Broadway Crossing

Broadway Crossing, a unique affordable housing project in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, recently gained a Silver certification through the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. The building, which was completed in March 2007, is a model for private retail stores looking to locate in urban cores.

When residents in the Capital Hill neighborhood pushed back against a proposed one-story Walgreens (NYSE: WAG) store with a surface parking lot, the retail giant went back to the drawing board. Today, the 12,000-square-foot drugstore sits below a multi-story affordable housing project and above underground parking.

The public-private partnership between Walgreens and Capital Hill Housing includes 44 subsidized housing units, half of which are set aside for families making up to 30 percent of the county's median income.

Lead architect Jon Hall of GGLO says the building achieves 40 percent water savings and 20 percent energy savings over a typical multi-family building. GGLO also worked on the Stone Way Apartments, an affordable housing project for Housing Resource Group that is also expected to achieve LEED Silver certification.

“If the city has a mandate to build to LEED Silver, we thought ‘why can’t we do that with affordable housing’?” Hall says, noting that green measures did not significantly increase the cost of the project.

He also notes that while Walgreen’s did work with residents in the neighborhood to alter its original plans, the company did not complete a LEED-certified build-out of its Broadway Crossing store.

In Portland, Armstrong Development is building a green apartment building for low-income residents in Portland. The firm is aiming for a minimum Gold LEED rating for the project, which is scheduled for completion in 2009.