With reporting by Alex Garland
In better times, you would hear more about the Heartwood, a recently completed mass-timber affordable apartment building at the core of Capitol Hill and the Central District, that puts its residents in direct contact with a building material more closely connected with the planet and the feelings of home.
The cross-laminated timber project is one of the first in the country to be designed with full exposure of mass timber in the structure. The newly opened building’s eight stories feature full exposure of its timber beams so residents and visitors can see, touch, and feel the wood. Other types can build higher — like this project on First Hill — but require that the wood be kept “encapsulated.”
But the Heartwood’s amazing composition has been overshadowed.
“[The timing surrounding the development and lease up of the Heartwood has presented challenges,” a spokesperson for the building’s developer Community Roots Housing tells CHS. “We’re seeing a softened rental market that has led to a slower lease up of the property than we anticipated, which is having an impact on other projects in our pipeline.”
With the challenges putting new tenants in the building’s more than 120 units and with increasingly unfavorable interest rates, the ambitious project’s $25.6 million construction loan has become a burden for Community Roots Housing as it has worked to secure an extension on the borrowing until it can, according to recent board meeting minutes, “ramp up leasing” and “explore permanent sources to right size the project permanent sources.”
Meanwhile, Community Roots Housing says it is also responding to challenges in the affordable housing development market including disruptions in supply chain, the past year’s concrete strike, and “changing economics persistent from the pandemic.”
Refining the Community Roots portfolio could be part of the solution.
CHS reported here on the developer’s start of the disposition process for for six Capitol Hill and Central District properties that will remain under federal U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Housing Assistance Payments contracts.
A Green Architectural Icon
Despite the financial challenges, the Heartwood is becoming a new Capitol Hill green architectural icon.
The building is a testament to modern sustainable living and innovative design. Located at the junction of Union and 14th, the building is the first of its kind in the country under the new Type IV building regulations which allow mass timber structures up to 18 stories.
The groundbreaking project was significantly influenced by Susan Jones, the founder of atelierjones, who contributed to the International Code Council’s Tall Wood Building Committee.
Situated alongside Community Roots Housing’s Helen V Apartments—a three-story affordable housing complex— Heartwood Apartments provides a variety of housing solutions and strengthens the sense of community with a shared courtyard, knitting together the neighborhood.
Developed by Community Roots Housing and Skipstone, the project was designed by Atelier Jones. As for the wood, Portland’s Timberlab, launched out of commercial construction firm Swinerton, provided the fabricated timber and know how.
Mass Timber and Steel
Heartwood’s architectural excellence lies in its hybrid mass timber and steel construction, featuring a post-and-beam superstructure reinforced by a steel Buckling-Restrained Braced Frame (BRBF) core. The structure’s stability is ensured by glulam beams and columns supporting 5-ply CLT floor panels. A key innovation is the unique two-hour rated column and beam connection, developed by Timberlab in partnership with atelierjones and DCI Engineers. Drawing inspiration from Japanese joinery techniques, this all-timber connection achieves a two-hour fire resistance rating without the need for steel, setting a new standard for Type IV-C and IV-B construction.
The project’s construction required careful planning to minimize disturbance in the densely built urban environment, particularly given the need for uninterrupted access to a neighboring building. The use of mass timber facilitated a reduced footprint and enhanced efficiency through prefabrication and just-in-time delivery, leading to a swift, clean, and quiet building process.
Heartwood offers 126 units of workforce housing equipped with amenities such as a courtyard, bike parking, retail spaces, and laundry facilities. With units averaging 400 square feet, Heartwood hopes to address the critical need for missing middle housing, serving residents who earn 60-100% of Seattle’s Area Median Income (AMI). The design embraces biophilic elements, featuring exposed wood ceilings, columns, and beams throughout, creating a welcoming and natural atmosphere.
Now, Community Roots Housing just needs to fill the building with residents while sorting out the complexities of financing affordable housing in a post-pandemic Seattle.
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Here is what I experienced when I tried to rent from the Heartwood in July 2024:
– Temp workers who had little knowledge of the building or rental fees showing units
– An assumption that their tenants will be low income.
– Messy miscommunication over what apartments were available.
– A cash grab scheme where I was informed the apartment I applied for was actually unavailable after my application fees had been processing.
-$1800 studio apartments for low income citizens. About $2200 for non-low income citizens.
It’s not the rental market in general. It’s Community Roots Housing, this apartment’s management. It’s a really cool building but the property management doesn’t actually seem interested in filling the units.
A good friend works at Community Roots. They are struggling, to say the least. The things you described are not surprising. The org has slowly eroded in the 5 years he’s been there, it started with Covid and has persisted under the relatively new CEO. He is constantly covering up mistakes for others and is beyond burned out trying.
They have problems running their existing buildings, let alone bringing new ones online.
That is a fact. I can attest to all that and more.
I am extremely concerned with the C-Suite at CRH.
They will run people off the job. Burn them out. DO NOT go up against the C-Suite. The run it like a fiefdom and will bully you out.
Liability is their only concern. They ghost residents because they get tired of hearing the complaints. I live here. I know.
I am currently pursuing a path to fix the C-Suite at CRH. I have been quietly following events in and around CRH.
CRH is going down the drain and I know EXACTLY why. If anyone sees this and wants do discuss?
Answer here and we’ll meet. I want to talk to the big board. The one who funds CRH. THEY need to hear it.
Hi Butch, I also live in one of their buildings, one of the older ones. I’ve been worried for a while about what is going on but now things seem to have gotten to a critical place. I’m worried that they may have plans to sell the building I live in – it was built in 1909 (I think) & is beginning to have problems – they just had to put a new motor in the elevator. They’re not taking care of things unless it’s something essential, no improvements, so that’s why I think they might be planning to sell. I’ve lived here for 13 years & it seems that when they changed their name their mission changed & became more about the money. The live-in manager we had at the time left not long after that, saying it was because he couldn’t get what he needed from above. I can’t count how many managers we’ve had since, none of them live-in, & the good ones state the same reason for leaving – not enough support from above. I watched an incident unfold that horrified me involving the manager of our apartment manager (at the time) & the roommate of a deceased tenant who was experiencing a mental health crisis. It was handled extremely poorly & the manager came off as uncaring & actually cruel. The brother of the deceased tenant (who was a good friend of mine) happened to be the County Executive of a neighboring county & he was unhappy with the way things were handled & almost took it to another level of complaining but decided not to because of his position. I was horrified with the way he was treated. Until this post, I have kept quiet because I have seen other tenants who have been vocal get singled out & treated badly. In fact, I hope I don’t get in trouble for writing this. I’d love to get your email so we could talk more. Thanks.
Chris? He’s not new. He’s been around a while, and he’s still an idiot. Board doesn’t care because they’re all buddies. He only understands how to be “too big to fail.” Horrible leader.
Wow an $1800 studio is not affordable to a low income person. A $900 studio is potentially affordable for a low income person. This is the problem with median income of $100k in Seattle is the inflation it causes literally everywhere. $20 cheeseburgers. $1800 low income studios. What a joke. I’ll be moving under i5 when my lease is up and the economy certainly won’t miss me.
Not ALL units are affordable. Some are market rate.
Thanks for the insights. I was wondering how they could possibly have trouble filling units for *below market rate rents*. Sounds like the rents aren’t that far off market rates.
Well I think generally I think people who work in apartment leasing offices are the least useful/helpful people in the world.
I was just about to look up how much the units cost, thanks for saving me a Google! That’s….yikes. I’m sure the building is lovely, and get that construction is EXTREMELY expensive and has to be paid for somehow, but $1800 for a studio for low-income individuals? What?? Just did some back-of-napkin math & someone working full-time making $20/hr is making $3200 a month. Rent in this building would be like 60% of their take-home. Yikes.
That sounds familiar. I do not thing you are the only one.
I got jerked around for four months (this was in 2020) on an application to a studio, only to go in after finally being approved, and during lease reading I pointed where it said “947 per month rent” and said Hey, this was supposed to be $530. The lady was like yeah you didn’t get approved for your original income bracket you got approved for a higher one.
No communication. No nothing. No “hey, we think you can afford this amount of rent [somehow], is this a deal breaker or nah”. I swore them off permanently and tell everyone who asks not to go with them. It took them another month to send me back my damn application fee too, I had to find out the email scheme and CC like 5 different higher ups.
Community Roots is to be lauded for achieving several firsts, going big on sustainability and using a female architect – but this building has greatly missed the mark on urban design. It reads as though the budget was consumed by the mass timber system at the expense of good design. This isn’t a situation where you say, “Damn – that’s a nice building – but it’s missing a beat”, but rather it is a hostile presence at 14th and Union- giving zero back to the pedestrian environment. With a Soviet Boc aesthetic, it’s no wonder renters are scarce. Drab khaki painted Hardi-panel, tiny windows, no detail, no joy, no depth, an inscrutable mural, and no storefronts at this pedestrian hotspot – contribute to a sense that it was built as a developer Take rather than a non-profit gift to Pike/Pine. I know this is not the case and no matter how this ends, the housing inside is a blessing, but…the externality of these crushing monoliths degrade the quality of life for all of us on the outside and negatively impact the leaseability for the non-profit. Community Roots has long needed to up their game on architectural design and find funding for it. They either need to establish an in-house urbanism expert to advocate for design quality internally or should seek special funding sources that will support better urbanism. Atelier Jones is a very capable firm, but maybe mass timber should have been left to a project that was better funded. 120 units for $25m = $213k per unit – a super low budget in Seattle. Maybe convert to condos for $250k each and put the difference into a better design budget for the next one?
Looking at the listings for Heartwood it seems to be majority studios that are less than 500 sq feet for up to $1400. I don’t understand how this is supposed to be affordable or enticing to people, especially for families.
Seattle really needs to start building more multiple-bedroom units, for all income levels. Some people would rather have roommates than live in a closet, and then the same unit can actually be used for a family. I feel like 98% of what we’ve built in the last 20 years is studios and one-bedrooms.
I could not agree more. There’s basically nothing below 80% AMI rent level for two to four bedroom apartments. The only sub-1500 2 bedroom apartments I’ve ever seen were domestic violence referral only, being advertised publically (I guess they somehow couldn’t get someone in?)
They aren’t the same org that provided quality affordable housing to the local area. They lost their identity when they were no longer CHHIP – got big eyes to become a regional housing provider and really forgot their “roots.”
SO true!! I’ve been saying this for years now. I’ve lived in one of their older buildings for 13 years now & it is definitely NOT the same organization I originally rented from. Right after they changed their name they started hemorrhaging staff – many went to Bellwether Housing. We lost our apartment manager – he was live-in & was a real jewel. He said he left because he couldn’t get what he needed from above in order to run the building the right way & that it felt like their “mission” had changed. They used to be about helping low-income tenants & bringing life back to older Capitol Hill buildings but then it became all about the money. Since then we have had a string of managers, some so inexperienced that they only lasted a week, none of them live-in. The good ones all left, giving the same reason for leaving – not getting the support they needed from above. Our once lovely building is now a mess. It looks like a tenement. I’m embarrassed to have anyone over. We, the tenants, are blamed for the building’s problems – ‘we don’t take care of it’, ‘we let undesirables in’, ‘nobody pays their rent’. When I asked about them taking care of the common use patio, because I’d seen pictures of the beautiful common areas of the newer buildings, I was told they couldn’t take care of it because nobody pays their rent. I know there are some people who aren’t paying their rent, but most of us do. I believe that people either rise or fall depending on their surroundings. We haven’t had anyone vacuum our hallway for over 2 months now. I’m attaching pictures of what the place looks like. Well, I tried to attach pictures but it would only let me attach one, so this is what the elevator looks like.