Mike Hays’ mixed-use project would have surface and underground parking.
Mike Hays, local infill developer and broker/owner at Exit Realty Associates, has applied to construct a four-story mixed-use building on the corner of Chestnut and Jersey streets, near the south campus of Saint Joseph Hospital.
The building would have underground and surface parking, 2,000 square feet of office-commercial space on the ground floor and 24 residential units on three floors. The entire development will sit on a 25,000-square-foot site.
Hays said with the site’s proximity to downtown, the proposed waterfront district and bus routes servicing Holly and Chestnut streets, the project is perfect for Bellingham.
“It’s the perfect infill project that the city says it wants,” Hays said.
The site is a consolidation of four lots: 1211, 1215 and 1217 Jersey St. and one lot at 711 E. Chestnut St.
Hays said with the three 1200-block lots, he could only build 20 units on the property, but when he tied in an adjacent property with a 100-year-old house he already owned on Chestnut Street, he was able to add four more units to his proposed development.
Hays said the 1200-block lots have boarded-up houses on them, which when cleaned up will greatly improve the neighborhood.
“[The houses] were attracting drug dealers Hays said. “It wasn’t a huge thing but vagrancy was becoming an issue.”
If completed, the development would boast 24 800-square-foot, two bedroom, one-bathroom apartments. Some, Hays said, would be made permanently affordable.
Hays said he has no particular type of tenant in mind for the proposed building’s commercial space.
“We’re flexible.” Hays said.
Hays said he hopes to get building permits by the end of the year so he can get started next spring and finish by the end of next summer.
