Thrive collaborates with Spokane Public Library to build affordable housing
News story by Tabitha C. Hilliard | EveryLibrary
In 1998, the Spokane Public Library purchased a 1.62-acre property at 6890 North Nevada Street with the intention of building a new library branch at the location. Those plans, though, never came to fruition, and the library decided to sell the property in 2014.
For 10 years, the days ticked by, attracting the attention of only a few potential buyers. Finally, in 2024, the property grabbed the attention of Thrive International, an organization that provides transitional housing to immigrant and refugee families. They had been searching for a property to build much-needed affordable housing units, and the library’s property on North Nevada Street checked all the boxes.
Thrive approached the Library Board of Trustees with an interesting proposal that would prove to be mutually beneficial to both organizations.
Thrive would purchase the land for $10, and in exchange, they would build a 1,500-square-foot public event space on the property that the library would lease for $10 a year for the next 50 years. The Board agreed to the deal, and Thrive excitedly announced their partnership with the Spokane Public Library in March 2024.
Design plans
The event space will be built within the footprint of the affordable housing complex. It will feature a library kiosk that will operate 24/7, a geodesic dome classroom space, a greenhouse and discovery gardens.
The library will staff the space and use it to manage public events and host learning programs for the community. This event space will be an addition to the already-40-plus popular public event spaces managed by seven other Spokane Public Library locations.
Thrive’s affordable housing units will follow a mixed-income model. There will be an estimated 45 to 55 units constructed. Half of the affordable units will be reserved for refugee and immigrant families. The other half will be available to the general population.
Thrive plans to provide on-site health care services, job training and language classes. It hopes that the greenhouse and garden space will help refugees feel a little more at home as they transition into their new lives.
Instead of waiting on state or federal funding, Thrive is working with Courage Housing. It is a private investment firm, to propel the project.
“The initial phase of the project, including the gardens, geodesic dome, [library kiosk] and basic infrastructure will be complete within 2024,” said Amanda Donovan, director of marketing and communications at Spokane Public Library. “The larger housing complex, including the public event space, will be completed within the next five years — hopefully sooner!”
Affordable housing for refugees: A first
There are other benefits to this collaboration, too.
“Our partnership with Thrive International will allow us to bring more library community space to another region of Spokane without asking voters for more tax dollars,” Donovan said. “And with the added benefit of adding affordable units to the local housing inventory.”
This will be Spokane Public Library’s first collaboration on an affordable housing project. Donovan explains that this project is especially unique compared to similar collaborations:
Larger cities such as Chicago and New York have implemented library housing collaborations, but this is the first known library-private partnership that will provide affordable [housing] for refugees,” she said.
Thrive and Spokane Public Library formally announced their partnership at a launch event on May 9. This partnership is one of a kind, and it will be exciting to see the plan unfold.
Site improvements are scheduled to begin in the spring of 2024, groundbreaking should occur later in 2024. The grand opening plans to take place sometime in 2025.
You can read more about the details of the project in Spokane Public Library’s recent blog post and the Inlander, Spokane’s local news publication.
Other affordable housing partnerships
The arrangement between Thrive and Spokane Public Library remains unique. However, libraries have worked alongside housing advocacy groups previously. Other libraries have combined renovation and affordable housing projects to share costs for expensive projects. This reduced the financial burden for each party.
In New York and Brooklyn, the public library system requires an estimated $1 billion in building repairs and upgrades. Undeveloped real estate is scarce, and affordable housing is in high demand. A collaboration between the Fifth Avenue Committee and the Brooklyn Public Library resulted in the renovation of the Sunset Park Library. The renovation doubled its size to 20,000 square feet at $17 million, at half the proposed cost.
The residential portion, which included the construction of forty-nine affordable housing units, cost approximately $36.7 million. The library’s financial commitment to this project was funded by the sale of another branch property sale. The affordable housing units and library share the same building, saving costs. Similar undertakings have occurred in other cities like Chicago and Boston.
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