19-0319 Partial Building Certification

MODIFIED 1/6/21

This exception was modified to indicate that project teams must get prior approval through the Dialogue for use of the exception as well as approval of the certified project title.

QUESTION
HopeWorks Station II is a five story mixed use affordable housing and workforce training project located in Everett, WA. While our goal is to become a Petal certified project, it has been found that offsetting the energy use for the commercial training kitchen is cost prohibitive, especially for a project under the difficult financing realities of affordable housing.

We are proposing that ILFI will consider reviewing the building as two separate projects for the following reasons:

1. The development has separate financing, ownership, and operations. The project uses a condominium financing structure with Low Income Housing Tax Credit financing for the residential floors above New Market Tax Credit financing on the ground floor. The commercial floor will be owned and operated as a workforce development center by HopeWorks, while the residential floors will be owned and operated by Housing Hope, a separate non-profit entity. In addition, the two uses have distinct entrances and are separated within the building. All of the commercial uses occur on the ground floor, while the residential units occur on floors 2-4 around a courtyard. There are a residential lobby and a few accessory residential uses on the ground floor which are entirely separated from commercial uses. All areas of the development that cannot be clearly delineated or where systems overlap or systems are shared are counted in our calculations for the Residential Petals (only the garage for this project). In addition, the public courtyard along the street is partially controlled by the certifying project owner and is therefore included in our submission.

2. The building design includes 199 kWh energy production for the projected 190 kWh need in the three residential floors. The high energy efficient design includes triple glazed windows, enhanced insulation, solar shades, use of heat ducts and energy efficient appliances. The premium to successfully achieve net 105% energy for the residential portion of the building is approximately $1.1 million. A $750,000 grant from the State Housing Trust Fund and an anticipated $160,000 from the sale of Solar Tax Credits, yields about 80% of the cost. The remainder had to be raised through our capital campaign.

3. HopeWorks has not found dedicated sources of capital for the commercial floor of the building. In addition, the kitchen appliances consume substantially more energy than the three residential floors. As a result, HopeWorks cannot achieve the net zero energy goal for the entire building.

4. Scale jumping and phasing the net zero energy goal have been suggestions for satisfying the requirements. While this may be a potential solution over time, without dedicated energy funding opportunities, this will not be likely. The mission of the Housing Hope (housing) and HopeWorks (workforce) will require substantial funds to implement the operating programs of the building and this will preclude investment of operating funds toward enhancing the solar array.

Additional Project information:
• Affordable housing: 65 affordable apartments
• Homeless housing: 57 apartments are dedicated to homeless veterans, youth and parents seeking reunification with their children
• Workforce development: 13,100 square feet for training homeless youth and adults in culinary skills for career pathway jobs in the food services industry.
• Transit oriented development: aligned with the Everett Station District Alliance (a new nonprofit we created), this is a catalyst project for the envisioned transformation of this 50 block neighborhood around the Transit Center into a vibrant community, possibly a Living Community Challenge site.
• Sustainability: the building includes onsite energy generation (532 solar panels) paired with an "energy behavior" initiative that engages 65 residents, dozens of job training interns, dozens of staff and hundreds of customers (onsite café) as a demonstration project in partnership with our local Snohomish Public Utility District.

HopeWorks continues to desire certification for the residential development at HopeWorks Station. We have included the energy, beauty and place petals in our planning and development process.

It is our request that International Living Future Institute consider amending its policy that only full building certifications are considered. We would like to pursue certification of the residential development at HopeWorks Station II.

RESPONSE
The Institute is issuing the following allowance to permit certification of part of a building under certain conditions:

Teams may certify portions of a building if the portion of the building to be certified meets all of the following conditions:

Separately funded,
Separately owned,
Separately operated, and
Physically & visually distinguishable (e.g. clean vertical or horizontal break, separate entrance, separate whole floor, separate wing, etc)

A distinction between occupancy types may also play a role in distinguishing the different portions of the building, but is not enough on its own.

The project must include (not pro-rate):

Shared systems or equipment, if they cannot be clearly separated (e.g by metering)
Portions of the site that are controlled or partially controlled by the certifying project owner, and are integral to compliance or the function of the certifying portion of the building.

Any project using this certification path will need to submit to the Dialogue for pre-approval of the proposed space to be certified and the project title (e.g. cannot say "building" if it is not the whole building).