Habitat for Humanity Roaring Fork Valley’s proposal to build a new modular-home production facility in Rifle is undeterred, according to one official.
Regional Habitat President Gail Schwartz said, despite Garfield County commissioners’ feeble interest in financially supporting the project, every other entity is on board.
Amid this amalgamation of heavy interest, the commission in late February worried that supporting Habitat’s quest to build its modular-home facility would compete directly with similar operations.
In what’s turning out to be an auspicious concept locally, Eco Dwelling LLC., a private entity owned by Fernando Argiro, opened a modular-home production facility on unincorporated county land just outside Rifle city limits. There, it uses cold-formed recycled steel and a 3D printer to create 900 square-foot one-story, two-bedroom dwellings that Eco Dwelling intends to place in several sections in Rifle. This is on the promise Argiro has assured multiple times that the units go for $265,000-$270,000 — nearly half the price of an average starter home in Rifle.
If built, Habitat would use the very same progressive construction technique employed by Eco Dwelling. Cold-formed steel salvaged from a recycling plant in Utah will be converted into two-story houses using a printer, and the plant itself would be the first of its kind dedicated to public affordable housing on the Western Slope. Eco Dwelling is of course private, while there are two other modular home production facilities on the Front Range — IndeDwell in Pueblo and Fading West Development in Buena Vista.
Habitat continues to build units up and down the Colorado and Roaring Fork valleys using traditional materials and construction methods. More importantly, all of these units are being sold at a certain percentage of Area Median Income — some argue a crucial effort to answer Garfield County’s call for more affordable housing. For a subdivision it’s currently building on Rifle’s south side called the Wapiti Commons, Habitat is likely to charge an incomparable $170,000-$190,000 for condos and $240,000-$290,000 for two-story townhomes.
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Gary Fleisher is the Editor in Chief of Modular Home Source and Offsite Builder magazine. Email at [email protected]
Gary Fleisher, the Modcoach
