Alex Dutton and Dakota Winward dig footers for the foundation of a new apartment building Thursday morning on Veronica Lane. The complex will consist of 36 units, including nine workforce-restricted units.
Alex Dutton and Dakota Winward dig footers for the foundation of a new apartment building Thursday morning on Veronica Lane. The complex will consist of 36 units, including nine workforce-restricted units.
On two adjacent lots formerly purchased by Central Wyoming College for its Jackson campus, Pitts West Investments is planning to build housing for local workers.
While only nine units of the proposed 36-unit apartment complex on Veronica Lane will officially be workforce-restricted — a feature that allows for greater density — the builder said in its pre-application that “all the apartments are intended to house the workers of Jackson Hole.”
“With its excellent location [close] to Albertsons grocery store and the Maple Way bus stop, this is an ideal spot for a multi-family development,” the applicant said. “The sponsor has already begun discussions with the leadership team and board of St. John’s Health and intends to provide a dedicated number of units for our health care workers.”
Pitts West Investments — an LLC based in Victor, Idaho, that said it seeks to bring investors into Western mountain markets that have “a significant lack of housing for wage-earning employees” — filed its pre-application with the town of Jackson in November 2020.
Construction on the 0.63-acre property began last month. The 20,000-square-foot, three-story development will include seven two-bedroom units and 29 one-bedroom units. Most of the ground floor will be devoted to parking.
Rent will likely be market rate, which averaged $2,780 a month for a two-bedroom apartment in the fourth quarter of 2021, according to the Wyoming Economic Analysis Division.
The Veronica Lane lots have been vacant since at least 1945, the first year of flyover imaging.
Central Wyoming College wanted to build a Jackson campus there but failed to secure the necessary rezone after surrounding home and business owners launched a public offensive. The community college is now planning to build south of town next to Jackson Hole High School.
In November 2020, Willie Noseep, CWC’s vice president of administrative services, authorized Pitts West Investments to begin development plans, according to the pre-application.
The lots were sold to Crewsen West, a Delaware LLC, in February 2021, according to county GIS data. In May 2022, Crewsen West sold the lots to the current owner, Veronica Lane Apartment Group LLC, which is based in Jackson.
Apart from the Veronica Lane project and a multifamily acquisition in Missoula, Montana, Pitts West Investments, founded in 2019, has built exclusively in Teton Valley, Idaho. Its portfolio includes an apartment complex in Driggs, single-family attached homes in Victor’s Twin Slides subdivision, a modular condominium development in Driggs and The Meadows Apartments in Victor.
Tyler Valentine, senior planner for the town of Jackson, said he was encouraged by the Veronica Lane development because it represents the kind of growth the town started incentivizing in 2018.
“We’re getting more apartments, smaller size, medium size, one, two bedrooms. So that’s a good thing,” Valentine said.
Old regulations required developers of residential projects to keep about 25% of the units affordable.
Town and county elected officials changed the rules in July 2018, drastically increasing costs for commercial projects such as offices or restaurants and lowering requirements for multifamily residential projects.
The theory, Valentine said, was to “flood the market with [residential] units to hopefully try to bring down the price over time.”
Part of the equation has come true. Several high-density residential projects are currently taking shape across the valley.
So far though, prices have only increased. The average price of a two-bedroom unit increased 12.4% from the end of 2020 to the end of 2021.
“We’re slowly getting supply,” Valentine said, “but it’s just, are we ever going to really catch up?”
This article has been updated to correct the name of Pitts West Investments. — Ed.
Contact Evan Robinson-Johnson at 732-5901 or ERJ@jhnewsandguide.com.
Evan Robinson-Johnson covers issues residents face on a daily basis, from smoky skies to housing insecurity. Originally from New England, he has settled in east Jackson and avoids crowds by rollerblading through the alleyways.
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This is the right place for this kind of development. Leave the rest of the valley alone.
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