Groundbreakings typically mark the beginning of something — a new project, the start of a new development. In the Issaquah Highlands on Monday afternoon, dozens of officials and interested citizens braved the bitter cold to mark the beginning of construction of the YWCA’s community village and affordable housing project.

But in many ways the groundbreaking marked an ending, the culmination of many years of wrangling and negotiating between the City of Issaquah, Highlands developer Port Blakely, and a number of non-profit groups in the state. It resulted in what is heralded as a remarkable project that far exceeds the modest aims of many affordable housing initiatives.

A feature of the YWCA units if that they will be made available to families earning 50 percent of the King County median income and below, an ambitious challenge for developers still driven by market pressures to make enough money from selling the buildings to, at the very least, cover their costs.

For this reason, affordable housing providers are typically forced to build and market homes for families earning around 80 percent of the county’s median income, to be able to set a sale price that will recoup at least part of their investment.

So, how did the YWCA do it? Turns out, much of the credit goes to the City of Issaquah, particularly staff members Keith Niven and Brad Liljequist, for their determination to see truly affordable housing in the Highlands.

They spent many months during 2004 and 2005 negotiating what would be the called “The Block 9 Deal,” with Port Blakely honchos such as Judd Kirk.

Block 9 is the section of land midway between the Highlands Park and Ride and Cafe Ladro, at the northeast corner of NE High Street and Highlands Drive NE.

The end result of The Block 9 Deal was that Port Blakely agreed to give to city the approximately 3 acre parcel, worth then about $6 million, for nothing. Well, $1.

The city had earlier insisted on the provision of a certain amount of affordable housing in the Highlands, but there was a clause in place for Block 9 that if a suitable affording housing project deal couldn’t be struck in 5 years, Blakely could take the land and develop it at market rates.

After a year or so it became clear that Port Blakely wasn’t going to get the kind of affordable housing project the city wanted – the economics just didn’t work out.

“When we were doing this, we were on the boom side of the economy, and so the cost of the land was a significant part,” Niven said. They talked to YWCA and to Bennett Homes, but with the cost of the land factored in these groups couldn’t build anything significantly below market rates.

Legend has it, after yet another failed pitch, YWCA CEO Sue Sherbrooke said to Judd Kirk, “you give us the land for free, and we’ll build it.”

“We had to change the game,” Niven recalled. And change it they did. “Local governments don’t often have a lot of money to barter with, but we do have things on paper. So we tried to put up enough beads, to say to Port Blakely, we’ll give you this and this, if you’ll give us the land.”

So, what were the beads? We may never know.

“There was a bit of ‘back room’ stuff,” one city staff member said.

As I started looking into it, staff and some councilors developed strangely poor memories, staff deferred my questions to the city executive, Mayor Frisinger didn’t return my calls, the executive deferred me back to city staff. And then there was the case of the missing meeting minutes…

In the end City Administrator Leon Kos showed me the official record of The Block 9 Deal, which said that what Port Blakely would get in return for the land was exemption from affordable housing requirements elsewhere on the Highlands. It was also recorded that any residential units built on Block 9 would not count against density limits on the total Port Blakely development.

Was that really worth $6 million? Probably not. It is not hard to imagine there were some other sweeteners in there, worked out in those back room meetings, behind closed doors. Developers are not famed for their willingness to drop cash, just for the goodwill.

But, in this case, perhaps the ends justify the means? The YWCA development is a remarkable victory for the community, and testimony to the will of Niven and others to build something unique and truly valuable in Issaquah.

The inclusion of a subsidized day care center for working parents, a community recreation space, and programs in job training and computer education, will make the YWCA a strong center of community, diversity and neighborhood, in an area still finding its feet, and its soul.

This is a great example of a public/private partnership. With any luck the City of Sammamish, its Town Center plan still on the drawing board, is paying attention.