ULI Announces Finalists in the 2015 Jack Kemp Excellence in Affordable and Workforce Housing Award Competition

June 24, 2015

WASHINGTON – June 24, 2015 – (RealEstateRama) — Today the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Terwilliger Center for Housing announced the finalists of this year’s Jack Kemp Excellence in Affordable and Workforce Housing Awardcompetition, a program that honors developments that ensure housing affordability for people with a range of incomes. The winners will be announced later this year during a general session at the 2015 ULI Fall Meeting in San Francisco.

The finalists were selected by a jury of nationally renowned housing experts, who judged submissions based on each project’s ability to meet affordable and workforce housing needs in their communities. The award is provided to developments in which all or a portion of the units are affordable to households earning less than 120 percent of area median income (AMI), or mixed-income developments serving households both above and below 60 percent of AMI.

The 2015 Jack Kemp Excellence in Affordable and Workforce Housing Award finalists are as follows:

1400 Mission, San Francisco, California—1400 Mission is a 190-unit, family-oriented housing development located in a transit-rich and vibrant part of central San Francisco. The housing project was developed by Tishman Speyer in partnership with the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation as the off-site inclusionary housing component of Lumina, Tishman Speyer’s 656 luxury condo development. The 1400 Mission development has a full curtain wall exterior providing ample natural light, landscaped roof terraces, ground-floor retail space, bike parking, energy-efficient features including solar photovoltaic cells, natural ventilation and cool roofs, high-quality interior finishes, and very low operating costs for residents.

BASE Capitol Hill, Seattle, Washington—BASE Capitol Hill is a 32-micro-unit apartment building with ground-floor commercial space in Seattle’s bustling Capitol Hill neighborhood. The project offers affordable living options in an increasingly expensive area. The site is located within blocks of a variety of public transit options, including bus, bike share, and upcoming streetcar and light-rail stops. BASE Capitol Hill’s smart design allowed for the creation of units that feel more expansive than their actual square footage. In addition, the development is built to conserve resources while providing a comfortable and healthy living environment for its tenants.

Chambers Lofts, Trenton, New Jersey—Chambers Lofts is the adaptive use of the old American Cigar Company factory in the Chambersburg neighborhood of Trenton, New Jersey. The project not only creates desirable and affordable living spaces, but also serves as an example of the regeneration possible in this vibrant though aging neighborhood. Chambers Lofts exemplifies responsible development by leveraging the building’s industrial past, and its historical significance is acknowledged by the National Register of Historic Buildings, helping contribute tax credits to the project. Chambers Lofts, the first multifamily project to be built in Trenton without public financing or low-income housing tax credits since 1988, has been embraced by both the market and the community.

Charlesview Residences and Town Homes at Brighton Mills, Brighton, Massachusetts—Charlesview Residences and Town Homes, home to 260 Boston families of all incomes, is a 28-building, five-city-block development. The project includes 25,000 square feet of vibrant commercial and community space, along with rental apartments and for-sale middle-income townhomes. The development was built on the site of a vacant shopping center, replacing the structurally deficient Charlesview Apartments. Charlesview Residences used an innovative approach to the preservation of an affordable housing resource by transferring the Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) subsidy, capitalizing on the value of the original land through a pioneering land swap with Harvard University, and relocating residents to the newly developed site only one-half mile away. In addition, Charlesview Residences expanded the former development with additional workforce, market-rate, and homeownership units; retail space; a vibrant community center; and a new park and public infrastructure.

Warehouse Artist Lofts, Sacramento, California—Warehouse Artist Lofts (WAL) is a mixed-use, mixed-income community for artists, located in downtown Sacramento’s R Street Corridor Special Planning District, a former industrial and railroad corridor. The project is funded with historic tax credits, low-income housing tax credits, state of California infrastructure funds, and construction and permanent financing. This transit-oriented infill development includes the adaptive use of the historic Lawrence Warehouse built in 1914, and also provides the first rooftop community garden in Sacramento. Its 116 apartments provide housing for Sacramento-area artists who struggle to find affordable options in Sacramento’s central-city community. WAL includes 13,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial retail space located a half block from light rail and within two blocks of two bus lines.

ULI established the Jack Kemp Excellence in Affordable and Workforce Housing Award in 2008, naming it in memory of Jack Kemp, former secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and ULI Terwilliger Center national advisory board member. The award is given annually to affordable and workforce housing developments that represent outstanding achievements in several areas, including affordability, innovative financing and building technologies, proximity to employment centers and transportation hubs, quality of design, involvement of public/private partnerships, and replicability of the development, among other criteria.

According to jury member Paul Freitag, managing director, Jonathan Rose Co., “The Kemp Awards are a great way for ULI to reward and share best practices in meeting affordable and workforce housing needs through creating mixed-income, vibrant communities.”

In addition to Freitag, members of the Jack Kemp Award jury include Dara Kovel, vice president of multifamily, Connecticut Housing Finance Authority; Linda Mandolini, president, Eden Housing; Patrick Nash, managing director, JP Morgan; and Dionne Nelson, principal and chief executive officer, Laurel Street Residential.

NOTE TO REPORTERS AND EDITORS: Courtesy images of the Jack Kemp Award finalists are provided to members of the media upon request. For more details on the award and previous winners, visit the Jack Kemp Award webpage.

About the ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing
The ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing was established in 2007 with a $5 million endowment to ULI from former ULI Chairman J. Ronald Terwilliger, chairman emeritus of Trammell Crow Residential and chairman of the ULI Terwilliger Center. The mission of the Center is to expand housing opportunity by leveraging the private sector and other partners to create and sustain mixed-income, mixed-use urban and suburban neighborhoods that incorporate a full spectrum of housing choices, including affordable and workforce housing.

About the Urban Land Institute
The Urban Land Institute (uli.org) is a global nonprofit education and research institute supported by its members. Its mission is to provide leadership in the responsible use of land and in creating and sustaining thriving communities worldwide. Established in 1936, the Institute has more than 34,000 members representing all aspects of land use and development disciplines

Contact: Robert Krueger, 202-624-7051;