BUENA VISTA, Colo. — At the Fading West factory in Buena Vista, VP of factory operations Sean Brown is overseeing an operation that is like a car assembly line only at this factory they're building 1,200-square-foot two-story modular homes.
“A 600-square-foot first floor and a 600-square-foot second floor that’s stacked on top of each other for a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house,” said Brown.
Homes are built in about 11 days, reducing construction time and waste. Eric Schaefer with Fading West says that also reduces the cost of the house.
“Roughly it’s about $140 and $150 a square foot coming out of the factory,” said Schaefer. “Then there are site costs added in and we found these mountain town projects are about 20% cheaper.”
The first project was to build homes in Buena Vista costing between $200,000 and $400,000. Now the modular homes are being sent to affordable housing projects all over the state.
“The boxes in the factory right now are going to Ridgeway and the Telluride Foundation,” said Schaefer. “We're building apartments in a few months going to Breckenridge and we have built in Leadville, Salida, Gunnison, and Fairplay,”
In their first 15 months of operation, Fading West built around 75 homes but in 2023 they will build many more.
“We’ve been able to create around 75 homes in the marketplace," said Brown. "And this year, in 2023, we’re hoping to get somewhere around 250 homes in the marketplace."
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