Spokane-based SRM Development launching affordable housing division

Spokane-based SRM Development, a real estate and construction company that specializes in multifamily, mixed-use and senior-living projects, is launching a new affordable housing division.

The company selected affordable housing developer Conor Hansen to lead the new division, which will focus on projects in the western U.S., according to a company release.

Hansen, an affordable housing developer since 2008, has experience with acquiring, renovating and building more than 1,500 affordable housing units. He was also instrumental in creating the Urban Brownfields program with the Washington state Department of Ecology that allows affordable housing developers access to funding and liability protection to clean up contaminated land and build properties, according to SRM Development.

“It is an amazing opportunity to join forces with a group like SRM to help address the nation’s affordable housing crisis. SRM is uniquely positioned as a vertically integrated real estate development and construction company with deep expertise in urban infill housing,” Hansen said in a statement. “Cost control is one of the biggest issues when it comes to bringing these projects to fruition and it’s exciting to think about the types of results we can produce.”

SRM Development will initially develop projects eligible for federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits. The firm utilizes 4% low income housing tax credits and tax exempt bonds to develop projects for residents who earn from 50% to 60% of the area’s median income. SRM Development also will be working with investors and corporations to develop workforce projects for residents who earn from 80% to 120% of the area’s median income.

“Initially, we will be focused on transit-oriented development sites in markets that haven’t had as much new affordable housing created over the last decade. Based on our combined experience, SRM is uniquely positioned to work with local municipalities and corporations to bring projects online that are desperately needed,” Hansen said. “There is a lot of interest and capital out there that want to help solve the problem, and it is our goal to connect all the dots.”

The 1986 Tax Reform Act created the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit, an income tax incentive that encourages private developers to build or renovate affordable housing. The tax credit is allocated by the Washington state Housing Finance Commission, which creates policies for the allocating the credit to housing projects.

More than 100,000 affordable apartments have been built or renovated in Washington with the housing credit, according to a report by the state’s Joint Legislative Audit & Review Committee.

SRM Development was founded in 1999. The firm, which also has an office in Kirkland, has developed more than 7,700 residential units and a portfolio of projects totaling more than 8.5 million square feet.