Hayden-based developer and contractor Whitewater Creek Inc. plans to erect a $12.5 million, 114-unit apartment complex in the Southgate neighborhood on the upper South Hill, a funding request and preliminary planning documents filed respectively with state and local agencies show.

Whitewater Creek couldn’t be reached immediately for comment.

The site for the proposed low-income housing development is a 4-acre, triangular-shaped parcel of land along the Palouse Highway abutting the east edge of Target store at Regal Plaza, a predevelopment application and conceptual site plans recently submitted to the city of Spokane show.

Predevelopment is an optional phase of a project that a developer can submit to start the city’s planning process.

Whitewater Creek proposes constructing five three-story apartment buildings, four of which would have 23 apartment units and the other would have 22 units, the site plans show.

The project also would include a 2,300-square-foot, single-story commons building with adjacent play areas.

Whitewater Creek would act as the contractor on the project, and ZBA Architecture PS, of Spokane, is designing it.

The developer proposes starting construction this fall and completing the project in 2016, the application says.

Meantime, Whitewater Creek is seeking $1.1 million in low-income housing tax credits, according to the Washington State Housing Finance Commission, which is reviewing the request. Affordable-housing developers sell tax credits to help raise capital for such projects.

At least 46 of the living units in the apartment complex would be targeted toward households earning less than 30 percent of the average median household income, which is $19,350 for a family of four in Spokane County, the commission’s developer chart for its 2015 housing tax credit program shows. The rest of the units would be targeted at residents earning less than 50 percent of the median household income, or $32,250 for a family of four.

While all of the units would be for low-income residents, the chart also shows that 23 of the units would be set aside for large households.

The commission defines a large household as having four or more residents occupying at least three bedrooms.

The project also would set aside 23 units for residents with disabilities, the chart shows.

The city’s predevelopment application information says Palouse Trails would have 30 three-bedroom units, each with 1,200 square feet of living space; 70 two-bedroom units, each would have 1,000 square feet of space; and 14 one-bedroom units, each would have 700 square feet of space.

The Palouse Trails project site is about a half mile north of two other low-income apartment complexes Whitewater Creek has constructed recently. Those complexes are the 120-unit Summit Ridge Apartments, at 3307 E. 55th, and the neighboring 120-unit Pine Rock apartments, at 3211 E. 55th.