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Colorado ski town to build carbon-neutral workforce housing on its last owned piece of land

Developer Thrive gets green light for 150 units

Breckenridge, Colorado, is slated to move forward with its latest workforce housing project that delivers 148 carbon-neutral housing units. (Paul Winner/CoStar)
Breckenridge, Colorado, is slated to move forward with its latest workforce housing project that delivers 148 carbon-neutral housing units. (Paul Winner/CoStar)
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About 150 new carbon-neutral and attainably priced homes are planned for the ski town of Breckenridge, Colorado, on the last major parcel of land owned by the municipality. It’s one of the few developments in the country focused on completely removing greenhouse gas emissions but would be the second for Breckenridge.

The project is the last leg of the town’s 2007 master plan, which designates about 23 acres currently used for public parking to be developed into so-called workforce housing, or residential units aimed at the area’s middle class. The median price for a home in Breckenridge is $2.1 million, according to Homes.com data. The new homes will be priced up to 100% of the area's median income, or about $450,000 to $680,000 on average.

Earlier this month, Breckenridge approved plans to break ground this summer, and final plat and master plan approvals are expected early May.

The development — deemed the Runway Neighborhood for its location off Airport Road — calls for 45 townhouses, 42 duplexes and 61 single-family homes, with the option of an additional 44 accessory dwelling units built alongside the single-families. Buyers will be selected through two lotteries.

Thrive Home Builders, Norris Design and Allen Guerra Architects are behind the development. The town aims to partly subsidize the project — to what amount is still in talks, but it could be upward of $50 million.

Stables Village, another carbon-neutral development underway by the same team and set to be completed early next year, is also intended for workforce residents.

One of Breckenridge’s goals is to build out employee housing so that a minimum of 47% of its workforce lives within the town limits. It currently has a population of about 5,000, according to the 2020 U.S. Census. Affordability is an ongoing challenge for Breckenridge that sees typical home prices above $1 million and a local economy fueled by wealthy visitors drawn in by its skiing trails.

“To give you a sense of the demand, the last [lottery] release of 10 lots on our Stables Village project had 300 people,” said Gene Myers, chief sustainability officer and chairman at Thrive, in an interview.

The single-family homes at Stables Village sold for about $800,000. Three of the homes in the Runway project could be reserved for its contractors or subcontractors in order to attract and retain skilled workers, according to the plan.

“We had people working on our projects that had been living in motel rooms,” said Myers.

To meet Breckenridge’s sustainability goals, Runway is designed to be net-zero energy, meaning the neighborhood will create as much energy as it uses through efficient heat pumps, construction methods, geothermal energy and solar panels. The homes would be fully electric rather than using fossil fuels, which emit carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas.

Construction would also use alternative materials to create less carbon, but where carbon is created, the builder would invest in offsets, the practice of monetarily supporting an effort that reduces carbon, such as an organization that preserves trees.

Thrive took the same carbon-neutral approach with its 220-home Sonders development in Fort Collins, Colorado, in 2022. The firm bills itself as the only builder in the country that constructs carbon-neutral homes.

For a town such as Breckenridge that relies on cold weather and snow for its tourism economy, the impact of climate change could be dramatic, noted Myers.

City officials “feel a responsibility that they make investments that make it better,” he said in reference to building carbon neutral.

Caroline Broderick
Caroline Broderick Staff Writer

Caroline Broderick is a staff writer for Homes.com, focusing on Chicago and the Midwest. A Chicagoland native, she has experience as an editor in residential construction, covering design, market trends, business, and mental health. She aspires to own a home suitable for her two cats.

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