I've been wanting to cover this story for a while now. Those who have passed through Spenard over the last year may have noticed that a multi-building project has been underway at the corner of Spenard Road and 36th Avenue as well as alongside Chugach Way. The three buildings under construction are to make up what will be known as Ch'bala Corners, an affordable residential development that will feature multifamily and senior housing. Two of the buildings that will be fronting Spenard Road and Chugach Way will be three stories high and contain a combined 40 rental units. A third building that is also located on Chugach Way, a once seedy side street, will be two stories and contain eight units. The buildings will open in phases, with all three expected to be open for residents by the end of July. As can be seen in the image above, Ch'bala Corners (left) replaces a used-car lot and an abandoned mechanic shop.
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| Looking west from 36th Avenue. |
It's pleasing to see how the design of this project came out, and on a larger scale, it's pleasing to see the trajectory that this part of Spenard has taken in recent years. Regarding Ch'bala Corners — formerly known as Spenard East — the buildings are placed alongside Spenard Road, 36th Avenue, and Chugach Way, with surface parking and parkland located in the rear from which the buildings will somewhat wrap around. The first building that rose last year sits at the corner of Spenard Road and 36th Avenue. With the corner of the building meeting two busy thoroughfares, it would be great to see a greengrocer or some sort of retail space occupy that portion of the building. Unfortunately, it appears none of the buildings making up the Ch'bala Corners project will be mixed-use. I have read before that Cook Inlet Housing Authority, the non-profit group behind this project, has had trouble with signing retail tenants to its other mixed-use properties in Mountain View and Muldoon. But overall, the design of Ch'bala Corners is nonetheless an improvement when compared to Cook Inlet Housing's previous high-profile project, 3600 Spenard, which disappointingly fronts Spenard Road with a parking lot in the front. That said, having a new apartment building along Spenard Road that is single use with no retail at ground level is going to make for an awkward and bizarre site. It's quite unfortunate.
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| Ch'bala Corners as seen from Chugach Way. |
As alluded to earlier, the Ch'bala Corners development marks the latest in a string of projects along Spenard Road that is giving the area a new identity and sense of place while also providing Anchorage with rental units that are badly needed. Cook Inlet Housing closed the previous decade with the opening of 3600 Spenard, a three-story mixed-use residential building that sits opposite to Ch'bala Corners. The non-profit group then went on to open ThirteenTen West 32nd, a three-story apartment building that sits just off Spenard Road on—you guessed it—West 32nd Avenue. Outside of downtown, I cannot think of a better location for these new developments other than Spenard. For more than a decade, Cook Inlet Housing has been focusing on building affordable units in Mountain View and Muldoon, but those neighborhoods are located in the far-flung corners of the city. Mountain View itself is cutoff from the rest of the city due to the Glenn Highway. In contrast, Spenard sits between downtown, midtown, and the airport. The Spenard neighborhood also carries a cultural cachet and identity that no other neighborhood in Anchorage has been able to match, particularly among the bohemian crowd. It's obviously no match to Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood, but for Anchorage standards, it's a destination with character that is worthy of more housing. Going forward, the city should seek ways to spur private market-rate housing in Spenard, so as to not rely solely on public housing initiatives.
