Building homes at high altitudes is challenging. Building affordable homes in a high-altitude rural community for workers of neighboring resort areas is even more challenging.
But a project in Leadville has moved the needle by bringing together multiple entities to make these affordable homes a reality.
The project? Housing @10,200, comprising 24 duplex homes, half of which are already sold. The two- and three-bedroom homes up to 1,127 square feet are priced from around $279,000 to $370,000 and include upgraded amenities and special features that address living above 10,000 feet.
The units, located at two sites (West Third Street and West Sixth Street), are deed restricted at 140% area median income. A deed-restricted community is a neighborhood where legally binding rules attached to property deeds dictate how owners can use and alter their homes and land.
The city’s “first-time big collaborative endeavor,” as Leadville housing program manager Jacqueline Whelihan referred to it, happened through a partnership between local city and county leadership, Oakwood Homes’ on-site development team and BonnaVilla’s modular home manufacturing expertise.
The local hospital and school district dedicated the land, while the Parkville Water District reduced tap fees. The county is continuing its support by providing buyers with financial assistance to help make home ownership a reality.
“Earlier housing assessment studies in 2018 and 2024 identified the need for attainable workforce housing,” Whelihan said. “Before COVID, we were an affordable housing community. However, during the pandemic, when everyone wanted to get out of the city, or could then work remotely, our values went through the roof. So while we had been affordable with our housing stock in the past, we quickly became unaffordable. It was literally overnight. We worked feverishly to rectify the situation to qualify for the government’s incentive grant that would help us.”
And that’s where the partnership kicked in.
“We’re a tiny community, 7,400 people, so this was a tremendous undertaking,” Whelihan said. “We didn’t have the development experience or the tax base that neighboring communities did. We are a worker-oriented community.”
Local leaders, builders and off-site manufacturers worked together step by step to make the housing development come to fruition: The county installed the infrastructure and site work with financial assistance through state grant funding. Oakwood provided the capital to purchase the homes and the development capacity to install foundations and complete covered decks and finish work. BonnaVilla supplied the high‑quality modular homes with upgraded finishes and efficient designs.
The BonnaVilla homes were built with energy efficiency in mind, featuring dual low-E windows, upgraded insulation and high-efficiency furnaces. With 9-foot ceilings, stainless steel appliances and real wood cabinets, these homes were designed to meet or exceed the expectations of the community and homebuyers.
“The collaboration allowed the project to move forward despite the challenges our high-altitude rural community typically faces — a short building season at 10,000 feet above sea level, limited labor pools, high construction costs and long timelines for traditional builds. Mother Nature even cooperated with an unseasonably low snow winter for us with this project,” Whelihan said.
“BonnaVilla, Oakwood Homes and the city of Leadville worked very well together,” said Scott Steinfeldt, BonnaVilla’s sales manager. “Without all three working toward the same goal, a project like this would be very difficult to accomplish.”
Whelihan agreed.
“Because of all of the challenges that a rural community has, including cost pressures, combining the modular product with a sophisticated development team was really instrumental in making this project happen,” she said. “I mean, you talk about collaboration. This was the state, the county, the city, the water district, the school, the hospital. It takes everybody to make it succeed. And we did just that.”
Interested buyers can download an application at housinglakecounty.com. Buyers must speak with a lender and submit a prequalifying letter with a completed application. A third-party housing consultant verifies the application and income eligibility. Once approved, buyers work directly with the county to complete the purchase process, select their home and finalize closing.
Visit bonnavilla.com for more information.
