Two new affordable housing projects planned in Reno

One local and one out-of-state multifamily development company announced that they will bring two new affordable housing projects to Northern Nevada.

Greenstreet Development Inc. recently broke ground for Vintage at Washington Station, a 205-unit, 55-and-older affordable housing project at 260 Winter St. And Inland Group of Spokane, Wash., plans to build a 290-unit project in Red Rock. It will be Inland’s first project in Northern Nevada.

Jim Zaccheo, principal and co-founder of Greenstreet Development, said Vintage at Washington Station brings its portfolio of affordable housing projects in Reno-Sparks to around 2,000 units. Its latest project consists of nine studio apartments and 196 one-bedroom, one-bath units. Washington Station is expected to be completed in May 2024.

Zaccheo said Greenstreet felt the downtown core was a prime location for an affordable senior housing project since many seniors living in the downtown area have been displaced in recent years by the demolition of older motels in the area.

“There is dire need nationally for affordable housing, and Northern Nevada – specifically the Reno market – is feeling it,” Zaccheo told NNBW. “There definitely was a need downtown. We took a somewhat blighted site and will transform it into 205 affordable housing units that are desperately needed for seniors. It will be a great addition to the downtown area.”

Washington Station will mirror Greenstreet’s 55-and-over-project Vintage at Sanctuary, which opened earlier this year on Gentry Way and is 99 percent leased. The success of that development had no bearing on Vintage at Washington Station, though – affordable housing projects typically take several years to come together, and balls were in play well before construction was complete at Vintage at Sanctuary.

“We did quite a bit of research on the depth of market and the need for affordable senior housing,” Zaccheo said. “With permitting and zoning, we can’t wait for one project to get fully leased up and search for another or we will be three years out for the next project.

“With Washington Station now breaking ground, we have a couple behind it where we are either in escrow or have plans so we can keep the momentum going. We want to try to solve this (housing) crisis as fast as we can, and we are doing everything we can to try and keep bringing projects to market to satisfy the need for housing for low-income seniors.”

Greenstreet purchased the 2.2-acre parcel at Winter Street from the City of Reno in 2021, Zaccheo said. The company spent the rest of the year demolishing the old buildings at the site and firming up plans for new construction. The site will be developed by Mountain West Builders, which is the general contractor of record for Greenstreet and its development partner, Vintage Housing. The two companies have been development partners for more than two decades, Zaccheo said. Finished projects are jointly owned and managed by FPI Management.

Zaccheo said that many factors have to come into alignment to make affordable housing projects work for the developer.

“That’s why you don’t see a lot of it,” he said. “When you have rents that are close to half of what a market-rate project would yield, there is not a huge incentive for developers to build affordable housing. There also are a lot of government restrictions and time-consuming processes that have to be completed.

“Quite frankly, Greenstreet and Vintage Housing look at it as we are part of the community, and it’s something we need to do. We don’t want to build for just one segment of the population. It is incumbent upon us to try to service as much of the population as we can. Sometimes it is difficult to do, but it’s the right thing to do.”

Meanwhile, out in Red Rock, Inland Group is developing a garden-style 290-unit affordable housing community at the corners of Silver Lake and Red Rock roads just off Highway 395, said Joey Launceford, development assistant with Inland Group of Spokane. Units at Copper Mesa apartments will be restricted to tenants who earn just 60 percent of the area’s median income, which is just over $56,000, Launceford said

Inland’s business model is to hold its multifamily developments, Launceford noted. The target demographic for the project is working families in the North Valleys, he added.

“We take a lot of pride in being long-term neighbors,” Launceford said. “When we looked at Reno and Nevada in general as a new market to start developing affordable housing, we saw the amount of job growth that has taken place over the last five to 10 years and housing hasn’t caught up with that job growth. Housing costs have also increased so much that we saw a huge need for this type of housing.”

Inland took the 13.5-acre property for Copper Mesa under contract in September 2021 and closed on it last month. The first of four buildings is expected to be completed this coming summer, with full buildout completed by the second quarter of 2024.

Launceford said Inland will use all local subcontractors and seeks to foster closer ties with regional construction firms in advance of its next Northern Nevada project.

“With this being our first deal as developer and builder in Reno, we are definitely looking to build relationships for the next one,” Launceford said. “And as an out-of-state first-time developer, the Reno City Council and Nevada Housing Division made the process successful and streamlined, and we are excited to do more developments in Reno.”