Exclusive | 1st of hundreds of new Tri-Cities apartments to open in May
In just a few weeks, the first residents will begin moving into the Resort at Hansen Park, a new Tri-Cities mixed development.
The $50 million Kennewick complex, near the intersection of 10th Avenue and Columbia Center Boulevard, will welcome its first renters to the Trilogy Homes portion of the project beginning May 1.
The development is the latest project of husband-and-wife team Carmen Villarma and Dennis Pavlina of Portland. They’ve been building apartments and townhomes in the Tri-Cities for almost 20 years.
The Resort at Hansen Park is their biggest Tri-Cities development yet, with several distinct types of homes and apartments available, in addition to commercial spaces.
“Our goal was really to create a community here,” Villarma said. “We love the area, we’re here for the long term.”
Villarma said they conducted a survey during the design process, and used the results to inform how the project would be laid out. They are focusing on creating a walkable, neighborly community where families can live, work and play.
Trilogy Homes will open in three phases, starting in May. Once the first set of triplexes are full, the second set is expected to welcome residents on June 1 and the last portion of the 27 homes will open by the end of June.
The triplexes are custom built two- and three-bedroom townhomes with garages, lining the west side of the development overlooking Hansen Park.
Villarma said the units were designed with the park in mind, so they’ll feature views of the area, as well as white picket fences in the backyards.
Once leasing is complete for the triplexes, the first building of the Park Avenue apartments will open for rent.
Park Avenue will open in phases, with luxury apartments ranging from studios to three bedrooms. The three-story buildings will eventually total 132 apartments.
10 West and offices
Also in progress is 10 West, a 72-unit mid-rise building. 10 West will feature lofts, 1- and 2-bedroom units above a parking garage.
They’ll have interior decks overlooking a landscaped courtyard. The building also will likely feature a coffee shop on the first floor. Altogether Phase 1 will bring about 230 new apartments online in the Tri-Cities over the next year.
Rounding out the first phase of construction is a 23,000-square-foot commercial building with office condos.
“An office condo is kind of like a regular condo, you can buy a floor or part of a floor,” Villarma said. “There are a lot of very successful companies here in the Tri-Cities that might not need an entire building, but this is a good way for them to get into a Class A building.”
Hansen Park was originally owned by Wilburt Hansen who operated the Hansen Fruit company on 778 acres. The orchards were cleared for 25 acres of Kennewick parks, as well as homes and other development.
The 18-acre Resort at Hansen Park site will feature dog parks, outdoor areas and walking paths connecting the apartments to the nearby city of Kennewick park, existing neighboring retail centers and future amenities.
“There’s going to be a lot of people on the site, so we want to make sure there are good walking paths,” Villarma said.
Phase 2
Phase 2 also will see the construction of a 20,000-square-foot clubhouse featuring recreation areas, a gym, an arcade and more. Two swimming pools also are planned.
The clubhouse will be an amenity available to renters at all of the Resort at Hansen Park properties.
More mid-rise buildings similar to 10 West are planned for the second phase of construction.
A 105-unit, senior-oriented apartment building also is on the horizon. Phase 2 of the project will add about 300 rental units altogether.
Villarma said that with this many new rental units, families are going to need childcare.
A 6,000-square-foot space is being carved out specifically for a daycare, and they are working to bring in student teachers to work with older children after school at the clubhouse.
“My husband and I don’t have children, but we love kids. We’ve talked to a couple people about doing after school tutoring,” she said.
“We want to have an area here for kids who don’t need day care, but they come home and maybe their folks aren’t home yet, they can go to the clubhouse, and we’ll have student teachers to help the kids,” she said.
Despite pandemic-related issues and supply chain woes, the projects are largely on track.
Villarma said they’re about 6 months behind, but that isn’t bad given the troubles other developers have seen. She said they were able to pre-order a lot of the building materials.
Surprisingly, the things setting them back are not major materials, but smaller components.
“There are things that are just difficult, for instance roofing nails. We got to roofing and we couldn’t find any,” she said. “I am cautiously optimistic, because the supply chain issues seem to be improving.”
They also ran into issues with glass products and shower stalls, but those have started to come in.
For more information about leasing at the Resort at Hansen Park, visit resorthp.com/
This story was originally published April 16, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
