SEATTLE — The Seattle Social Housing Developer (SSHD) has acquired its first multifamily property since forming in 2023 by city voters. Spartanburg, South Carolina-based Johnson Development Associates sold Elara at the Market to SSHD for $60.9 million. Kidder Mathews arranged the sale. The 150-unit property, which Johnson Development Associates built in 2017, is half a mile northwest of Pike Place Market.
In 2023, Seattle city residents voted on Initiative 135, a local citizen-led ballot measure that officially chartered SSHD. In 2025, city voters went to the polls again to pass Proposition 1A, approving a local city tax on high-earning corporations to fund the public development authority. The city maintains the Seattle Housing Authority (SHA), which primarily serves the city’s poorest residents, mostly backed by federal HUD programs that fund households earning 30 percent or less of the area median income (AMI).
SSHD, on the other hand, serves a middle bracket of residents earning up to 120 percent of AMI, specifically designed to help workforce renters, such as teachers and service industry workers — those renters who earn too much to qualify for public housing but not enough to afford market-rate rents.
When SSHD buys a property, it is placed in a public trust so the agency may own it in perpetuity. Elara’s first 15 vacancies will be reserved for households earning at or below 30 percent of AMI. The next units that become vacant will be rent capped between 30 and 50 percent AMI. For existing tenants, SSHD will freeze rents through June 2028.
Johnson Development Associates built the LEED-Gold certified Elara at the Market as a luxury property. It includes a rooftop lounge, a wine cellar and a dog park. Prior to the acquisition, monthly asking rents at Elara in 2018 went up to $5,950 for a two-bedroom penthouse.