Returning to the modular housing field, Fading West is a quickly scaling, mission-driven startup. They’re doing the heavy lifting to address America’s most pressing home ownership challenge–affordability. Since the company began in 2016, their mission has been connecting quality home production with a streamlined process. Now based in Buena Vista, Colorado, it’s found success by focusing on a specific niche and minimizing expenses. Fading West operates a modern, 2021-built factory. The company has a staff of 110 non-union factory workers, who make between the low to high $20s an hour, in addition to 50 office staff and general contractors.
Fading West might be a garage startup, but in the booming construction industry this firm is valued at $50 million. Its ambitions fly much higher than what it’s currently accomplishing. The design firm’s projects include not just opulent multi-million-dollar, 3,000-square-foot, five-bedroom beach houses, but more affordable 1,200-square-foot, two-bedroom models. Fading West | Dan Lacey Fading West uses principles of lean manufacturing to reduce construction costs by 10-20%. They cut in half the time it takes to construct a house versus conventional on-site building methods.
Fading West’s creative approach has caught the eye of communities across states like Wyoming, Utah, Montana, Texas, and New Mexico. The company focuses on producing modular homes for a variety of purposes, including disaster relief efforts—a first for the organization. This diversification is indicative of their commitment to reaching housing needs wherever they are, in whatever type of context.
The company’s manufacturing facility is an equally impressive 110,000 square feet – nearly the size of two-and-a-half football fields. Inside, you’ll discover 18 specialized workstations tailored toward different building trades. In every production cycle, workers move assembled units from station to station at four-hour intervals.
“The homes are built on air casters, so they can move up a couple inches off the ground. Workers push the units from station to station every four hours,” said Eric Schaefer, CEO of Fading West.
This approach makes their assembly process shorter and almost 25% less wasteful. In addition, it makes tomes and volumes resistant to damage through inclement weather, which marries seamlessly with Fading West’s sustainability mission. The firm is focused on providing a product that is cost effective and sustainable.
Michael Neal, a housing expert, highlights the inefficiencies present in traditional construction methods. “Site-built, stick-built building, particularly on the single-family side, hasn’t experienced much productivity gains in the aggregate over the last few decades,” he explained. His candid observation highlights the opportunity that modular housing presents to be a real, practical solution to the affordable housing crisis.
Fading West’s distinct approach is most evident in its strong dedication to value engineering and quality of design. That commitment to the architectural form, Schaefer points out, is what distinguishes them from their competitors.
“Where we see ourselves as disruptors is our value engineering, speed, high-quality and architecturally interesting designs,” he stated.
Originally, Fading West started by selling community-focused groups of modular homes manufactured by outside firms. Looking back on his journey, Schaefer identifies one big change in attitude. He approaches the challenges of building affordable homes with a different perspective.
“We came into business with very small aspirations,” Schaefer admitted. “We realized that with the area’s shortage of general contractors and subcontractors, building affordable new homes would be impossible.”
This insight led Fading West to differentiate itself from other construction companies by becoming a manufacturer.
“Our innovation is that we are manufacturers, not construction workers,” Schaefer added.