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.
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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 Governo Polis.
The funding 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.
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.
The eight recipients 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 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 1200 square feet and using reclaimed steel and structural insulated panels.
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. ■