By Hayden Seder
Affordable housing has become a major issue in Ketchum and in an effort to help alleviate some of the need for workforce housing, the city council has approved a contract with GMD Development to possibly turn the current Ketchum City Hall into affordable housing apartments.
“Imagine young professionals working in town and looking at this view before they go to work in the morning,” said Ketchum Mayor Neil Bradshaw, standing outside the second floor of City Hall, pointing toward the mountains and the blue sky.
The project is the work of GMD Development in partnership with the Ketchum Community Development Corporation (KCDC), the nonprofit arm of the city started by Bradshaw 10 years ago. While the city council has approved the contract, the project is dependent on an approved application from the Idaho Housing and Finance Association (IHFA). Each year, IHFA looks at applications and gives out a certain number of federal tax credits, which are awarded to projects around Idaho based on certain criteria. Bradshaw explained that since Blaine County has been designated a “difficult-to-develop” area, there is potential for receiving more points than usual and possibly winning an award.
The application for the City Hall housing is due by August 2.
Should the application be accepted, the city would sign a lease with GMD and KCDC to give them control of the land for 15 to 20 years, starting in mid-2021, after which the land reverts back to the city. The lease is only good if the project wins credits; if not, it’s null and void.
The current fire bond plays a significant role in what happens with City Hall and the housing project as well. If the IHFA application is accepted but the bond doesn’t pass, the firefighters will be put into a temporary location until a place is finalized.
“I wouldn’t walk away from free money to build housing while we’re looking for a spot,” Bradshaw said. “My hope is that both pass, obviously, but we have contingency plans for a temporary location, should the bond not pass.”
If the application doesn’t pass but the bond does, the city plans to go ahead with the fire station and look at what to do with the City Hall land.
“We could sell it, but we don’t want to sell it and have the land become high-end condos,” Bradshaw said. “I really want to develop this for housing so we would continue to look at ways that we could make that happen.”
The tax credits that IHFA provides are sellable into the market. If the city were to be awarded $10 million of tax credits, for example, someone would buy those $10 million to save on taxes and the city would get the money to build the apartments, borrowing the remainder of the cost.
“Without the $10 million, you’d have to build multimillion-dollar apartments to sell off and rent would be $3,000 a month,” Bradshaw explained.
The credits allow for reduced rent, which the Blaine County Housing Authority will control, like any other affordable housing in the Valley. And similar to other criteria used, one would have to prove a low income and that they are a long-term resident and part of the workforce.
The building is slated to have one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments with rent determined by income level. Bradshaw said that someone earning $20,000 a year would be able to rent space for about $300 a month while people earning $40,000 will rent for about $700 a month. The building will have about 50 units, with 50 parking spots as well, while the ground floor will be dedicated to retail or possibly office space for quasi-government institutions.
The apartments aren’t available to buy, only to rent.
“I like the idea of long-term rental units to offset all the short-term rentals people are using for Airbnbs right now,” Bradshaw said. “If we could get these 50 units plus the 36 we’re already doing with the Ketch 1 and Ketch 2, we’re almost at 100 units of long-term rental housing for workers in our town. That’s a significant step.”
Greg Dunfield, president/owner of GMD Development, is all too familiar with the affordable housing crisis in the area, having visited Sun Valley since his childhood. Dunfield owns several properties in the area and visits often.
“My primary residence is in Seattle but I spend a lot of time in Sun Valley and I’ve been familiar with the affordable housing efforts of the city and KCDC for a long time,” Dunfield said. “We’re trying to create a project that meets the needs of the local community.”
Though GMD doesn’t have a final building design yet, Dunfield said that in addition to apartments, the building will include storage, a community room and possibly an outdoor deck area, as well.
“Ideally, I’m trying to create something that will meet a broad spectrum of the community,” Dunfield said.
The results of the application and whether it has been awarded credits will be released in mid- to late-October.