of Cascade Landing will inform how we aggressively work towards helping to mitigate the lack of affordable homes. As a nonprofit organization, Community Action works with local government, for-profit developers, and the community we serve to solve the puzzle of creating housing people can afford. By partnering with the property owner of an existing building, we can move quickly to reconfigure what once were offices into cozy, affordable apartments homes for approximately 45 people.

Once situated in their homes, there will be no need for tenants to requalify. Cascade Landing apartments are permanent homes – not shelter, nor transitional housing. Increases in rent will be modest and aligned annually with the Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA).

This project adds an additional 34 affordable apartment homes to the Skagit County housing pool. This is significant, considering that the 2021 vacancy rate is only 0.3%. Cascade Landing will have full-time leasing agent/customer service representative located at the facility to manage the site.

Beautiful, affordable homes where people can feel safe and build community.

This innovative model of creating housing in under-used commercial space is time and cost efficient. The cost to convert office space is approximately $70,000 per apartment home.

By converting the second floor of a 27,000-square-foot commercial building in Burlington into small residential rental units, Community Action of Skagit County is able to provide 34 affordable rental homes.

Cascade Landing provides permanent long-term housing. Rents will be scaled to be affordable for qualifying tenants. The initial Master Lease is on a 12-year term with extensions in 5-10 year increments up to a maximum term of 47 years.

These homes consist of 28 studio apartments, 4 one-bedroom apartments, and 2 two-bedroom apartments all on the second level of a repurposed commercial building.

These comfortable apartment homes have their own bathroom and kitchen, and four of the homes are ADA compliant. There is a laundry room complete with commercial-sized washers and dryers, and an elevator for easy access. There are common areas where families can enjoy a community room for gatherings to celebrate birthdays and special occasions, an outdoor patio to BBQ, and an abundance of free parking.

These apartment homes are for young families, workers, seniors, veterans, and others.