New apartment complex will be built in downtown Anchorage

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – A city corporation in Alaska has partnered with a local real estate developer to build a $6.2 million apartment housing complex in downtown Anchorage, officials said.

Anchorage Community Development Authority spokeswoman Melinda Gant said the Block 96 Flats complex will feature 44 one-bedroom and studio apartments with rents between $1,100 and $1,500 a month. The authority partnered with Debenham Properties on the complex.

Debenham Properties President Shaun Debenham said the units will be no more than 600 square feet (55 square meters), allowing developers to keep rents a little lower than similar market-rate apartments in the area.

The complex is expected to provide about 60 construction jobs, generate new property taxes for the municipality and house people looking to live close to downtown.

“If people are living here, they are going to stay downtown,” Gant told KTUU-TV. “They are going to want to shop. They are going to want to dine. They are going to want to do all the outside events located around downtown.”

Authority Director Andrew Halcro said the project is scheduled to break ground in May and be completed by summer 2022.

Halcro told Anchorage Daily News that the development is an important step toward bolstering the economic stability of downtown and will help transform the area from a primary business hub to a neighbourhood with its own population. He argued that if people were living there now during the coronavirus pandemic, the many local stores and restaurants would have more customers to help sustain business.