The Medford City Council Thursday night unanimously approved a 10-year property tax waiver on a 372-unit, middle-income housing project next to the Northgate Marketplace.

The apartments are designed to provide housing for teachers, firefighters, auto mechanics, police officers and others starting their careers, said Blake Gesik, investment manager with the developer, Gladstone-based Creations Northwest.

His company asked the city if it could participate in a pilot project that would waive property taxes on the project for 10 years to help with the financing of Northgate Village apartments.

The waiver would mean up to $2.7 million less in property taxes for the city.

With a price tag of up to $80 million, the project is one of the largest apartment complexes in the history of Medford, and will offer studios and one- and two-bedroom units, starting at around $1,200.

“We’re looking for anything we can get to make this happen,” Gesik said.

Creations Northwest has already spent $6 million on site preparation, removing 20 feet of soil from 1 acre of the 14-acre site because of contamination issues from a former mill operation.

“A lot of material was removed from that site,” Gesik said.

Construction of the first phase of the apartment complex is expected to start in June, with completion anticipated in September 2024.

Gesik said it’s a lot tougher to get loans for projects like this, noting that his company is putting 40% to 50% down on the project cost.

He has previously called Northgate Village a flagship project, and his company has been on the lookout for other properties in the city for future development.

Northgate Village will have 21 structures for the apartment complex, club house, play and sports area, as well as garages. It will be built just south of Northgate Marketplace and roughly bounded by McAndrews Road, North Central Avenue and Court Street.

Rents are expected to be $1,200 for a studio apartment, $1,300 for a one-bedroom and $1,750 for a two-bedroom.

The median income for a two-person household in the Medford area is $61,125, according to the city.

Matt Brinkley, planning director, said the city would abate the property taxes for 10 years, but would still collect $1.5 million in utility fees from the apartment complex.

The total economic benefit of the development to the community, including taxes, system development charges and other fees, would be $32 million over 50 years, Brinkley said.

While the council approved the Northgate Village project for the property tax abatement, it will come back to the council for final approval when each of the two phases of the project are completed.

The tax abatement program was approved by the council last year and is available for up to 200 units a year for a total of 600 units. The Northgate Village project is the first to get approved for the abatement.

In the past few years, the city has seen a number of affordable housing projects get off the ground thanks to various grants and other incentives available to lower-income housing.

But the lack of middle-income housing has been more difficult to attract because of the lack of grants or other incentives to make the projects profitable for developers.

As a result, the City Council created its own incentive to waive property taxes for up to 10 years to attract more middle-income types of projects.

“This type of inventory is a big part of the solution to our housing issue,” Councilor Tim D’Alessandro said.