The Flats on Broad & Gould

Finance Fund engaged DAC to design 23 permanently affordable condominiums on a long-vacant site at the southeast corner of East Broad Street and South Gould Road.

Unlike a typical affordable rental development, the project is structured to create individual homeownership opportunities while preserving affordability for future buyers. The condominium and community land trust structure added another layer to the design process, requiring the building, the site, and the individual units to work within both the affordability goals and the development constraints.

DAC worked with Finance Fund from early planning and preliminary concepts through architectural and interior design.

The design fits a demanding program into a four-story, 38,000-square-foot envelope: 23 two- and three-bedroom condominiums ranging from roughly 950 to 1,300 square feet, parking on the first level, a community room, and a fitness room. Family-sized units, structured parking, and shared amenities compete for the same floor area, and resolving that competition within an affordable construction budget drove the building's configuration.

Unit layouts and shared spaces were developed to make efficient use of the building while creating homes intended for individual ownership rather than rental occupancy.

The Flats on Broad & Gould will create 23 new opportunities for homeownership while preserving the affordability of those homes for future buyers. Under the community land trust model, buyers own their homes while the Central Ohio Community Land Trust continues to own the land beneath them. When an owner sells, the home goes to another income-qualified buyer at an affordable price, so residents build equity without the unit leaving the affordable stock. Homes are targeted at about $200,000 for income-qualified buyers.

For the project team, that meant designing more than an affordable multifamily building. The building had to function as 23 individually owned homes within a shared vertical condominium structure while supporting the long-term affordability goals behind the development.