Ground has been broken – but, this time, without the ceremonial shovels.
Tigard Mayor Jason Snider and development partners joined together on July 15 in a virtual groundbreaking ceremony of the Tigard Triangle’s newest affordable housing project, the Viewfinder.
The six-story building will have 81 housing units, including 10 three-bedroom units, 46 two-bedrooms and 25 single-bedrooms. Of the units, ten percent will be reserved for veterans with 66 units booked for families.
“The future of living in Tigard in a more dense and affordable place is in the Tigard Triangle,” Snider said during the ceremony, which was streamed on YouTube at youtu.be/sh5oK6yWq6c. “The City of Tigard has done several things to try to incentivize these types of projects and making sure that we have these financial incentives has helped make projects like this move forward while making sure that they are affordable.”
Located on 72nd Avenue and Baylor Street, the Viewfinder will have 64 parking spots, bicycle storage, a laundry facility on each floor, an indoor play area, a fitness room, community spaces and a second-floor courtyard.
This is the second project funded in Washington County by the Metro Regional Housing Bond. The first, the Mary Ann Apartments in Beaverton, broke ground in June.
Voters approved the bond measure in 2018, authorizing $652.8 million in bonds to fund 3,900 permanently affordable homes across the Portland metro area. The Tigard Triangle was selected by the Housing Authority of Washington County as a Phase I project in the Metro Regional Housing Bond’s implementation strategy.
“Now, more than ever, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we know how critical a safe and stable home is for a very low-income family or senior with disabilities who is at very high risk of homelessness,” Metro Council President Lynn Peterson said during the groundbreaking. “That is what the Regional Housing Bond is about, and these kinds of investments in our communities’ future are represented here in this project.”
With the expected completion in the Fall of 2021, the apartments will be near two future transit stations planned alongside the Southwest Corridor Light Rail project. This allows for easy commuting to Downtown Portland, Tigard or Tualatin.
This Viewfinder comes after a previous housing development in the Tigard Triangle, the 48-unit Red Rock Creek Commons, which broke ground in October. All of which are a part of the 2017 vision to revitalize the Triangle by turning it into an urban renewal area.
The City stated that “at about 550 acres, roughly the size of Downtown Portland, the Tigard Triangle is full of potential but parts of it lack basic infrastructure like sewers, sidewalks, roads, parks and access to the roadways that surround it. The Triangle has the ability to support Tigard’s future growth but needs help overcoming the existing development barriers.”