Tumwater grants conditional tax exemption to 2 apartment projects

Tumwater city council granted two apartment projects — one in the Brewery District, another south of Craft District — conditional certificates for eight-year tax exemptions during a meeting on Tuesday, December 6.

Not all council members were on board with the idea, as members Joan Cathey and Charlie Schneider voted against granting the exemption. Council members were not even supposed to vote on the proposal as it was part of the consent agenda before it was pulled off the agenda by Cathey, as other council members expected.

Cathey did not speak about her vote but had previously expressed in a general government meeting in November that she was against the proposals. She had expressed that multifamily housing tax exemptions do not favor the right people who need affordable housing and that sacrificing the city’s tax base to create more housing was not worth pursuing.

Schneider explained that the developers should not be given tax exemption as there is already a high demand for residential needs in Tumwater.

“I just don't think we should get people that are making lots of money opportunities to skip out and pay in property taxes when we require everybody else in the city,” he said.

The two apartment projects are a 24-unit apartment at 350 North Street in the Brewery District and a 95-unit apartment at 4300 Capitol Boulevard near the Craft District complex.

With the city granting their conditional certificates, developers of the two projects will now have three years to construct the apartments and apply for a final certificate from the community development director before they are given the tax exemption.

Project developers for multifamily housing in key areas of Tumwater may apply for eight or twelve-year tax exemptions under the Multifamily Housing Tax Exemption program. The city adopted the program in 2017 to stimulate housing development and commercial growth in areas like the Brewery District and the Capitol Boulevard Corridor.