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It’s going to cost to build 148 apartments for struggling families and small households in the former Naval Air Station barracks in Magnuson Park. That’s a little less than $500,000 per unit.

If all affordable housing cost that much, it would prove difficult to build enough for everyone who needs it.

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Roger Valdez, director of Smart Growth Seattle, explains that the Magnuson Park project headed by Mercy Housing Northwest is complicated.

“It is not going to be easy to pull off whether they were a market-rate producer or a non-profit,” he explained.

When you look at the sources of funding, which includes the city, state, private philanthropy, and tax credits, just getting that money can be an expense in itself.

“Part of the reason that these projects are expensive is you have to spend money to get money,” Valdez said. “A lot of complicated strings attached to that money which can drive up the price.”

But for $73 million, ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Radio’s Dave Ross argues, you could build a hotel, tax it, and use that money to build even more housing for homeless people and struggling families.

Valdez says that, given the right location, a developer could build three to four small apartments — not family units — for $500,000; the cost of one unit within the Magnuson Park project.

The project, known as Building 9, will include 32 studio, 47 one-bedroom, 60 two-bedroom, and nine three-bedroom apartments. A description of the project explains it will be “adaptive reuse” of the currently vacant building. It is expected to be complete by summer 2018.

Listen to the entire conversation here.