Private builders and property owners are developing needed housing in Anchorage after the Assembly cut taxes on qualifying housing and loosened land-use rules that developers said made projects uneconomic. Officials describe a citywide shortage across housing types. The response has been targeted tax exemptions and Title 21 revisions meant to let private capital move.
Debenham LLC is adding 58 market-rate rental townhomes in Southwest Anchorage near Raspberry Road and Northwood Street, with completion expected in fall 2027. Owner Shaun Debenham said the firm already knew the site from an adjacent apartment community. The two biggest obstacles were project economics and Title 21. Feasibility improved after the Assembly adopted a property-tax abatement for new housing and removed regulatory obstacles in the land-use code. “Adding new housing inventory gives Anchorage residents more choices and helps address the broader shortage of available housing in the city,” he said. He still wants faster, more predictable permitting, arguing delay itself is a cost.
“There is still significant opportunity to make housing development easier and more predictable in Anchorage,” stated Debenham. “Additional modernization of the land use code would help eliminate unnecessary barriers and provide developers with greater certainty. The permitting and review process could also be simplified and accelerated. Time and uncertainty add substantial costs to housing projects, so a clearer, faster, and more predictable process would make it easier for the private sector to deliver more housing.”
On April 22, 2025, the Assembly approved AO 2025-35(S-1), rewriting incentives for multifamily buildings of eight or more units. New residential units get a 20-year baseline property-tax exemption, extendable to 28 years based on location and other criteria. Debenham said that abatement, plus Title 21 changes, moved Raspberry Townhomes from a project that struggled on paper to one that could proceed.
In Spenard, Eight Stars Enterprises owner Jesse Janssen bought a vacant building the city had shut down after repeated police calls. He described it as a drug den and crash pad with more than $500,000 in fines. Occupants broke in, tunneled into the boiler room, and stripped copper. After months of security and a rebuild to the studs—including new plumbing and boilers—the private renovation will deliver eight housing units and two commercial spaces. Janssen said tax relief decided the deal: the city abated prior penalties and offered a rehabilitation incentive. “We would not have bought this building,” he said, without those Assembly decisions. On August 12, 2025, AO 2025-84(S) created a 10-year tax exemption for renovations of vacant and abandoned properties registered with the municipality. Janssen is also advancing 39 workforce units on Dimond Boulevard. “The city means business about housing right now,” he said. “Pick up the phone… re-run your numbers with the incentives.”
St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, a private congregation, is planning workforce housing on nine acres of its 19-acre campus at Tudor Road and Lake Otis Parkway—one of the largest developable residential tracts in central Anchorage—for up to 120 families. Costs are estimated near $50 million. Trinity Church Wall Street provided $200,000 in pre-development grants. The vestry would lease the land long-term to a developer-operator. The church is working with the Anchorage Community Development Authority as a showcase. Co-chair Duane Heyman said success would house 120 families and show other Alaska faith communities how surplus private land can produce housing and income.
In total, 186 living units and 2 commercial spaces are being developed by these three entities. Anchorage needs an estimated 9,600 housing units built or renovated over the next 10 years. Government decisions to get out of the way and incentivize private development has aided Anchorage toward reaching that goal.
