In July, Nancy Schultz sold her home in Battle Ground, moved into a Vancouver rental apartment and began looking for the perfect home within walking distance to downtown. The retired attorney knew exactly what she wanted: an old house, full of charm but recently renovated to minimize upkeep.
So when her Realtor, Ryan LaPointe, called and suggested she look at a brand-new home that was technically defined as a condominium, Schultz resisted.
Last month, after a full-priced offer and an abbreviated escrow period, she moved into one of what local experts say is the first of its kind near downtown Vancouver: A collection of three single-family homes squeezed onto one 5,500 square-foot lot on West 16th Street between Lincoln and Markle avenues.
The arrangement is more common in Portland, where high demand and skyrocketing housing prices are leading to dense infill development, especially close to the city core. But it remains a rarity in Vancouver.
The development, dubbed “LoHo Place,” after its location on the southern edge of the Hough neighborhood, is the product of a husband and wife team, designer Dana Harroun and builder Jack Harroun.
The Harrouns think the Hough neighborhood could soon see more of the dense housing options found in Portland’s close-in east side neighborhoods.
The couple took a gamble in July 2013 when they bought the lot, which sits one block north of West Mill Plain Boulevard. It was zoned for what Jack Harroun described as “almost anything except a single-family home.”
The Harrouns’ business has two sides. They design and build high-end custom homes. They also invest their own money in urban redevelopment within Vancouver.
For the last two-and-a-half years, Jack Harroun said the second part of his business has all happened within 400 feet of his front door, primarily in renovating old houses. “For our personal investment stuff, I really like to invest where I live,” he said.
The Harrouns faced an unusual incentive to develop this particular lot: They live about 300 feet from it.
“I didn’t want another multiplex rental right next to my house,” Jack Harroun said.
So he started meeting with city planners to learn more about his options for the vacant lot. He also looked into unorthodox versions of infill development in fast-growing cities such as Portland and Seattle.
His first idea was to build row houses. The lot could easily accommodate five attached homes, he said. But the couple was concerned that homebuyers would shy away from such high density.
“We weren’t 100 percent sure how the market would respond to attached housing,” Jack Harroun said.
Instead, they compromised: Three separate houses, each with a tuck-under garage and small fenced yard. Their development plan met the definition of a condominium, even though the homes were 10 feet apart from one another.
“Condominium is a legal description, not a physical description,” Jack Harroun said.
The condominium designation freed the designers from some of the usual setback requirements of new subdivisions. Still, squeezing three full-sized homes onto a 5,500 square-foot lot was a new challenge for the Harrouns.
“When we do custom homes, often I will pave over 5,500 square feet just to get into the place,” Jack Harroun said with a laugh.
The couple’s plan was for the homes to have different layouts and unique details. Each house has three bedrooms and totals about 1,700 square feet. Each home has a small front porch and an oversized single car garage, which means it fits a full-sized SUV and still has room for bike and kayak storage.
Harroun said he knew that feature would appeal to buyers, as functional garages are unusual in the old homes that mainly surround downtown Vancouver.
The yards are small, about 15 feet by 20 feet. But that’s enough for a grill, a few chairs and some grass for a dog, Harroun said.
The city approved the plans, and the Harrouns broke ground in March. The homes were completed in October. The first one sold the day it was listed. Three weeks later, the other two houses were also sold, each for $350,000.
One of the buyers was Schultz, who retired from her career as a public defender in Fresno, Calif., and moved to rural Battle Ground before deciding that she missed city life and wanted to live within walking distance of downtown Vancouver.
Schultz said she never pictured herself living in a newly constructed building, but the Harrouns added details that satisfied her desire for a unique space. Her bathrooms are tiled in old-fashioned subway and penny patterns. In her foyer, vintage mailboxes provide built-in storage for leashes, bags, and other odds and ends.
“It’s the most beautiful, well-constructed house I have ever lived in in my life,” she said. “And I can walk anywhere I want to go.”
As part of the condominium rules, Schultz and her two neighbors will have to form an owners’ association, complete with elected officers. “It seems a little silly, with just three households,” she said.
Currently, the owners are responsible for maintaining their own homes, but must pay monthly dues to cover landscape maintenance and a master insurance policy for the shared property. Jack Harroun added that the owners have the freedom to change the terms of their condominium association if they so choose.
Less than two weeks after moving in, Schultz had already taken advantage of living so close to her home’s builder. The water in her shower wasn’t hot enough for her taste, so she left a note on Harroun’s door, she said. “Not five minutes later, he came running down the street with the note in his hand,” she said. “He called the plumber and… got it fixed.”
The Harrouns said they hope their next redevelopment project will be brownstone-style rowhouses, like they originally considered for this lot.
“I think if we do them and we do them well, it will work, even though it’s higher density than (downtown Vancouver) is used to,” he said.
But first the couple has to find a place to build them. And for most lots in Vancouver, zoning prohibits the kind of high density that the Harrouns would like to see near downtown.
“There’s only so much land in the urban core,” Jack Harroun said. “And to really maximize livability, we need to look at other ways to (zone and) build it … What I guess I’m most excited about (with LoHo Place) is that what would have normally taken three city lots took one. And people’s lifestyle didn’t change.”
