A planned $8.4 million complex is one of two low-income housing projects to which Spokane Countys housing and community development department recently awarded a total of nearly $1 million in federal funds.


The county awarded $200,000 to Spokane Neighborhood Action Programs (SNAP) earlier this month to help fund the roughly $8.4 million housing project, at 4912 E. Buckeye, just west of SNAPs Riverwalk Point I apartment complex, says Richard Culton, community development specialist at the county.


The county also awarded $700,000 earlier this month to Spokane Housing Ventures, which plans to rehabilitate its 36-unit Catherine Johnson Court affordable housing apartment project, at 6321 E. Fourth, in Spokane Valley, Culton says.


The new SNAP project, to be called Riverwalk Point II, is expected to include 51 living units constructed in three, two-story buildings with a combined total of 40,000 square feet of space, Culton says.


Most of the units will be apartments, but some will be two-story townhouses. SNAP also plans to build a two-story, 37,000-square-foot community building, which residents of the two Riverwalk Point complexes both will use, he says.


Beacon Development Group, of Seattle, will develop the Riverwalk Point II project, and Zeck Butler Architects PS, of Spokane, designed it, says Holly Martin, SNAPs housing services coordinator. M.C. Lundgren Inc., of Deer Park, will be the contractor, Martin says.


SNAP is trying to secure the rest of the funding for the project, and Martin expects that construction will start by August 2007 and will be completed in a year.


The two Riverwalk Point complexes will take up about 6 acres on a 9-acre piece of property that SNAP owns there, and the organization might build a third Riverwalk Point complex in the future, Culton says.


Riverwalk Point I was built in 2002 with whats called environmentally sustainable construction, which included building practices that reduced the amount of leftover building materials.


The Spokane County consortium that developed the project, which included SNAP and the Sustainable Housing Innovation Partnership, received an award from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for outstanding work in affordable housing.


The design for Riverwalk Point II also calls for some elements of environmentally sustainable, or green, construction, Culton says.


Most of the rehabilitation work at Catherine Johnson Court will involve updating the exterior of the three-story, 30,800-square-foot building, Culton says.


The work is slated to start this fall and to be completed before the end of the year. The building is fully occupied, but residents will be able to stay put during construction, he says. Spokane Housing Ventures also will restructure its debt at Catherine Johnson Court, bringing the total cost of its outlays there to about $860,000.


The countys housing and community development department made the two grants from a combined total of $1.6 million in funds received from HUDs HOME investment partnership program, its own program income, and leftover funding from previous years, Culton says.


It issued a request for proposals a few months ago, but only Spokane Housing Ventures and SNAP responded with their proposals.


As a result, the county likely will issue another request for proposals this fall to dole out the remaining $700,000 to low-income housing developers here, Culton says.


Contact Emily Brandler at (509) 344-1265 or via e-mail at emilyb@spokanejournal.com.