This Bellingham apartment building near Western will double in size
A 9-unit apartment building in Bellingham’s Happy Valley Neighborhood will soon be remodeled and expanded into a 19-unit building — more than doubling its capacity and displacing residents during construction.
The Taylor Creek Park apartments at 2300 Taylor Ave. back up to Western Washington University’s campus and sit next to a wetland area. The plan is to remodel the existing units and build additional units onto the east side of the building, according to Bellingham-based AVT Consulting, the permit consultant company for the project.
“It’s a relatively creative infill project. You don’t typically get the opportunity to keep something and build onto it,” said AVT’s Ali Taysi in a telephone interview with The Bellingham Herald. “It also allows us to reduce some of the impacts from the development.”
The existing building is still in good shape, which allows it to be reused for the project, Taysi told The Herald.
Tenants do currently live in the building and will not be able to live there during construction. Appropriate notification of construction will be sent out to tenants, according to AVT.
“We’re probably going to time (construction) around leases expiring,” Taysi said.
The neighborhood is largely student apartments with good walkability to Western and public transit. Still, the public has expressed some concern about parking availability and overcrowding in Happy Valley, Taysi told The Herald.
This project is still in the early stages of permitting so it will likely be three to five years before construction begins, according to AVT.
