The developer who planned to build the city of Kent’s first cottage housing development has dropped out of the project.
Bill Ruth, president of Kent-based W.E. Ruth Real Estate Inc., said in a June 12 letter to City Planning Director Fred Satterstrom that the company will abandon plans for the Blueberry Cottages development for “many and varied” reasons.
The city had approved plans for 30 housing units to be built on 4 acres on the East Hill at the northwest corner of Southeast 240th Street and 116th Avenue Southeast. Cottage-style housing developments feature small, detached single-family homes clustered around a common open space with garages and parking located away from the homes.
Ruth listed many reasons in the letter for dumping the cottage housing.
“History of cottage developments in the greater Seattle and Puget Sound areas is that very few have even gotten off the ground, most never left the planning stage,” Ruth wrote in the letter. “The scattered few that came out of the ground suffered poor sales, minimum profits and usually showed large losses. They sound good but end up bad.”
The City Council approved cottage housing in 2008 under a demonstration ordinance in an effort to give buyers more options and get away from the cookie-cutter style of homes that dominate many developments. The recession delayed the project but Ruth Real Estate earlier this year tried to get the project going again but couldn’t find financial backing from banks.
“A short but sad analysis is that banks, large, small, traditional and hard money lenders in total say no under any circumstances,” Ruth wrote. “Lending on cottage projects has ultra bad history.”
Ruth said cottage homes are very expensive to build per square foot.
“Builders then cannot be competitive with other projects,” Ruth wrote.
Ruth wants city staff to approve a more traditional housing development for the property.
“Our team has spent $100,000 trying to make Blueberry work,” Ruth said. “We shared this vision with many on the Kent City Council. Had we known what we know now, we would not have applied for the possible granting of this demonstration project.”
Satterstrom, in a letter to Bill Ruth, said the city will honor his request to withdraw from the project. He said city staff will help Ruth find a suitable alternative plat design for the property.
Satterstrom said the council will look at options that may include a revision of the ordinance, waiting for a period of time or abandoning the notion altogether.
“Cottage housing had worked successfully in other communities and the city wanted to test the waters here,” Satterstrom wrote in the letter. “Your experience, even though it was unsuccessful, has given us insight to certain market and development conditions that will help the city to evaluate the merits of continuing to pursue this unique form of housing.”
The council’s Economic and Community Development Committee had been scheduled to discuss cottage housing at its Monday meeting but the meeting was cancelled at the last moment because not enough council members were available to attend the three-member committee meeting.
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