ULI Announces Finalists for 2023 Jack Kemp, Terwilliger Center Innovation Awards

The ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing has announced four finalists for this year’s Jack Kemp Excellence in Affordable and Workforce Housing Award and eight finalists for the Terwilliger Center Award for Innovation in Attainable Housing.

“At a time when cities across the nation are struggling to build the homes their residents, businesses, and local economies require to thrive, ULI’s Terwilliger Center for Housing is privileged to share this year’s Kemp Award and Innovation Award finalists,” said Christopher Ptomey, executive director of the ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing. “Each of this year’s finalists demonstrates a creative blend of tools, strategies, and relationships aligned to deliver high-quality homes at costs affordable to moderate- and lower-income households. We congratulate each firm and development team for their exemplary work.”

The Kemp Award was established in 2008 in memory of Jack Kemp, a former secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and a national advisory board member of the Terwilliger Center. It recognizes developments that use innovative financing sources to provide attainable mixed-income housing, primarily focusing on households earning between 60 and 120 percent of the area median income.

The Terwilliger Center created the Award for Innovation in 2022 to recognize unique yet replicable developments that offer or preserve deeper affordability.

This year’s finalists for the Jack Kemp Excellence in Affordable and Workforce Housing award are:

• 201 Canal, Lowell, Massachusetts. 201 Canal is a new-construction project in Lowell, Massachusetts’ Hamilton Canal Innovation District that includes 125 units of mixed-income housing and 5,000 square feet (464.5 m sq) of commercial space. The site is transit-oriented and is a half-mile (0.8 km) walk from the intermodal Charles A. Gallagher Transit Terminal. It was also built to meet high standards for energy efficiency and is certified by Enterprise Green Communities and Energy Star Homes.
• Broadway Lofts, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. Broadway Lofts is a new mixed-use development on a brownfield site in the heart of Mt. Pleasant, Mich. The project created 48 apartments with over 13,000 square feet (1,207.7 m sq) of ground-level retail. It features 48 energy-efficient apartments targeted to Michigan’s workforce housing population. Local grocery cooperative GreenTree Co-Op Market utilized the commercial space to expand their 50-year-old business.
• Caton Flats, Brooklyn, New York. This mixed-use development offers 255 new units of much-needed affordable housing with over 3,000 square feet (278.7 m sq) of office space on the ground and second floor for a local community organization, the Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CACCI), more than 9,000 sq ft of retail space at the cellar and ground floor, and the redeveloped and expanded Flatbush Central Caribbean Marketplace.
• J-centrel, Philadelphia. J-centrel communicates a balance of old and new, heritage and modernity, through its architectural foundation and its community-focused heart. It pays homage to the history, heritage, and resiliency of the Harrowgate and Kensington neighborhoods of Philadelphia. A once economic engine that housed looms, sewing machines, and furniture manufacturing has been re-energized to create workspaces for the next evolution of makers, entrepreneurs, small businesses, and purpose-driven organizations and quality living for community builders.

This year’s finalists for the Terwilliger Center Award for Innovation in Attainable Housing are:

• East Clarke Place Senior Residence, Bronx, New York. At East Clarke Place Senior Residence, a 122-unit, LEED-Platinum, affordable senior housing development in the Bronx, social equity dovetails with design excellence to create a vertical village with indoor and outdoor social spaces and healthy, sustainable homes where residents can thrive.
• Gordon H. Mansfield Veterans Community, Tinton Falls, New Jersey. The Gordon H. Mansfield Veterans Community, named after a veteran who won a Purple Heart, has 70 units of supportive housing for veterans with different income levels, including homeless veterans and veterans who have been homeless. WinnCompanies, an award-winning owner, manager, and developer of multifamily housing, and Soldier On, Inc., a non-profit that serves homeless veterans, partnered to develop the community.
• John Parvensky Recuperative Care Center and Renaissance Legacy Lofts, Denver. John Parvensky Recuperative Care Center and Renaissance Legacy Lofts is a $46.5 million nine-story building that provides homeless individuals with multiple services and opens 98 affordable one-bedroom and studio apartments for those transitioning to more permanent housing. The center includes 75 medical respite beds, which will target homeless people with acute medical conditions.
• Lucille & Bruce Terwilliger Place, Arlington, Virginia. Located on a 1.3-acre (0.53 ha) site just 1,500 feet (457.2 m) from the Virginia Square-GMU Metro, the Lucille & Bruce Terwilliger Place is a 160-unit affordable rental community featuring a new 6,000 square foot (557.4 m sq) condo for the American Legion Post 139. In response to an aging facility and diminishing membership, the members of Post 139 saw redevelopment as an opportunity to transform their site, programs, and services.
• Spring Flats, Washington, D.C. Spring Flats master development is an innovative mixed-income, multi-component redevelopment creating a total of 185 residential units, 80 percent of which are affordable to seniors and families. This intergenerational mixed-income community includes both rental and homeownership opportunities on a 3.3-acre (1.34 ha) transit-oriented campus.
• The Exchange, Salt Lake City, Utah. The Exchange is a transit-oriented development maximizing green and sustainable design, anchored by mixed-income apartments, 100 percent affordable apartments, a 30,000 square foot (2,787.1 m sq) creative workspace, and 15,000 square feet (1,393.5 m sq) of community-focused retail. Included are affordable apartments for households ranging from 40 percent-80 percent AMI (throughout Exchange), addressing affordability needs and nurturing entrepreneurial and diverse economic growth in Salt Lake.
• The Hope Center & Berkeley Way, Berkeley, Calif. The Hope Center and Berkeley Way is a joint development between non-profit developers BRIDGE Housing and non-profit developer/service provider Insight Housing (formerly Berkeley Food & Housing Project (BFHP)). It combines four housing types – 32 emergency shelter beds, 12 transitional housing units for veterans, 53 permanent supportive housing units, and 89 affordable apartments – into an integrated community with onsite food and support services, offering a continuum of options for residents with low income to progress through and maintain long-term.
• Wynne Watts Commons, Gresham, Oregon. The Albertina Kerr Workforce & Inclusive Housing project provides affordable and inclusive housing on the Gresham campus of Albertina Kerr, a Portland non-profit that provides services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), mental health challenges, and other social barriers. The four-story, 150-unit building includes 30 uniquely designed units for adults experiencing IDD with features such as voice-control systems for lighting and blinds, hands-free entries, motorized upper cabinets, pull-out stove tops, and environmental controls that integrate adjustable color lighting.

The jury for the two awards is chaired by Ron Terwilliger, founder of the ULI Terwilliger Center and chairman of Terwilliger Pappas Multifamily Partners.

Other jury members are Paul Bernard, president and CEO, Arlington Housing Corporation Inc., Arlington, Virginia; Rodger Brown, managing director of real estate development, Preservation of Affordable Housing, Boston; Payton Chung, managing partner, Westover Green, Washington, D.C.; Vicki Davis, managing partner, Urban Atlantic, Bethesda, Maryland; Adam Ducker, CEO, RCLCO, Bethesda, Maryland; Jill Ferrari, co-founder and managing partner, Renovare Development, Ypsilanti, Michigan; Michael Francescani, senior manager, CohnReznick, Boston; Sara Myerson, managing director, MSquared, Wellesley, Massachusetts; Josh Posner, founder and CEO, Rising Tide Development, Cambridge, Mass.; Stacy Silber, attorney, Lerch, Early & Brewer, Chtd., Bethesda, Maryland.; Michael Spotts, director of real estate development, Habitat for Humanity of Washington D.C. & Northern Virginia, Arlington, Virginia; and Silvia Urrutia, founder and CEO, U Developing LLC, Phoenix.

The winners will be announced in October during ULI’s Fall Meeting in Los Angeles. For questions about the housing awards program, email [email protected].