Days Inn could be housing boon

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

By Henry Sweets

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Town officials say the redevelopment of the Days Inn could be a shot-in-the-arm for Jackson’s dearth of workforce housing, but that the project is too early in its planning stages to tell exactly what merit it might have.
If approved by Jackson Town Council, the Days Inn would become Rendezvous Point, with the potential to house up to 180 members of Teton County’s workforce by mid-May 2009.

The plan will go in front of planning staff today for the first of a three-step approval process. It must also go in front of the planning commission, and the town council before it can be carried forward.
“It’s large enough, it’s located in a great spot and there is a capacity to make a significant dent in [Jackson’s] … employee housing shortage,” Days Inn owner Coleman Andrews said.

Andrews and business partner, Clayton Andrews, hope to convert their property into 90 rent-controlled studio condominiums, available for purchase by local businesses. Proposed deed restrictions would mandate that potential buyers generate revenue locally, and that they only offer the units to employees earning in Jackson Hole. The studio units are proposed to rent for under $800.

Greg Miles, planning commissioner and Town Council candidate, explained because of development regulations in Jackson, a hotel conversion could be the best way to put much-needed rental housing on Jackson’s market.

“Under the current [land development regulations] in the town of Jackson, you couldn’t build this kind of product … you would have to have more land to get this kind of density,” Miles said. “Nobody is building rental market housing because there is no incentive.”

Town Councilmen Mark Obringer and Abe Tabatabai both said that the idea of the project sounds promising, but it is too early to give comment on it.
Rendezvous Point will have to get permission from Town Council to have more than 30 residential units per acre, which exceeds the “Gross Density” regulation in the town’s development codes. The developers hope that their contribution to the community’s shortage of affordable rentals will persuade the town to waive that regulation.

The Teton County Housing Authority director, Christine Walker, said the project could become a benchmark for other free-market solutions to a workforce-housing problem in Teton County.
“This model is unique, I don’t think it’s been used anywhere else in the country,” Walker said.

Chamber of Commerce director Tim O’Donahue said that he is checking with other resort towns, who have similar housing issues and might have some experience that Jackson, and Rendezvous Point, can learn from.

Project spokesperson Jenny Mayfield said they hope to move as quickly as possible through the approval process, but that will depend on the input from town planning staff, elected officials, neighbors and the general public. She said they are also seeking comments from the public while the plan is still flexible. Any of that feedback could require a more intensive remodel than currently planned, she said, and could impact the final price of the units.

The price also depends on how much an employer is willing to subsidize their employees housing situation. Walker and O’Donahue both said that employers currently subsidize their employees’ rents, but neither could provide hard data available to gauge exactly how much employers are willing to spend to house their employees.

The Housing Authority is helping facilitate the deed restrictions applied to the project, including rent caps and permissible owners and renters, but will not fetter the appreciation of a unit’s value after a year of continuous ownership by a single owner. They have potential to be a lucrative investment, assuming they remain affordable for employers and seasonal workers.

Andrews was confident that the finished product will be desirable to local businesses.

“I think we know enough to know that it is going to reflect a good value for the owners,” he said. Andrews, owner of Rocky Mountain Bank, said his lending experience, as well as his bank’s mortgage department, should also help him provide attractive financing for businesses, even in the nation’s tight lending market.

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Days Inn could be housing boon | Planet JH News Article: Development

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