Apartment complex breaks ground in Flagstaff amid housing crunch

The complex in Flagstaff by Wexford Developments will include 224 apartments, retail space and more. The project is expected to be completed in 2025.

FLAGSTAFF — As the ground finally softens after a brutal winter, construction equipment is ready to begin work on the city's newest project — a large apartment complex that could start to chip away slowly at the area's affordable housing crisis.

"Anytime affordable housing is being built, it is a good day in Flagstaff," Flagstaff Mayor Becky Daggett said at the site's groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday.

Situated on 13.6 acres of land behind Sinagua Middle School, the project from Wexford Developments includes 224 new housing units — 36 studio apartments, 124 one-bedroom and 64 two-bedroom units — along with 6,000 square feet of additional retail space. The project is expected to be completed by spring 2025.

Flagstaff Mayor Becky Daggett speaks about the city's need for affordable housing at the groundbreaking ceremony for the city's newest apartment complex.

The complex will feature four separate four-story buildings with 56 units each. Other amenities for residents include a fitness center, dog park, walking trails, an amphitheater and a pool. One of the draws of the new site for the developers was that most of the surrounding area is public forest land, ensuring that a similar project cannot pop up right next door.

"We noticed a couple years ago that people couldn't find a place to live, and we wanted to help solve that problem," said Sam Gordon, principal and co-founder of Wexford Developments.

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The Flagstaff City Council declared a housing emergency at the end of 2020 and has since developed a 10-year plan to address the city's affordable housing shortage. Daggett explained that a crucial ingredient to the plan's success is having private developers, such as Wexford, willing to include affordable units on their own.

At least 22 units in the new complex will be designated specifically for affordable workforce housing based on average median income. Moreover, Wexford will not discriminate based on a tenant's source of income, meaning that even more units could potentially operate as affordable housing for local veterans and families using housing vouchers.

The developers also agreed not to limit the number of housing vouchers they can accept at the property.

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With its first Flagstaff property now officially underway, the company intends to continue with more development projects in the city.

"We want this to be one of several things we do in Flagstaff. We're not one and done developers," Gordon said.

"If we do something in a city, we want to be involved in the community and find multiple things to do," he said.

This mindset is reflected by Wexford's presence in Tempe, where the company is breaking ground on a seventh property this week.

Wexford Development and Wexford Real Estate Investors are partnering with Stewart + Reindersma Architecture, Decca Multi-Family Builders and Private Label International for the Flagstaff project's design and overall construction.

Contact northern Arizona reporter Lacey Latch at LLatch@gannett.com or on social media @laceylatch. The Republic’s coverage of northern Arizona is funded, in part, with a grant from Report for America. To support regional Arizona news coverage like this, make a tax-deductible donation at supportjournalism.azcentral.com.