By Carolyn Bick
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
If all goes well, by spring of 2026, InterIm CDA will have broken ground on a new low-income housing development at the long-vacant Republic Hotel in the Chinatown-International District (CID). The development would serve as housing for people making 50% area median income.
Considered a historical site within the CID, the roughly 30,000-gross-square-foot former rooming house at 416 7th Ave. S. was completed in 1920. According to King County records, the site was first appraised in the late 1990s, at a total taxable value of $445,000. Today, the property is worth $3,068,900.
The building has stood unoccupied since 2016. RAC Investments purchased the building in 2015 with the intention to redevelop it into market-rate residences. As a historical building, it cannot be torn down, and anyone who owns and plans to renovate it must do so within certain preservation guidelines.
It’s immediately unclear why RAC Investments’ redevelopment plans never went through, but a few months ago, InterIm CDA’s senior housing developer, Akhil Arun, said the organization got a surprise call from a real estate broker, asking InterIm CDA if they wanted to buy the building to redevelop it themselves.
“We jumped on the opportunity, because the community had been sort of voicing for some time now that the building is in pretty bad shape,” Arun said, “and if we could do something with it, that would be great.”
The building will cost $3 million to purchase, and about another $21 million to renovate, Arun said. That price tag takes into account projected increases in costs associated with construction, like cost of labor and materials.
While InterIm CDA has not officially purchased the building yet—like other nonprofits, InterIm CDA works on a funding timeline—Arun said that they are hopeful to get the money together by the end of “funding season” in January. The financial backing for such projects comes from a mix of community donations, state and local government assistance, and grants.
Once construction has started, Arun said, the project should last somewhere between 14 and 16 months. Redevelopment-wise, InterIm CDA hasn’t officially committed anything to paper, given the newness of the project, but there were a few details Arun could share.
InterIm CDA plans to design anywhere from 30-35 units of one- and two-bedroom units, Arun said, based on the community feedback expressing desire for more family-friendly housing. Commercial spaces will occupy the ground floor of the building, and housing units will start on the second floor, the mezzanine. There will also be a lobby and a community space. The fifth floor will hold a rooftop deck.
Arun also said that there will be a penthouse level, which InterIm CDA will keep stepped back from street-level eyesight, in order to comply with codes regarding historic buildings.
“What we’ll be keeping is essentially everything to do with the exterior,” Arun said. ‘The brick facade, the materials on the exterior—we’ll be sort of cleaning them up, making sure it looks pristine.”
The organization will also be keeping the pathways of light through the place.
“There’s some great light courts that allow light to feed into the building,” Arun said. “There’s skylights and things like that on the floor. … It has a lot of character to it.”
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