Anacortes Family Center breaks ground on four homes

ANACORTES - The Anacortes Family Center has teamed up with Strandberg Construction to build four two-story cottages on a 9,000-square-foot lot at 1311 31st St., where two small, single-family rental homes had stood until their recent demolition.

The cottages, which are expected to be move-in ready next spring, will be the first three-bedroom homes in the family center's catalogue of affordable housing in the city, which includes about 40 apartments and one single-family home.

"These cottages are totally different for the family center," the nonprofit's executive director, Dustin Johnson, told about 60 people who gathered Tuesday for the groundbreaking ceremony, noting that it's the first time the nonprofit has developed standalone, cottage-style homes.

"I think it will be a beautiful community," he said, "busy with kids that I'm excited to see grow up and flourish in Anacortes."

Located about a block from Storvik Park and bus lines that run along M Avenue, each of the roughly 1,270-square-foot cottages will have 2.5 bathrooms and a shared courtyard between them. They'll also have six parking spaces off the back alley.

The property where the homes will be built was donated to the Anacortes Family Center by Nancy Chapman before she died in 2023.

Chapman's donation came with the condition that the property be used for affordable housing.

"She just wanted to make it possible for people who work here to live here, to survive here," Dave Williams, Chapman's son, said Tuesday after he and several others scooped up sand with shovels for a groundbreaking-ceremony photo-op in front of that Anacortes property.

The family center had initially been planning to build townhouses with shared walls, but that wasn't yet allowed under city code when the nonprofit applied for permits last year, Johnson said.

"I actually think this is - from a design perspective, from a usability and a livability perspective - much better," he said.

The roughly $1.7 million project is largely paid for, Johnson said, thanks to contributions from several donors, including Chapman's close friend Suzette Richards.

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This story was originally published July 6, 2026 at 7:04 AM.