The goal has been set, but the hard task of adding 10,000 homes in Anchorage within a decade is up to residential developers.
Those 10,000 dwelling units must span all income ranges. “That’s the entry-level worker that has to work 80 hours a week to afford a two-bedroom apartment, up to the medical professionals, the doctors and nurses that are not coming to Anchorage,” Municipality of Anchorage Director of Community and Economic Development Bob Doehl told the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce on Monday. “We need to get on with it because the longer we wait, the more people we’re losing.”
Developers are getting on with it. Projects that have been in the works for years, even before Mayor Suzanne LaFrance set a round-number goal last year, are inching toward completion.
Racing Against the Customer
Property development is a tortoise-like race against the fleet-footed hare of the real estate market. Andre Spinelli, president of Spinell Homes, told the chamber luncheon, “Buyers are shifting around with the economy, and who knows what interest rates will be? One day, everyone’s buying $700,000 houses; the next day, nobody’s buying them. That’s the biggest challenge for me, is consistency in the market.”…