With a couple million acres of land available for the taking, settlers lined up by the tens of thousands at the territorial line on April 22, 1889. At high noon they charged in by the wagonload to stake their claim; by the end of the day, whole towns had sprung up from the very dirt, and thus was settled the great state of Oklahoma.

While somewhat smaller in scale – we’re talking four new condos, not whole swaths of vacant land in an untamed continent – there’s a certain epic quality to the pending sale of a handful of below-market residential units by the Housing Resources Board. Interest is sure to be high – are you kidding? – and HRB Executive Director Carl Florea concedes that it may come down to a lottery drawing if enough qualified applicants get their forms in at the same time.

As reported Saturday, HRB and the gentlemen behind Vineyard Lane have teamed up to make four of the development’s 45 units available as below-market-rate housing – not just at the point of sale, but in perpetuity. The homes in the luxury project in east Winslow will be priced at $220,000-$270,000; the arrangement will put them within reach of a individuals or families in the $48,000-$58,000 per year salary range. Not exactly low income, but nonetheless working-professional salaries that would in other circumstances be well below what it takes to get into the Bainbridge real estate market. Maybe a teacher. Maybe a cop. Maybe someone else who provides essential services in our island community and wants to build up some equity, but has been priced out of the local market.

It’s an exciting program, but in our reportage one key aspect was badly explained having to do with long-term ownership of the condo units. Simply put: it’s allowed. We thought that was implicit, but should set the record straight here.

First, get your application in and get into one of the homes. Then, 10 years from now, you’ll have a choice:

A) Sell the condo to the city’s housing trust or an income-qualified buyer, take your equity and move up in the market

– or (and this is where we misspoke) –

B) secure conventional financing, and stay put.

So no, at the end of 10 years, HRB won’t come along and kick you out of your home. You will, though, have to finance the balance through a new lender. “They are buying the house, and can keep it as long as any other homebuyer (contingent on financing and keeping up with payments),” Carl notes. “They can even pass it to their heirs like any other home owner – they just can’t pass it on to others outside the family or sell it for whatever the market will allow.”

One of the intriguing aspects of this deal is that there is no real public subsidy involved. The four units were made available by developers Bill Carruthers and Andrew Lonseth to HRB at a significant discount, with the purchase financed by a private investor (an “angel” in the parlance) at low interest. While it’s by no means prototypical – community housing typically comes in at lower price points – Carl Florea hopes this “workforce housing opportunity” is the first of many more on Bainbridge.

In the meantime, there are four nice condos to sell, and an orientation for prospective buyers will be held April 12. To attend, call the HRB at 842-1909 for time and location.

It’s no Oklahoma land rush, but we suspect there will be some demand.