Photo: Workforce housing at The Farm in Buena Vista, Colorado, built by Fading West Building Systems.
This week, Colorado Governor Jared Polis, the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT), and Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA) announced funding to support the growth of eight modular housing manufacturers across Colorado. Collectively, these manufacturers are projected to create 4,755 housing units per year.
“Colorado needs more housing now, and these manufacturers will help us build over 4,700 more units per year so more people can live closer to the jobs and the communities they love. This is an important part of our work to increase Colorado’s housing supply and make sure our state has nice housing for every budget,” said Gov. Polis.
The funding awarded today includes loans made possible through the Innovative Housing Incentive Program (IHIP) and the Proposition 123 Affordable Housing Financing Fund. Both programs offer low cost financing options for innovative housing manufacturing facilities, including panelized, tiny homes, kit homes, and offsite 3D-printed homes. The awards will support three Colorado-based housing manufacturers that also participated in the IHIP grant program, two Colorado startups, and three companies successfully recruited from out of state. Collectively, the companies are projected to create 1,280 jobs.
“Colorado is developing new and innovative ways to increase the housing supply across the state, which is one way to help bring down housing costs. By creating new jobs and new housing units across the state, the factory development loans announced today will grow an important Colorado industry while continuing to diversify and strengthen our economy,” said Eve Lieberman, OEDIT Executive Director.
Loan recipients were selected based on evaluation criteria, including the projected number of total units produced per year, as well as estimated number of affordable units produced per year, size of the request, economic impact or jobs created, applicant experience and track record, and readiness to proceed/estimated date to produce units.
“Innovation is key to addressing Colorado’s housing affordability challenges, and these investments support organizations leveraging forward-thinking approaches to meeting this challenge,” said Cris White, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of CHFA. “The funding will bolster employment opportunities as well as a pipeline of affordable housing, providing more Coloradans with the opportunity to thrive.”
The eight recipients announced today include:
Adoba Design – Pueblo – $4 million (Proposition 123)
Adoba expects to build 370 units per year using a panelized production and building information modeling (BIM) software to streamline operations, with an emphasis on doing well while doing good.
Azure Printed Homes – Denver – $3,898,000 (Proposition 123)
Azure is the first company to print complete prefab small homes using primarily recycled plastic polymer materials with a patented 3D printing process. Projected to create 352 units per year, the company’s printing process can be transferred to small pop-up facilities where they create multiple units close to their destination.
Fading West – Buena Vista – $2 million in cash collateral support to enable private bank lending (Proposition 123)
Fading West produces modular housing in a controlled manufacturing environment that allows the company to build a two-story home in as little as 18 days, with site work completed at the same time. This can reduce overall project timelines by as much as 50% with cost savings up to 20% when compared to traditional site-built homes. The company projects it will create approximately 450 units per year for the next couple of years, and was previously awarded an IHIP grant up to $1.4 million.
Guerdon – Location to Be Determined – $8.5 million (IHIP)
Guerdon is a leading off-site producer of large scale, multifamily housing and commercial buildings in the United States. Over the past 18 years, the company has constructed over 14 million square feet of buildings (17,000+ modules) for housing and hospitality projects across the Western United States, Canada, and Alaska. In Colorado, the company expects to produce 665 housing units per year.
Huron Components – Metro Denver – $7.2 million (IHIP), $800,000 (Proposition 123)
Huron Components builds panelized framing and floors for multi-family rental housing projects on the Front Range. Huron’s panels are minimally finished which allows for a significant number of homes to be constructed in their factory space. The savings and efficiencies also make the company a good partner for affordable housing developers. With this funding, the company expects to produce 2,000 units per year. It was previously awarded an IHIP grant of up to $1.3 million.
Timber Age Systems – Durango (factory to be built in Mancos) – $3.8 million (Proposition 123)
Timber Age Systems manufactures panelized homes using timber harvested responsibly from wildfire-prone forests in the Durango area. The timber is milled and manufactured into cross-laminated timber panels and the homes are built to Passive House specifications using all natural materials. The company expects to produce 122 units per year, and was previously awarded an IHIP grant of up to $680,000.
Vederra – Aurora – $2.5 million (IHIP), $3.5 million in cash collateral support to enable private bank lending (Proposition 123)
A Colorado startup, Vederra Building Systems will provide low-cost, energy-efficient, modular solutions to affordable housing providers in Colorado. The factory is projected to build over 500,000 square feet of housing, or 316 units annually, supporting $45 million in locally sourced building materials and $138 million of annual economic output.
VillaLife – Florence – $1.8 million (IHIP)
Also a Colorado startup, VillaLife will install and operate a Colorado manufacturing facility that will produce 480 units annually ranging in size from 300 to 1,200 square feet and using reclaimed steel and structural insulated panels.
“It’s an honor to be selected to partner with the State of Colorado as part of their Innovative Housing Incentive Program,” said Ross Maguire, Co-Founder and CEO at Azure Printed Homes. “We look forward to robotically 3D printing our homes all year round in our uniquely efficient and sustainable way to make affordable housing a reality for more Coloradans, creating a more sustainable future for the state.”
“As a small business intent on elevating the communities in which we live, work, serve and play, Timber Age depends on collaboration,” said Kyle Hanson, founder and CEO of Timber Age. “The Proposition 123 funds are a great example of how public-private partnership can quickly accelerate the manufacturing and delivery of attainable, sustainable, and high-performance housing while creating a replicable model for healthier communities across Colorado.”
A total of $38 million has been awarded, with $20 million from IHIP and $18 million from the Proposition 123 Affordable Housing Financing Fund. Loan terms will be below market, with interest rates ranging from 1.5% to 1.75%, and will allow for interest only periods in some instances. Additional details on both programs are available on the CHFA website.
About the Innovative Housing Incentive Program
The Innovative Housing Incentive Program (IHIP) helps address Colorado’s housing shortage by supporting the development and expansion of the state’s innovative housing manufacturing businesses. IHIP is part of an emerging suite of OEDIT-affiliated programs that offer housing financing tools to help increase the supply of affordable and attainable housing across Colorado. These programs include the Proposition 123 Affordable Housing Financing Fund, staffing of the Middle Income Housing Authority and work by the Colorado Creative Industries Division via the Community Revitalization and Space to Create programs.
About the Proposition 123 Colorado Affordable Housing Financing Fund
Passed by voters in November 2022, Proposition 123 established the State Affordable Housing Fund to advance the development and preservation of affordable housing in Colorado. The measure directs 40% of those funds to the Colorado Affordable Housing Support Fund administered by the state Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) and 60% of funds to the Colorado Affordable Housing Financing Fund managed by OEDIT. OEDIT selected Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA) to serve as the Affordable Housing Financing Fund third-party administrator. The Affordable Housing Financing Fund consists of three programs: Land Banking, Equity and Concessionary Debt.
About Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA)
For 50 years, CHFA has strengthened Colorado by investing in affordable housing and community development. CHFA invests in affordable homeownership, the development and preservation of affordable rental housing, helps small- and medium-sized businesses access capital,, and supports local communities and mission-aligned nonprofits through technical assistance and philanthropic investment. CHFA is not a state agency. CHFA is a self-sustaining public enterprise. For more information about CHFA, please visit chfainfo.com or call 1.800.877.chfa (2432).