The land transfer will help build Stewart Court, a 65-unit apartment project in the heart of downtown Seattle for working people who earn 50 to 60 percent of area median income. "Instead of randomly purchasing housing bonus credits from other affordable housing projects throughout the city, the Clise-Nordstrom venture teamed with HRG to locate Stewart Court on the same site," said Jim Ferris, HRG executive director. "This effort is a unique approach to affordable housing development in downtown Seattle and one that we hope will guide future development."

Seattle's Housing Bonus program promotes commercial and housing development by allowing commercial ventures to purchase housing bonus credits. The housing credits generated when affordable housing is created downtown enabled the venture to build a larger building within existing height restrictions.

"Clise Properties and Nordstrom have been a part of the Seattle community for more than 100 years and we wanted to see Seattle retain its neighborhood feel,'' said A. M. Clise, Clise Properties, Inc. president and CEO. "Partnerships like ours with HRG are a great way to develop neighborhoods, not just commercial buildings."

The 1700 Seventh Avenue building is a Clise Properties-Nordstrom joint venture. The 24-story building features street-level retail space and 22 floors of office space with views of the Olympic Mountains, Elliott Bay, Lake Union and downtown Seattle.

"In typical projects, the affordable housing may be built on the other side of town," noted Ferris. "The Stewart Court project took the Housing Bonus program a step further by partnering with Clise and Nordstrom to combine office, retail and affordable housing on the same site."

Clise Properties, Inc. and Nordstrom, Inc. were founding members of HRG when it was created in 1980 through the sponsorship of the Downtown Seattle Association. HRG's mission is to provide quality, permanent and safe low-income housing near employment and on transit routes. HRG manages 1,537 units of affordable housing in 24 Seattle locations.

"We believe this project demonstrates the unique benefit of the City's Housing Bonus program,'' Clise said. "Not only does it generate private funds for development of affordable housing, but it provides a tool to obtain the downtown sites for housing development at reasonable cost."

Stewart Court is owned by the Eighth & Stewart Limited Partnership. GGLO is the project's architect and financing participants in addition to 1700 Seventh L.P. include Washington Mutual Bank Community Lending, AEGON/Transamerica Realty Advisors, City of Seattle Office of Housing, Seattle Housing Authority and the Washington State Housing Finance Commission.

"We recognize the importance of an economically viable and livable downtown community and we are very pleased to be able to contribute to both through our partnership with Clise Properties and HRG," said Erik Nordstrom, Nordstrom executive vice president of stores. "We hope that projects such as Stewart Court will become more common as other public-private partnerships develop as a way to address these needs."