WASHINGTON (July 13, 2020) — The ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing has announced 12 finalists for this year’s Jack Kemp Excellence in Affordable and Workforce Housing Award, which honors exemplary developments that ensure housing affordability for people with a range of incomes. The award recognizes efforts by the development community to increase the supply of housing that is affordable to households earning less than 120 percent of the area median income (AMI). The winner will be announced in October.

The finalists this year have been categorized in to two groups by development size. The finalists in the large-scale (100 units or more) development group are:

• Arroyo Village, Denver, Colorado: a first-of-its-kind project in Colorado that encompasses a continuum of care for people experiencing housing instability that includes a homeless shelter of 60 beds, 35 one-bedroom apartments for permanent supportive housing and 95 affordable apartments under one roof;
• Ashley Union Station, Denver, Colorado: a four-story, 107-unit mixed-income apartment complex featuring 75 income restricted units in the upscale Union Station neighborhood, one of the City of Denver’s most walkable transit-oriented neighborhoods;
• HearthSide Club Lafayette, Fayetteville, Georgia: a 125-unit mixed-income senior housing community made possible by an innovative public-private partnership funded with tax incentives through the City of Fayetteville’s Tax Allocation District program;
• Montgomery Mill, Windsor Locks, Connecticut: an adaptive reuse of a historic, long-vacant mill building in downtown Windsor Locks that has been transformed into 160 units of mixed-income housing and is a catalyst to a broader revitalization effort in Windsor Locks’ downtown;
• Red Cedar Apartments, Seattle, Washington: a development which adds 119 affordable apartment homes to the redeveloped Yesler Terrace site. The building was designed to accommodate large families with three and four-bedroom apartments. To boost Red Cedar as a center of neighborly connections and activities, the building includes a community engagement hub, large meeting spaces, and service provider space near streetcar, bus lines, and the regional light rail;
• The Lofts on Arthington, Chicago, Illinois: a historic preservation adaptive reuse of one of the original Sears, Roebuck & Co. buildings, located in the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago that turned a blighted structured into 181 affordable homes for over 400 residents;
• The Village on Sage Street, Reno, Nevada: a 216-unit dorm-style housing project for people who are working, but struggling to afford rent. The Village is self-sustaining: development was funded by private contributions without any subsidies and the $400 monthly rents cover operating expenses; and
• The Wharf Phase 1, Washington, D.C.: a 231-apartment development, 136 of which serve households at or below 60% AMI and another 72 for households between 6-120% AMI. When completed, The Wharf will have 3.2 million square feet of mixed-use space.

The finalists in the small-scale (under 100 units) development group are:

• 7^th and Witmer Apartments, Los Angeles, California: a six-story, 76-unit, mixed-use building in downtown Los Angeles that provides permanent supportive housing development for chronically homeless individuals;
• Beach Plum Village, Nantucket Island, Nantucket, Massachusetts: a new, residential community of 40 single-family cottages with affordable homes that are permanently restricted at moderate prices and fully integrated with high-end market rate homes;
• Encanto Village, San Diego, California: a 65-unit transit-oriented, high-density, mixed use-affordable housing community that addresses the challenges of crime and poverty in a distressed urban setting;
• Nesika Illahee, Portland, Oregon: a three-story wood-framed building comprised of 59 apartments; 13 studio, 30 one-bedroom, nine two-bedroom, and seven three-bedroom apartments that will enable the project to focus on the needs of the Native Community, by including 20 apartments reserved for Native Americans, an unacknowledged, underserved and underrepresented population;

“It is a privilege to honor the memory of a great leader in housing and development through the ULI Terwilliger Center’s Jack Kemp Excellence in Affordable and Workforce Housing Award,” said Christopher Ptomey, executive director, ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing. “Faced with competition from a record number of applicants, each of this year’s finalists is deserving of national recognition, and their projects incorporate models and concepts that developers and communities should replicate to meet growing local housing needs.”

ULI established the Jack Kemp Excellence in Affordable and Workforce Housing Award in 2008, naming the award in memory of Jack Kemp, former secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development who had served as a Terwilliger Center national advisory board member. The award is given annually to affordable and workforce housing developments that represent outstanding achievements in several areas, including affordability, innovative financing and building technologies, proximity to employment centers and transportation hubs, quality of design, and  involvement of public/private partnerships. Developments competing for the Kemp Award may be fully affordable, with all units designated for low- to moderate-income residents; or they may contain a mix of affordable and market-rate units.

ULI Terwilliger Center founder Ron Terwilliger, chairman, Terwilliger Pappas Multifamily Partners, chaired the jury. In addition, this year’s other jury members are Alan George, executive vice president, Equity Residental, Chicago, Illinois; Nina Janopaul, president and chief executive officer, Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing, Arlington, Virginia; Mick Nelson, founder and chief executive officer, Nelson Community Partners, Nashville, Tennessee; Pam Patenaude, former deputy secretary, United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, Vienna, Virginia; Phillip Payne, co-founder and chairman, the Lotus Campaign, Charlotte, North Carolina; Jonathan Rose, president, Jonathan Rose Companies, New York, New York; Stacy Silber, principal, LerchEarlyBrewer, Bethesda, Maryland; Margaret Wylde, chief executive officer, ProMatura Group LLC, Oxford, Mississippi; and Bob Youngentob, president, EYA, Bethesda, Maryland.

NOTE TO REPORTERS AND EDITORS: Courtesy images of the Jack Kemp Excellence in Affordable and Workforce Housing Award finalists are provided by ULI for use by members of the press upon request. For more details on the awards and previous winners, visit the Jack Kemp Awards webpage.

About the ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing

The ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing conducts research, performs analysis, provides expert advice, and develops best practice recommendations that reflect the residential land use and development priorities of ULI members in all residential product types, with special attention to workforce and affordable housing. The center was established in 2007 with a gift from longtime member and former ULI chairman J. Ronald Terwilliger.