Bellingham leaders celebrate this waterfront affordable housing project
Local leaders and community members celebrated the groundbreaking of a waterfront, mixed-use, affordable housing project Friday, April 14.
“I think it’s going to be a catalyst. It’s precisely what we need — desperately,” said Bellingham Mayor Seth Fleetwood at the event.
Construction on Phase I of The Millworks Project began in late 2022 and is being led by the Whatcom Community Foundation in partnership with Mercy Housing Northwest. Move-in for residents is expected in 2024.
The project site is bordered by Cornwall Avenue, Laurel Street and the waterfront railroad line.
Phase I will be 83 units of affordable housing and a six-classroom YMCA early learning center. Phase II of the project will feature another 80 units of affordable housing, a two-story local food production campus, a rooftop event space and a rooftop terrace.
In addition to creating affordable housing and childcare, the project is also designed to create job access and property ownership opportunities as part of the overall development of Bellingham’s waterfront.
“The Port of Bellingham, just like every one of the 75 ports in Washington state, has a mission for economic development,” said Bellingham’s Port Commissioner Michael Shepard. “I think it’s exciting when we can integrate affordable housing and environmental sustainability into that lens of economic development.”
The entire project is expected to be complete by 2027.
“When I was growing up in Bellingham, this was a mill. I don’t think, in my youth, it ever entered my mind that it would ever be anything but a mill,” Fleetwood said. “It’s thrilling to be here in this important moment to see the work taking off.”
The Millworks project site was formerly used for decades as storage for paper mill byproducts. This caused significant contamination to the site, but through a partnership with the state Department of Ecology, the site was cleaned up and prepared for development.
“I can’t not be moved by the fact that six years ago, there were still fences around the perimeter of this site. The public could not come down here and do what we’re doing,” Shepard said.
The Millworks Project is the first Whatcom County project to participate in the state’s new program focused on environmental cleanup for housing.
Phase I of the project is estimated to cost about $37 million and is largely funded through low-income housing tax credit financing.
