Everett Housing Authority to buy Casino Road apartment complex

Published 11:05 pm Monday, February 18, 2008

EVERETT — The Everett Housing Authority has offered to buy a large Casino Road apartment complex that could replace 1940s-era public housing units in north Everett.

The housing authority is expected to pay $8 million for the 96-unit Casino Lanes Apartments at 824 W. Casino Road and expects the purchase to close by August. The units will replace Baker Heights public housing.

It’s a pivotal purchase for the housing authority, which has struggled to buy apartments in a real estate market that until recently included bidding wars.

“We have been looking for the past couple of years for replacement units for Baker Heights,” said Bud Alkire, executive director of the public housing agency. “This is one that we think would be an appropriate.”

The Housing Authority in 2005 decided to tear down 255 units at Baker Heights and sell the property to private developers.

It also chose to replace the lost units elsewhere in Everett to give low-income people more choice by scattering the city’s stock of public housing across the city.

Last year, the Housing Authority bought an eight-unit apartment on E. Gibson Road, and a 21-unit complex on 75th Street, south of Beverly Lake.

If the purchase goes through on the Casino Lane Apartments, Alkire said the Housing Authority will likely invest another $3 million to refurbish the buildings in the coming years, rounding the total cost per unit to about $115,000.

The Housing Authority has requested $500,000 in federal housing money from the city and is working to identify other funding sources.

The future sale of 20 acres that the Housing Authority owns where Baker Heights sits could also help pay for refurbishing of the apartments.

Ruey Huang, a partner with Casino Lanes LLC of Bellevue, said her company has owned the one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments since 1989. The long, narrow complex with 11 buildings was constructed in 1980.

Huang declined to speak about the transaction because it is still pending.

Current tenants will not be evicted, Alkire said. As units become available, he said they would be offered as affordable housing. Prospective tenants would have to meet certain income requirements.

They would also have to pass thorough screenings, including criminal background checks, and be required to adhere to strict tenant conduct requirements, he said.

“Our attitude has been, for a generation or longer, that our concern is for responsible hardworking tenants, and it’s our responsibility to make sure that the properties that we manage are safe places for people to live,” Alkire said.

Mark Butterfield, who has managed Casino Lane Apartments for several years, said most of his tenants are poor families drawn to the complex’s low rent. He said most pay their rent on time and he seldom has problems at the apartments.

Nearby, the city did see violence connected to gangs and drugs on Casino Road last year, including a shooting death at an apartment and gunfire at a city park while a Little League baseball team was practicing. Business owners also reported an increase in prostitution in the area.

In January, the Everett City Council broadened a law allowing Municipal Court judges to order prostitutes, their customers and drug dealers away from Casino Road.

Alkire said he is hopeful that the city’s efforts will help Casino Road change for the better.

“We think we can be part of a positive change in that neighborhood,” he said.

David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.