Drafter
Clerk 11/06/2024
Title
AN ORDINANCE authorizing the King County executive to execute an amended and restated commercial ground lease agreement with an entity comprised of Bridge Housing Corporation and Community Roots Housing for the child care and commercial space elements of the existing mixed-use affordable housing project on county-owned land located at the Northgate Park and Pool lot, in council district one.
Body
STATEMENT OF FACTS:
1. Consistent with K.C.C. 4.56.070.C.1., in 2018 King County issued a request for qualifications and concepts, number 1207-18-VLN ("the RFQ/C"), through which King County sought proposals for the development of its Northgate Park and Pool lot. Among other things, the RFQ/C required proposals to include a minimum of two hundred units of subsidized affordable housing for a minimum of fifty years to serve households earning up to sixty percent of Area Median Income ("AMI"), with a mix of unit sizes and configurations, and with a minimum of ten percent of the units to be "system connected," serving very-low to extremely-low income households below fifty percent of AMI.
2. The RFQ/C resulted in three proposals and King County selected a developer team and commenced negotiations with the selected team.
3. After extensive negotiations the Metro transit department determined that the county should award a ground lease of a portion of the county-owned land located at the Northgate Park and Pool lot to Bridge Housing Corporation and the entity now known as Community Roots Housing (collectively, "Bridge/CRH") for an affordable housing project to include two hundred thirty-two units of affordable housing for seventy-five years with at least twenty-four units designated for system-connected households with incomes of fifty percent or less of AMI, as well as a child care facility, a comfort station for transit operators, and a commercial space.
4. The Metro transit department successfully negotiated a ground lease with Bridge/CRH for a portion of the county-owned land located at the Northgate Park and Pool lot and the metropolitan King County council approved Ordinance 19363 authorizing the executive to execute the ground lease.
5. At the time the ground lease closed in December 2023, Bridge/CRH had not secured all necessary funding to complete the interior buildout of the child care facility.
6. To satisfy lenders, Bridge/CRH provided a guarantee to cover the remaining funding gap and identified funding to complete the interior buildout of the child care facility in anticipation that the ground lease would be restructured to separate the commercial element from the affordable housing element of the overall project.
7. To allow construction financing to proceed and to allow project construction to begin on time as planned, Bridge/CRH and the Metro transit department agreed to work together in good faith to amend and restate the existing lease into two separate leases.
8. The Metro transit department subsequently negotiated with Bridge/CRH to amend the existing ground lease and restate the lease terms in a residential ground lease for the affordable housing elements of the existing Bridge/CRH project, and a commercial ground lease for the child care facility and commercial space elements of that same project.
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. The executive is authorized to execute an amended and restated lease for the child care facility and commercial space elements of the existing Bridge/CRH transit-oriented development project on county-owned land located at the Northgate Park and Pool lot to Bridge Housing Corporation and the entity now known as Community Roots Housing (collectively, "Bridge/CRH"), substantially in the form of Attachment A to this ordinance, and to take all actions necessary to implement the terms of the lease.
SECTION 2. If any provision of this ordinance or its application to any person or
circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the ordinance or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected.