Damage Controlman 2nd Class Makio James and his wife Jualynn were all smiles as they carefully inspected a new house built for junior enlisted Sailors and their families at the Navy’s newest Public Private Venture (PPV) housing development in the city of Lake Stevens. 

The James family was taking advantage of an open house Sunday afternoon designed to encourage potential tenants to see the kind of housing that will shortly become available.

The development, located about 10 miles east of Naval Station Everett, will consist of 144 units when completed early next year and will house mostly Navy personnel assigned to the Everett base and its tenant commands.

The junior enlisted housing will be completed first and families will begin moving by Aug. 27. The first to move will be those families currently living in housing on the Ft Lawton military reservation in the Magnolia neighborhood in Seattle.

“Not only is this a great house, but my current one-hour or more commute to work will go away,” said James, who is assigned to the frigate USS Rodney M. Davis.  “Living here will really make my life better, and I’ll be able to spend more time with the family.”

The high-quality housing now becoming available to Navy families around the Puget Sound is made possible by the Department of Defense’s Military Housing Privatization Initiative (MHPI). Here the Navy partners with a real estate developer and the resulting corporate entity is able to raise funding in the private sector and build new housing faster and of better quality than would be possible using military construction (MILCON) congressional funding.

The Navy’s partner in the Puget Sound area, Forest City Military Communities Northwest, is comprised of 2,965 homes spread across three geographic areas - West, East, and North Sounds. Unlike other bases in the area, Everett never has had on-base housing, and this and previous PPV housing have been located out in the communities surrounding the base.

“We have a real advantage here with our great relationship with our civilian neighbors,” said Capt Thomas Mascolo, commanding officer of Naval Station Everett. “Both Everett and Marysville have been extremely supportive of the military families in their midst, and Lake Stevens will be no different,” Mascolo continued.

Forest City is now accepting applications for the new housing from Naval Station active duty families.