A rendering of the proposed affordable housing units at Arlington Mill on Columbia Pike. (Courtesy APAH.)

A new affordable housing project on Columbia Pike appears to be back on track after financing for it collapsed in 2008. Arlington County has chosen the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing to develop the $30 million project, which will include 122 affordable rental apartments adjacent to the new Arlington Mill community center.

The project will be built on one acre of county property, and will not require additional funding from the county if all goes according to plan, says APAH President and CEO Nina Janopaul. The nonprofit housing developer plans to seek financing through low income housing tax credits and mortgage financing.

“We’re trying to set it up so that it would have very little county money, and maybe none,” says Janopaul. Construction is expected to begin in early 2012.

The Arlington Mill site has been in turmoil for several years. A private developer, the Public Private Alliance, was originally planning to build a mixed market rate and affordable housing project along with a planned community center at the site.

The partnership couldn’t secure financing once the economy crashed, however, and Arlington County decided to move forward with the community center piece late in 2009. Then, in July, Arlington began seeking proposals for the housing piece.

APAH, which is also spearheading The Views at Clarendon affordable housing project, is working with Paradigm Management as its general contractor and property manager, and KGD Architecture in Arlington on the design. The group still has to work out a lease agreement with Arlington for the land where the housing will be built and pursue changes to the previously approved Arlington Mill housing plan.

Arlington Mill will include 80 percent family units, which means two- or three-bedroom apartments. The majority of the housing will be affordable to moderate-income tenants (families of four making around $60,000 per year) although there will also be a low-income component to the project.

“At this property, we’ve agreed to do over 20 units that will be for people at 40 percent of the area median income,” Janopaul says. The area median income for a family of four is about $103,000.

The property will also have a playground, and some of the apartments will overlook Four Mile Run and the adjacent park and bike trails. The building was also designed to work cohesively with the community center. “We designed them to kind of be in synergy with each other,” Janopaul says. “It’s quite a delightful design.”

The new housing could be open by late 2013.