This program allows additional density for office and hotel developments in exchange for affordable housing and childcare for lower-wage workers.
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
- The Downtown Commercial Bonus Program is a mitigation/incentive program for downtown office and hotel developers.
- Bonus floor area refers to the floor area in a project that is conditioned on the developer mitigating a portion of the impacts on housing and childcare.
- The total cash contribution amount is $22.00 per square foot: $18.75/s.f. for housing and $3.25/s.f. for childcare.
- These amounts are based on a fraction of the housing mitigation costs identified in nexus analyses done in 2001 and may be adjusted periodically to reflect changes in key variables (e.g. construction costs, wages).
BONUS PROCESS
- Prior to MUP issuance, commercial developer must detail for the Office of Housing how all chargeable floor area above the Base FAR will be achieved
- Contact Laura Hewitt Walker at (206) 684-0429 or laura.hewitt (at) seattle (dot) gov for more information.
CODE REFERENCES
- SMC 23.49.012: Bonus floor area for voluntary agreements for housing and childcare
- SMC 23.49.011: Floor area ratio
BONUS FUNDING APPLICATION
- Cash contributions by commercial developers for new affordable rental housing in Downtown are made available through the Office of Housing’s Multifamily Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) process. Affordable housing developers may contact Joanne LaTuchie at (206) 615-0995 or joanne.latuchie (at) seattle (dot) gov for more information.
- Childcare bonus inquiries may be directed to Ken Astrein at the Human Services Department (HSD) at (206) 684-0377 or ken.astrein (at) seattle (dot) gov.
For more information, visit www.seattle.gov
