Compass Health Celebrates Topping Out of Permanent Supportive Housing Phase of Broadway Campus Redevelopment Project

Compass Health Celebrates Topping Out of Permanent Supportive Housing Phase of Broadway Campus Redevelopment Project

Project on track to meet critical need for housing, transform city block of downtown Everett

Everett, WA. – Today, Compass Health announced the topping out of the first phase of its Broadway Campus Redevelopment project, marking an important milestone on the way to bringing 82 new units of permanent supportive housing to the community. Leaders and crews ceremonially placed the final structural beam in the facility designed to help relieve the critical need for housing that has been exacerbated by health and economic challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Part of a state-of-the-art regional center in downtown Everett, the facility is ahead of schedule and slated to open in April 2021. It will include permanent supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness or chronic behavioral health challenges, including units available to military veterans and individuals returning to the community from Western State Hospital. The project will double Compass Health’s housing capacity in Snohomish County and demonstrates the impact of critical housing protections for at-risk groups.

“We knew prior to the COVID-19 outbreak that community members experiencing mental health challenges were in need of stable housing, and we’re extremely grateful to our development and construction teams which helped us to drive forward with this project, recognizing that these needs will be heightened by the pandemic in the coming months,” said Compass Health CEO and president Tom Sebastian. “Topping out this permanent supportive housing facility represents an important step forward in our goal to leverage community-based care to serve our most vulnerable citizens.”

Crews began work in March on the five-story, 47,000-square-foot building designed to operate under the Housing First model for supportive housing. This initiative aligns with the City of Everett’s Safe Streets program, which is designed to help individuals transition out of homelessness through low-barrier access to housing and other on-site services.

“Long before the current pandemic, this team saw the critical need for a new approach to housing and health in this community,” said Michelle Morlan, principal at Lotus Development Partners, the project’s development management team. “Lotus is honored to be supporting the work of Compass Health to deliver a comprehensive response that will positively shape the neighborhood and the region for years to come.”

After the onset of COVID-19, general contractor BNBuilders quickly adopted safety and protective measures in accordance with local, state and federal guidelines. On site, personnel must sign in daily to certify they do not have symptoms and undergo a temperature check. Workers also wear required PPE including a face covering at all times, maintaining a six-foot distance from other team members.

“At BNBuilders, safety is always our top priority, so we built a Crisis Management Team to adhere to region-specific safety measures that would protect our workers while keeping the project on track,” said Mark Ronish, project executive at BNBuilders. “We pride ourselves on keeping lines of communication open with our clients and our teams to find solutions for project challenges – even ones we’ve never faced before.”

Design of the phase one facility adheres to the Evergreen Sustainable Development Standards (ESDS) including significant energy-efficient and green-building features. Residents will include eligible veterans who are experiencing homelessness, under the Housing Authority of Snohomish County’s VASH (Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing) Voucher program; community members experiencing homelessness referred by Investing in Futures, Snohomish County’s Coordinated Entry process; and individuals transitioning back into the community from Western State Hospital and other treatment settings. The project’s 10,000-square-foot ground floor will host mental health treatment, peer support, homeless outreach, housing stabilization and other programs designed to support both residents and others across the community –expanding the facility’s impact as a much-needed access point for services.

“We’re honored to work on this supportive housing project for Compass Health because it gives us the opportunity to make an impact on our local community, especially for the many team members who live in Everett and the North Sound region” Ronish said. “We know there’s a real value in expanding access to behavioral health resources for at-risk community members, and it’s exciting to be a part of the Compass Health vision and mission.”

Support for the $26 million phase one supportive housing facility comes from a combination of public, private and philanthropic sources, including significant support from Snohomish County Housing and Community Services, Housing Authority of Snohomish County, Washington State Housing Trust Fund, Washington State Housing Finance Commission, National Equity Fund, Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines, Coastal Community Bank, Impact Capital, Premera Social Impact, KeyBank N.A. and the Washington Community Reinvestment Association.

Individual, corporate and foundation donors also provided generous philanthropic support. A list of funding partners can be found at the Compass Health Broadway Redevelopment page.

The development team includes Lotus Development Partners (Development Manager); Environmental Works (Architect); and BNBuilders (General Contractor). Other consultants include Harmsen (Civil Engineer); Swensen Say Faget (Structural); Sider & Byers (Mechanical and Electrical); and Thomas Rengstorf (Landscape Design). Subcontractors include Berg Electric,

Harris (Plumbing), United Mechanical, Alliance Partitions, Frontier Door and Cabinet, G&W Flooring and Washington Commercial Painters.

“Just walking around in the building today, you can truly sense the scale and impact of this project,” Sebastian said. “Not only does this ceremony bring into focus just how far we’ve come, it makes our vision for evidence-based whole person care all the more real – this isn’t just a building, this is our opportunity to transform the future of behavioral health in our communities and beyond.”

The Broadway Campus Redevelopment project is a three-phase project that will also include an advanced facility for a range of adaptable services to replace its 70-year-old Bailey Center building on Broadway Avenue in phase two. This portion of the project has already received partial funding from Washington State Department of Commerce’s Behavioral Health Facilities and Building Communities Funds, Primary Care Development Corporation and private contributions from individual, corporate and foundation donors. Organization leaders continue to seek additional funding from private and public sources to complete this ambitious project.

Phase three of the campus redevelopment, still in the early design stages, is projected to focus on integrating behavioral health services with a primary healthcare clinic and pharmacy, in addition to supporting other services.

For project updates, visit the Compass Health Broadway Campus Redevelopment here: www.compasshealth.org/broadwayredevelopment.