230 Main Affordable Housing Request for Proposals

Overview

In December of 2023, the City of North Bend City Council acquired a 0.4-acre parcel in downtown North Bend for an affordable housing project. The City is seeking an entity, organization, or consortium of organizations to construct and manage affordable rental housing on the property to achieve the following goals:

Establish long-term housing affordability (55+years) up to 60% AMI for all units.
Serve as a replicable model for innovative affordable housing.
Demonstrate the City’s commitment to meet its economic development goals of providing a variety of housing types and price ranges to make North Bend more livable.
Support the North Bend Housing Action Plan to encourage affordable housing for businesses that provide critical amenities serving the needs of North Bend residents.
Provide an affordable housing product that is consistent with the City’s design standards and aesthetic of a mountain town community.
Utilize creativity and innovation as well as a desire to work closely with the City to establish a long-term affordable housing project.

Located approximately 40 miles east of Seattle along Interstate 90, North Bend is a community of nearly 8,000 residents situated in the Snoqualmie River Valley. A mountain town community, North Bend has seen tremendous growth over the last 5 years largely due to the growth of the information technology industry in Seattle and Bellevue. As a result, housing affordability has increasingly become an issue both for local small businesses and their local workforce as well as for Boyne Resorts, who operates Snoqualmie Summit, a destination ski and summer recreation facility 30 miles east of North Bend.

Purpose of the rEquest for ProposaL

The City of North Bend is seeking to partner with a developer to construct and manage an affordable housing rental project that ensures long-term affordability (55+ years) and provides housing to tenants who are at or below 60% AMI.1 The City wishes to encourage proposals that demonstrate financial feasibility and sustainability combined with exceptionally strong design and a proven track record of quality affordable house construction and management that meets the City’s goals. A copy of the RFP can be found here.

dOWNTOWN nORTH bEND zONING

The 230 Main property is zoned Downtown Commercial (DC). The North Bend City Council approved an amendment to the Downtown Commercial Zone to allow for a Form Based Code. The Municipal Code Chapter for the Form Based code is NBMC 18.12 and works in tandem with the Form Based Code Regulating Plan.

Form Based Code is a land development regulation that fosters predictable built results and a high-quality public realm by using physical form, rather than separation of uses, as its organizing principle. The form-based approach will allow the public to see and adjust actual components that contribute to what they like in development, while also addressing what they don’t like.

To learn more about the City of North Bend’s form-based code, please use this link to access the regulating plan.

nORTH bEND dOWNTOWN mASTER pLAN

The Downtown Master Plan is intended to guide the City's revitalization and economic growth for the next 20 years. It recommends short and long-term physical and economic improvements that will establish Downtown North Bend as a vibrant retail/commercial district while preserving its small-town character. Please use this link to learn more about the City of North Bend’s Downtown Master Plan.

Property Photos

The building on the site has been removed. Here is the link to the King County property site report.

Request for Proposal timeline

Release of this RFP: June 3, 2024
RFP Responders meeting: June 24, 2024, 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. Pacific Time via Teams. Please email James Henderson, Economic Development Manager, City of North Bend, at jhenderson@northbendwa.gov to request a Teams invite.
RFP responses due: August 2, 2024, by 12:00 noon Pacific Time. Responses can either be mailed or provided in person at North Bend City Hall.

* Send responses to the attention of: James Henderson, Economic Development Manager, City of North Bend, 920 SE Cedar Falls Way, North Bend, WA 98045, jhenderson@northbendwa.gov

RFP Proposal Evaluations: Week of August 19, 2024
Interviews to take place the weeks of September 9 and 16, 2024
City Council Proposal(s) Presentation and Potential Selection: October/November 2024
City Council contract approval: November/December 2024