PORT TOWNSEND — Ground has been broken on Quimper Village, a cohousing unit for seniors, the only one of its kind in Jefferson County — and, organizers say, the first in the state.
The first dirt was turned July 14 for the estimated $10 million development on a 6-acre site near F Street and San Juan Avenue in Port Townsend.
Pat Hundhausen — who conceived of the project with her husband, David Hundhausen, who is now the executive of the project — broke the Quimper Village soil with a golden shovel provided by the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce, the group said in a news release issued Friday.
“The dream is becoming a reality,” David Hundhausen said after Port Townsend Deputy Mayor Katharine Robinson led the more than 100 attendees in a champagne toast.
Next summer
Construction is expected to be completed by the summer of 2017.
Of the 28 units, 24 have been sold, the news release said.
The development will be in a T-shape. It includes a narrow area with a road lined with parking, garages, a garden shed and a workshop.
That will lead to a wider area with a common building for group activities surrounded by 28 cottage-style, single-story homes attached in groups of three and four.
The price range is $297,000 for a 910-square-foot, two-bedroom, one-bath unit to $425,000 for a 1337-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bath unit, David Hundhausen said.
To buy homes, people must become members of Townsend Meadows Cooperative. The cost of becoming a full associate is 22 percent of the cost of the home — an amount that counts toward the down payment of the home.
Officials from the city of Port Townsend and the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce attended the groundbreaking ceremony.
Cost of construction
Hundhausen told the group that construction alone will cost over $7 million.
The group is negotiating a bank loan, it says on its website at www.quimpervillage.com.
David and Pat Hundhausen conceived of the idea of a cooperative living for those 55 and older in late 2013 when they discussed with a group of friends how and where they wanted to live their senior years.
“Not in one of those big corporate-owned retirement communities,” Pat Hundhausen is quoted as saying, “but rather in a village constructed to the members’ own tastes and controlled by them.”
Membership has grown from an original group of five households.
Port Townsend Hearing Examiner Phil Olbrecht approved the 28-unit adult co-housing project in December.
Chuck Durrett, who along with his wife, Katie McCamant, brought cohousing to the United States, was the design architect. Port Townsend architect Richard Berg has been responsible for the construction drawings.
Design and development costs have been covered by the group’s members.
Fairbank Construction of Bainbridge is the contractor. Much of the work will be done by local subcontractors, Hundhausen said.
For more information, see www.quimpervillage.com.
