The future of Admiralty Apartments still unknown

After units were condemned, all residents were housed

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Admiralty Apartments is in a holding pattern. 

The owners of the building at Taylor and Water streets—in which six units were condemned last May due to storm damage—have begun discussions with the city to replace the crumbling back building with a four-story apartment building that has retail spaces on the ground floor, according to public documents acquired by the Leader.

But building manager Marilyn Kurka said there could still be months of planning and permitting before construction begins. 

Last May, six residents were displaced after city officials condemned the building due to cracks in the foundation. 

All displaced residents were housed, said Kurka, who is a certified specialist in U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) occupancy and had lived in one of the apartments that was condemned. But now, parts of the building need to be demolished and redeveloped. 

The building is owned by Erickson Partnership, a company based on Bainbridge Island. The owners plan to offer the same number of subsidized apartments as before, Kurka said.

“Nothing has been approved at this point,” she said. “But our intentions are to keep the subsidized housing with the same number of units as before.”

The storm that started it all

Admiralty Apartments is a Section 8 project building with 38 of the 48 apartments subsidized by HUD.

The apartments are separated into two buildings, which were constructed in the 1980s. The front building faces Water Street, while the back building faces Port Townsend Bay. 

A windstorm Dec. 27, 2018 punched a hole in the back building. It stands out farther into the water than most buildings in downtown Port Townsend, Kurka said, meaning high winds and waves can cause damage. 

After the storm, Kurka called Steve Zenovic of Zenovic Engineers to look at the building. But seeing that the over-water structure was compromised, he recommended she contract specialized engineers. 

“There were huge cracks in the pilings,” Kurka said. 

Kurka hired PND Engineers, an engineering firm with offices in Seattle and other coastal cities, has engineers who specialize in building structural design and coastal engineering.

Originally, the engineers hoped to put forward a plan to shore up the building—adding support to keep it from collapsing. But after several months of inspection, the building owners and engineers determined the damage was worse than they originally thought. 

“The engineer called me the next day and said, ‘I think you shouldn’t spend one more night there,’” Kurka said. 

According to Angela Garcia, a City of Port Townsend building official, Mike Huggins, the engineer from PND, contacted her May 24 with his findings.

“Mike and I walked through the building, he identified the deficient areas and let me know he would be preparing a written report to follow up on his observations,” she wrote in an email response to questions from The Leader. “I received a copy of the report later that same day, the report reflected our discussion during the walk-through and included the recommendation to immediately vacate six apartments.”

Finding housing for evacuees

That day, six residents were evacuated, including Kurka herself, who lived in one of the apartments.

“That wall that was in danger was one of my walls,” she said. 

While she was searching to find a place to live, Kurka was also working nonstop to help the other residents find new places as well.

Finding housing in Jefferson County is no small task. According to Jefferson County’s five-year homelessness housing plan that was released in 2019, the rental vacancy rate in the county is less than 1%. The state’s vacancy rates are about 3%. 

“In Jefferson County, we simply do not have enough housing units to meet the demand,” wrote Michelle Sandoval, city council member, in the county’s homelessness plan. “This includes housing for Section 8 or VASH voucher holders, as well as for workforce housing.” 

Temporarily, some stayed in hotels while they waited for other apartments to become available.

“We helped them fill out applications and just chased housing for them until they all had a place to be,” Kurka said. “All the tenants that had to be evacuated have all found permanent housing.”

It took about three months for each resident to find a place to live. One is housed through the non-profit transitional housing support service, Bayside Housing in the Old Alcohol Plant. Three transferred to open apartments in the building that fronts Water Street and was not damaged by the storm. A few others jumped to the top of lists for subsidized apartments at Claridge Court or San Juan Commons. And one resident moved in with family members. 

Those who were displaced will have first choice to come back to Admiralty Apartments if they choose, Kurka said.

But with the building plans still up in the air, it could be months, or years, before the new apartment building is constructed.

Building plans not set in stone

The city’s pre-application conference report states that the owners intend to demolish and redevelop the back building as a four-story building up to 50 feet in height. 

The building would have 19 apartments, with two ground-floor retail spaces and a utility room fronting Tyler Street. 

All the street level and second floor residential units would remain federally subsidized. These would be in addition to the 24 subsidized apartments that will not be modified in the front building.

The two-story units on the third and fourth floors would be offered at market rates, but Kurka added they could be added as subsidized apartments during a renegotiation of the building’s contract with HUD.

“What the owners submitted to the city in the pre-application has a greater amount of units, since it is going up to a fourth story,” she said. “That’s going to change our contract with HUD, but the goal of the owners is to keep the same number of subsidized units as before.”

The building’s current contract with HUD—which allows for 10 market-rate apartments and 38 subsidized apartments—is currently in negotiation, and will be finalized in July, she said.

Subsidized apartments cost $758 to rent per month, Kurka said. Market-rate apartments at Admiralty are currently about $950 per month. 

Admiralty’s contract with HUD is specifically for those who are seniors or disabled. The building, which was a hotel before it became apartments, has one-bedroom, one-bath units. With plans for two-story units in the redevelopment, Kurka said they could potentially utilize a family designation with HUD as well, which would allow for more affordable family housing downtown. 

“The building used to be a hotel, so when it was converted to housing, they created really small apartments,” Kurka said. “This is an opportunity to build something that suits the community’s current needs.”

Waiting for approval

While the owners have submitted a pre-application to the city with their building proposal plans, it doesn’t mean the plans for the building won’t change drastically over time.

The building is located within three overlay districts, which have different height requirements. The city planning director, Lance Bailey, must make a “director’s interpretation” to determine which height limit applies.

The reason the owners plan to go up to 50 feet is to include retail spaces on the ground floor, something required by city code for the historic commercial zoning district. 

Beyond waiting for the city’s determination on height, the owners are also waiting for approval from the Army Corps of Engineers, the federal branch that must approve all over-water structures, and the state’s Department of Ecology. Only then can architects begin designing and determining the cost of the project, Kurka said.

The building will also have to go through historic design review and follow the city’s shoreline master program regulations.