Richland council clears the way for 97 new loft apartments downtown

Richland City Council cleared the way for a 97-room Days Inn to become an apartment building.

The council voted 5-2 to remove a 500-square-foot minimum on apartments in the area between the Parkway and the Uptown Shopping Center.

Fortify Holdings, a Beaverton, Ore.-based company, has been looking at converting the aging Jadwin Avenue motel into loft apartments, something they’ve done in several locations across Washington and Oregon.

The rooms at the Days Inn would be converted into an equal number of 260-square-foot apartments. Each of the loft apartments will have a full-size refrigerator and stove. The rent hasn’t been determined.

The project falls in line with Richland’s plans to add apartments within walking distance of what many consider the city’s downtown, the Richland Parkway area, said Fortify Holdings’ President Ziad Elsahili.

The ordinance’s passage clears the way for the company to buy the property and start the work. There hasn’t been any word on when the project would start or how long it would take to finish.

What is known is that the Tri-Cities could uses the apartments. The Tri-Cities vacancy rate is less than 2 percent, making it one of the most competitive rental markets in the nation.

The Tri-Cities ranked 16th in the U.S. for toughest markets out of 125 markets surveyed, according to the apartment listing service, RentCafe.com.

While the majority of the council agreed to the change, Terry Christensen and Marianne Boring continued to oppose the measure.

Boring, a former planning commission member, previously said other sections of the city allow for smaller apartments, and they didn’t need to be in the central business district.

Christensen was concerned the conversion will reduce the number of low-rent motel rooms for families attending sports tournaments and reduce the city’s hotel and motel tax funds.