The Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing is planning to build a 104-unit apartment building to replace its three-story, 27-unit Carlyn Springs apartment complex near Ballston.
The site, at the intersection of N. Carlin Springs Road and Thomas Street, has gone through its first round of site plan approval meetings with the county, planning commissioners and civic associations, APAH President and CEO Nina Janopaul said. The new building is planned to be in an “S” shape, with five stories and underground parking. The building plan was amended to preserve a 100-year-old tree on the site.
“It’s going to be really first-class affordable housing,” Janopaul said. APAH acquired the property in the 1990s and watched the area turn into one of Arlington’s strongest commercial and residential neighborhoods. “It’s turned into a very successful land-banking opportunity.”
(The spelling of the name of the apartment complex, Carlyn Springs, differs from the name of the road it’s on, Carlin Springs.)
APAH hopes to have county approval for the $35 million redevelopment by the end of the year, and while it waits, it will apply for a loan from the Arlington Housing Investment Fund and for a federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. The result of those applications should be determined in March, setting up the start of construction before the end of 2014, Janopaul said.
Eighty of the building’s 104 units will be two- to three-bedroom units intended for families. A handful of the apartments in the current building are near-market-rate units, and to encourage those residents to come back to the new building, Janopaul said about eight of the apartments will not be low-income units.
As for the residents currently living at Caryln Springs, Janopaul said they will have the chance to move into affordable housing spaces in the surrounding area. Some, however, have said that they will use being displaced as impetus for moving elsewhere. Others, she said, are looking forward to living in a new building after being in a space that hasn’t been renovated since it was built nearly 50 years ago.
Photo (left) courtesy of APAH. Photo (right) via Google Maps.