Construction has started on a significant “all-affordable” housing development in Tysons.
The Dominion Square project includes two 20-story towers with 516 apartment units, and a 33,000 sq. ft. community centre, with the units reserved for residents at between 30 and 70% of the area median income, Biznow reports.
Officials with Fairfax County, nonprofit developer Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH) and other partners broke ground on Dec. 19 on the project, which has been newly renamed The Exchange at Spring Hill Station.
Accelerated by a $55 million grant from Amazon, the development will consist of two 20-story apartment buildings with a total of 516 residential units and a new community center for Tysons, says the Tysons Reporter.
The housing complex will be reserved for residents earning 70% of the area median income (AMI) or less.
Silver Line’s Spring Hill Metro station. The units will be reserved for residents making between 30% and 70% of the area median income.
The Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority acquired the 2-acre site, near the Silver Line’s Spring Hill Metro station on June 30 for $19.5 million, said Michael Chiappa, Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing’s (APAH) senior vice-president of real estate Michael Chiappa.
An APAH spokesperson told Biznow that the development team closed a $55 million below-market-rate loan from the Amazon Housing Equity Fund, which was announced in May 2022. “That funding will make it possible for all 516 units to be developed at once, instead of in phases, as the initial plan laid out,” the business publication reported. “The funds also made it possible to add a community center to the development.”
The county will ground lease the property to APAH, a local nonprofit developer, for 85 years, ensuring the homes “will be affordable to residents well into the future,” according to the release.
In addition to securing the site, the FCRHA has authorized the issuance of up to $89 million in tax-exempt bonds for the project, the statement said.
“This project, this location, represents APAH’s continued commitment to providing not only a place for residents with lower incomes to call home, but a foundation from which they can realize their dreams,” APAH president and CEO Carmen Romero said in the release.
Biznow reports that APAH said it hasn’t yet finalized construction financing, but is working with its lenders and tax credit investor funders, hoping to raise the needed funds by the end of 2023, with an expected delivery in 2027.
