Other council members said they were a bit surprised to see Corroon, especially since he ran on an ethics reform platform and this project could at least give the appearance of a conflict.

Some council members are on the fence about whether they will approve the $850,000 loan from the city's Housing Trust Fund.

In the past, the council has supported mixed-income projects that blend market-rate units with low-income or affordable units.

Some council members are leery of concentrating too much affordable housing downtown because high concentrations sometimes bring higher crime and other negative social issues to a neighborhood.

A completely affordable apartment building may not be what city leaders want for a more lively and friendly downtown.

"It does go contrary to our new proposed housing policy of trying to not concentrate all the low-income housing in one part of town," City Councilman Dave Buhler said.

Corroon and Keating say 188 of the 200 apartment units would be available to residents who earn 60 percent of Salt Lake County's median and would have fixed rents ranging from roughly $500 for a studio to almost $900 for three-bedroom units. The other 12 units would be saved for people with even lower incomes and have lesser rents.

Corroon and Keating are partners in Urban Housing Partners LLC., which is promoting the project for Omaha-based property owners HMG Properties.

As payment for their time spent lobbying and consulting for the project, Corroon and Keating expect to become partial owners in the project.

"We are consultants at this point, but we expect to be owners in the property," Keating said.

Corroon and Keating are calling the project "work-force housing," saying it will serve the needs of lesser-paid workers like teachers, service industry personnel and even police officers. Each apartment will include its own washer and dryer, and the spiffy new flats will force other low-income projects nearby, which are generally in older deteriorating buildings, to upgrade their facilities, the consultants said.

Those upgrades would, in turn, drive up area property values, bringing a benefit to the neighborhood and putting more bodies downtown, Keating said.

"We feel like what we're building is work-force housing. It's not really directed at low-income tenants," Keating said. "Clearly there's unmet demand for this type of housing, so we're trying to build to meet that demand."

Corroon and Keating note there will be many more market-rate housing units downtown in the near future (a Redevelopment Agency condominium project is planned near 400 South on 200 East, and the LDS Church plans for some 900 units as part of its massive downtown redevelopment plan).

They didn't want to compete with those projects, so they targeted the apartments for lower-income residents.

Funding for the project was put together using tax credits that are offered for affordable-housing. Corroon told the City Council they have nowhere else to go to gain the final $850,000 needed to begin construction.

The council is expected to make a decision on the loan during the first week of April.

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E-mail: bsnyder@desnews.com