When it comes to innovators in home construction, Colorado has had one door close but another open.
Azure Printed Homes, a California startup, expects to produce 7,000 homes a year at its Culver City plant and at a new 25,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Montbello that opened last week. An added assembly site in Bennett is under consideration down the road.
If the Montbello location generates half that projected volume, it would put Azure ahead of the state’s current homebuilding leaders, D.R. Horton and Lennar.
It’s a moonshot goal, but if achieved and sustained, it could also help shrink the state’s shortfall of affordable units and fill the void created when Clayton Homes shut down its Heibar prefabrication plant in Adams County. That plant was an important supplier behind some of metro Denver’s most affordable new homes.
“Azure’s 3-D modular printing system presents an interesting and unique variation for the possible creation of housing at a lower cost and faster than stick-built or traditional modular construction,” said Rodger Hara, a veteran affordable housing consultant in Denver who attended the factory’s opening.
A complete shell of a home can be printed in 24 hours, Azure claims. The non-shell siding and windows on the open sides are customizable, as is the interior. That work, plus plumbing and electrical installation, can take another two to three weeks.
A highly customized home can go from concept to completion in a month when everything lines up. Initially, the company plans to start printing and assembling homes with about 50 workers and a handful of 3-D printers.
“Time is money, and by building a home at a fraction of the time, 3-D printing can bring huge savings,” said Gov. Jared Polis, who has pushed hard to make the state a leader in developing new home construction technologies. “I’ve never seen it faster.”
Azure’s homes cost about 30% less per square foot to build and require 70% less time than traditional methods, said Gene Eidelman, the .
Eidelman, in a dig at traditional rivals, notes that when people moved around in horses and buggies, homes were built primarily by driving nails into wood with a hammer.
Self-driving electric vehicles are now increasing their presence on the road, but home construction still involves a lot of nails being driven into wood.
Conventional homes can take 7 to 12 months to become move-in ready after breaking ground, longer if any customization is required.
Azure’s approach combines 3-D home printing, which extrudes layer upon layer of material to build a structural shell, with prefabrication, which involves building wood or steel-framed components in a factory.
Most 3-D home printers like ICON, based in Austin, and Alquist 3D, which moved its headquarters from Iowa to Greeley in 2023, use a concrete-like slurry extruded on the construction site. Some of their designs define — a la Luke Skywalker’s childhood home on Tatooine.
Azure, by contrast, melts pellets made of recycled plastics and fiberglass. Its printers extrude the material in a factory setting, allowing production to continue around the clock, regardless of the weather.
The resulting obround shell, which consists of a roof, floor and the two short sides, is durable, heat and cold-resistant, and able to withstand fires, termites, and the elements. The design is more modernistic than futuristic, different but still relatable.
State leaders also see construction innovation as the key to helping Colorado overcome its housing crisis. The country faces a shortage of 10 million homes, according to the .
Colorado’s Demography Office puts the state’s housing shortfall at 106,000 units in 2023, which is a 25% decrease from a peak shortage of 140,000 units in 2019. Just to keep pace with population changes, the state needs about 34,100 new homes and apartments a year.
“We really try to make sure that we are advancing a robust economy, and that includes a home for every budget,” said Eve Lieberman, executive director of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade.
Colorado has put tens of millions of dollars on the table looking for ways to resolve its housing shortfall, primarily through the Colorado Affordable Housing Fund, which is funded through Proposition 123, and the Innovative Housing Incentive Program or IHIP, which was created from a $40 million transfer out of the General Fund to support housing-related manufacturers.
IHIP loans and working capital grants have helped seed or support , and they are attacking the housing cost problem from a variety of angles.
Among the modular factories with state backing are EcoMod in Hudson, Fading West in Buena Vista, and Vederra in Aurora. Panelized component makers accessing state help include Phoenix Haus in Grand Junction, Huron Components in Littleton, and Higher Purpose Homes in Durango.
Besides Azure, other 3-D home printers with state dollars include StructureBOT in Colorado Springs and Verotouch Construction in Salida.
The support has directly incentivized the production of more than 1,000 units, with an additional 2,000 units in the works, Lieberman said. Azure has the potential to become the star in a new generation of home fabricators.
Azure has received a $3.9 million loan from the state’s Affordable Housing Financing Fund, which is funded through the redirection of 0.1% of state income taxes or about $300 million annually via Proposition 123.
It is also looking to raise $10 million from investors as part of a push to boost capacity at its original Los Angeles plant and its new Colorado plant.
“I have become the greatest salesman for Colorado as I walk around the world, because enough of the talking,” Eidelman said.
A customer emailed him four years ago saying the company should consider Colorado, a suggestion he initially rebuffed because of a lack of incentives. But not long after, IHIP rolled out.
During that process, Eidelman got to know Jack Tiebout, who headed IHIP, which is under OEDIT. In December, Tiebout left the state to work as Azure’s principal in charge of growth and partnerships.
So far, the company, which launched in 2022, has built 100 homes and has orders worth another $60 million, primarily in transitional housing for homelessness programs, as well as community-based affordable housing programs.
Currently, the company is providing 54 transitional housing units for the Welcome Home Village in San Luis Obispo, which is scheduled to open next month.
The company had a two-bedroom, 360-square-foot model that cost $96,900 on display outside its factory. The company said it can build homes at an average cost of $150 to $175 per square foot.
Prices range from $20,000 for tiny backyard studios to $200,000 for a full-size home with ADUs.
State and local leaders are hoping Azure can fill the void left when Clayton Homes closed its 200,000-square-foot factory at 475 W. 53rd Place. The plant, which was the state’s largest maker of panelized components, struggled under the weight of reduced demand because of higher interest rates and fluctuating lumber costs.
Through its affiliation with Oakwood Homes, the plant was behind some of metro Denver’s most affordable new homes. But it was also “old school” compared to some of the newer plants popping up under IHIP.
