Meeting in the middle
Oct. 18—MOSES LAKE — A new housing development in progress on the south side of Moses Lake could expand the housing options in town.
"You guys need entry-level housing," said Troy Schmeil, owner of Bellevue-based Sapphire Homes Northwest, which is developing a tract of land off South Division Street. "On both sides of the state, you have ... older apartment buildings and single-family (homes), and there's nothing in between."
What Schmeil is looking at is filling in what's often called the "missing middle" — duplexes, fourplexes, townhouses and the like — large enough for a family, but less expensive than the $340,000 median home price in Grant County, or the $1,665 average home rental cost — if the family can even find a home to rent.
Under legislation passed last year in Olympia, a city with a population between 25,000 and 75,000 — for which Moses Lake narrowly qualifies — must allow at least two duplexes to a lot, four if the lot is near a major transit stop, according to the Multiple Research and Services Center. That opens up space within city limits for developments like Sapphire's.
Most of Schmeil's projects have been in the Seattle area; this is his first venture into eastern Washington. Still, he said, the need for missing middle housing is the same.
"I've done townhomes, I've done cottages, I've done (accessory dwelling units) and (detached accessory dwelling units)," Schmeil said. "I've got a case right now where instead of 10 houses in a project, I'm building 30, trying to get the price point down."
The space Schmeil is working at in Moses Lake is a triangular tract located south of West Nelson Road between Division Street and Eastlake Drive. It's a daunting prospect at first glance, being a fairly steep hill covered with sagebrush. Schmeil said he ran across it when looking at Moses Lake for a different land deal that didn't pan out.
"What I do for a living is look at land and build houses," he said. "I saw this (land), and I knew. It's not the flattest piece of property in the world, but it also has views of the lake. I said, this would be kind of cool because it was right when COVID was starting out (and) there's people that are going to want to move over here, you've got a great employment base over there that's growing."
That was four years ago, Schmeil said, and the project has taken a lot longer than he expected, partly because the pandemic played havoc with the supply chain, but also because statewide energy requirements have driven the cost of building housing up dramatically.
"We're one of only a handful of states on the latest energy code," he said. "Most states have actually backed off on that because they've realized that the incremental gains they're getting just aren't working. HVAC has quadrupled in the last five, 10, years ... and the efficiencies are not equaling the additional cost."
The Sapphire Homes project is in the excavation phase now, leveling out the hill. It will comprise 56 lots when it's finished, according to the site plan on the city's website, which will mean more than 100 homes folks can move into.
"Ninety, 95% of them are set up on purpose for a duplex," Schmeil said. "They're 30-foot-wide lots, they're plenty deep ... so you can put a garage in there and have parking in the wintertime."
The development will include expanding Bailey Avenue across Eastlake to join up with Nelson Road, according to the side plan and also connecting Eastlake Drive through to Division Street. The latter will ease the traffic on the steep hill where Nelson Road meets Division Street.
"And I think (this) something you guys hopefully will embrace, the missing middle between the apartments and the single-family housing," Schmeil said, "the housing types that will hopefully bring down the cost of for people."
