By QUINTON SMITH/Lincoln Chronicle
A Yachats-based nonprofit developer of affordable housing has broken ground on its second project in Florence that will include a $4.1 million childcare center for the community.
The apartment project is fourth in Yachats and Florence for Our Coastal Village, started by Layne Morrill in 2009, and its largest so far.
Elm Park Apartments, which will cost $15 million to build, will have 32 residential units on a 1.1-acre site at the end of Greenwood Street west of U.S. Highway 101 and just east of Peace Harbor Medical Center.
It is Morrill’s second affordable housing project in Florence, but his largest and first that connects the development with the central Oregon coast’s need for childcare.
The two separately financed but related projects involve a myriad of local and state agencies, organizations and a bank to develop. Morrill and his Florence-area partners still need to raise $300,000 in community donations to complete the childcare project and qualify for an additional $250,000 in grants from private foundations.
The 5,000-square-foot childcare center will have four classrooms, a kitchen, administrative and storage space, and a 2,250-square-foot outdoor play area. Head Start of Lane County will provide Head Start programming in two classrooms, and community providers will operate two classrooms.
The center is designed to serve up to 16 infants, 20 toddlers and 40 pre-kindergarten children, increasing the area’s childcare slots from about 150 to 230, Morrill said in announcing the start of development work.
“Hopefully, the center will be the beginning of the end of our childcare desert,” said Morrill, who is also manager of Chestnut Management LLC, which is developing the center in cooperation with Head Start and the city of Florence.
The center is part of the mixed-use Elm Park development that the Florence Planning Commission approved in April. Site work on the apartments started last week; work on the childcare center is expected to start in November and be completed in August 2026. Morrill said.
The apartment project will have 32 mostly two- and three-bedroom units serving families with incomes between 30 percent and 60 percent of the area median income.
Morrill said that when he approached the city of Florence about the apartment project, they also asked about trying to include a childcare center in the development.
“Part of the discussion was how badly Florence needed childcare,” Morrill told Lincoln Chronicle. So he began a search and found Head Start of Lane County.
“I just called them up and said “Hey, this is what we’re trying to do’,” Morrill said.
Head Start executive director Charleen Strauch said the organization “is thrilled to be a part of this collaborative journey as a key partner in the co-location project providing preschool/day care and affordable housing in Florence.”
A jigsaw puzzle of financing
Morrill called locating the center with affordable housing “a huge challenge on many levels.”
“It’s been a real challenge,” he said. “It hasn’t been done before on a scale like this. But it can’t be done without subsidies because low-income childcare centers can’t afford market rents for the space.”
The financing for both projects looks like an almost-completed jigsaw puzzle.
BuildUp Oregon, which is an offshoot of a state housing agency to encourage childcare development, has committed $1.43 million in grant and loans for the center. Another $2 million is coming from Business Oregon’s childcare infrastructure fund. The city of Florence owns the property and has agreed to reduce its purchase price by $53,250 once the center is operational, Morrill said.
But Morrill said community support is needed to raise an additional $300,000 to help complete the center’s funding. PeaceHealth Peace Harbor Medical Center has contributed $25,000 and has pledged additional funds to the project, he said, and Onward Eugene has donated $7,500. The center needs to raise another $205,000 from large businesses and $70,000 from individuals and small businesses.
Oregon Housing and Community Services is providing an $11.83 million 30-year, zero-interest loan for the $15 million Florence apartment project. Banner Bank is providing a $2 million construction loan and a $1.85 million 35-year, low-interest permanent loan through the Oregon Affordable Housing Tax Credit program. Our Coastal Village has committed $1.25 million to the project, Morrill said, and the city will reduce the land’s purchase price by $199,500 once the apartments are in service.
The city has plans to construct streets and utilities in the neighborhood for future residential development using a $1.9 million infrastructure appropriation from the 2024 Legislature.
Our Coastal Village completed its first Florence project, the 24-unit Oak Manor Apartments, last year. In Yachats, it developed the 21-unit Fisterra Townhome apartments, which opened in 2019, the seven-unit Aqua Vista Square apartments, completed in 2013, and years earlier sold the site that was then developed into the 25-unit Fisterra Gardens.
