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THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MARCH 29, 2022
Project could address housing woes in southern Oregon
By JULIET GRABLE
Jeff erson Public Radio
In the fall of 2020, just
after the Almeda fi re had
devastated the Rogue Valley,
Tom Cody traveled through
the burn zone. Driving along
Highway 99, he witnessed
block after block of destruc-
tion — homes, businesses,
apartments and RV parks
reduced to ash and rubble.
Cody, founder and managing
partner at Project^, a Port-
land-based real estate devel-
opment fi rm, felt compelled
to help rebuild.
If all goes according to
plan, his new apartment
development will break
ground in Medford this sum-
mer. But MOSAIC is no
ordinary construction proj-
ect; instead, the 148 units
will be built in a modular
factory, then trucked to the
site. The project is being
funded in part by a state ini-
tiative aimed at helping com-
munities recover from the
Labor Day fi res of 2020. It’s
also an experiment aimed at
tackling multiple issues at
once: rising material costs, a
severe shortage of construc-
tion labor and an urgent need
for housing for working fam-
ilies and fi re victims.
The devastating fi res that
torched off in September
2020 destroyed over 4,000
homes in at least nine Ore-
gon counties. Between the
Almeda and South Oben-
chain fi res, Jackson County
suff ered the worst impacts.
More than 2,300 dwellings
were lost, many of them
manufactured homes and
RVs.
“The fi res burned through
where our most vulnera-
ble populations live: retir-
ees, older people, Latinx,
and working people,” says
state Rep. Pam Marsh, an
Ashland Democrat who
represents southern Jack-
son County. “Where we are
now is an example of climate
injustice.”
The fi res exacerbated
what was already a dearth
of aff ordable and workforce
housing in the Rogue Valley.
Housing for the
‘missing middle’
Through the governor’s
offi ce, Cody learned about
the state’s push to fi nd inno-
vative ways to deliver new
projects quickly, includ-
ing modular prefabrication.
He was already developing
a modular apartment proj-
ect for Bend — a fi rst for his
company — so he decided to
apply the same concept to a
new wildfi re relief project in
the Rogue Valley.
“My attitude is, it’s
always easier to talk about
something if you have a case
study,” Cody said.
He started looking for
land for the development,
initially focusing on those
in the burn zone. Soon Cody
learned about an unde-
veloped 7.5-acre property
owned by Ivanko Gardens
Apartments. Last spring,
Project^ purchased the prop-
erty, a long, narrow parcel
tucked between a residential
neighborhood and an apart-
ment complex in northeast
Medford.
In June, the state Legis-
lature approved a $600 mil-
lion dollar package which
included $150 million for
wildfi re recovery hous-
ing supply and land acqui-
sition. As part of that fund-
ing, then-Rep. Brian Clem,
a Salem Democrat and chair
of the House Special Com-
mittee on Wildfi re Recov-
ery, championed an initiative
called Oregonians Rebuild-
ing Oregon.
“The original idea was to
provide temporary shelters
for fi re victims that could
be repurposed, possibly for
those experiencing home-
lessness,” Clem said. The
initiative would also cre-
ate economic activity in the
state by requiring the units to
be built by Oregon compa-
nies and labor, and, possibly,
use lumber salvaged from
burned roadways.
Marsh, who also served
on the House committee,
thought the MOSAIC proj-
ect was a “perfect fi t.”
“It’s really hard to
develop workforce housing
in the Rogue Valley,” Marsh
Tom Cody
A rendering of the MOSAIC modular prefabricated housing complex planned for Medford by Project^.
THE DEVASTATING FIRES THAT TORCHED OFF IN SEPTEMBER 2020
DESTROYED OVER 4,000 HOMES IN AT LEAST NINE OREGON COUNTIES.
BETWEEN THE ALMEDA AND SOUTH OBENCHAIN FIRES, JACKSON
COUNTY SUFFERED THE WORST IMPACTS. MORE THAN 2,300 DWELLINGS
WERE LOST, MANY OF THEM MANUFACTURED HOMES AND RVS.
said. Subsidies and incen-
tives are not available for
projects in the “missing mid-
dle” between aff ordable and
market-rate housing. From
a developer’s standpoint,
it’s hard to make them pen-
cil out.
Project^ negotiated with
Oregon Housing and Com-
munity Services on the terms
of a $10 million loan, which
was off ered at 0% for the fi rst
24 months and 1% thereaf-
ter. In exchange, 100% of
MOSAIC’s apartments must
be marketed as workforce
housing. The units will be
available to those who earn
at or below 120% of area
median income, and rates
will be set so households
don’t pay more than 30% of
their income on rent.
“We wouldn’t be doing
MOSAIC in Medford were
it not for OHCS,” Cody said.
Another stipulation is
that the units must be built
in Oregon. Cody is negotiat-
ing with a company in Klam-
ath Falls called InteliFab to
produce the structures. If all
goes according to plan, Cody
said, MOSAIC will cost
30% less and will be built
40% faster than a conven-
tional multifamily project.
Prefabricated
modular
construction, or “prefab,”
can save both time and mate-
rials, said John Mick, owner
of InteliFab. The modules
can be framed while the sites
are being excavated and con-
crete foundations poured,
and work can carry on with-
out weather delays. Exten-
sive preplanning can also
help managers catch errors
before construction begins.
MOSAIC will consist
of nine three-story build-
ings and will include one,
two and three-bedroom fl oor
plans. Amenities, such as
kids’ play areas, will be tai-
lored for working families.
The project will be built to
Earth Advantage Platinum,
a green building standard
that addresses fi ve “pillars”
of sustainability: energy,
health, land, materials and
water.
Modules are built using
conventional
light-wood
construction methods, and
while machines supple-
ment human labor, the pro-
cess in not so diff erent from
site-built construction, Mick
said. “The biggest diff erence
an employee sees is that they
are less impacted by weather,
and their job is always in the
same place.”
Modular methods also
reduce the carbon footprint
of construction, Cody said,
in part because building
material deliveries to the site
are drastically reduced.
Going modular can also
potentially speed up the per-
mitting process. While proj-
ects must seek land use
approvals and permits for
site improvements from the
local jurisdiction, most of the
building permitting happens
in the factory, at the state
level. Oregon also off ers a
“master permit” for prefabri-
cated construction.
“If you get permit-
ted for a particular build-
ing, you can use it on mul-
tiple sites,” explains Cody.
Project^ intends to use mod-
ule plans approved for the
Bend project in Medford.
Modular construction also
off ers fl exibility, Cody said.
Once cranes swing the fac-
tory-built modules into place
on site, siding and roofi ng
will be installed, selected to
best fi t the character of the
neighborhood.
The need to innovate
There is great demand
for housing across the state,
especially aff ordable and
workforce housing, said
Greg Wolf, executive direc-
tor at Oregon iSector, a non-
profi t that supports pub-
lic-private partnerships that
are addressing various com-
munity challenges.
“We really have a seri-
ous problem here in Ore-
gon,” Wolf said. “We’re
tied for last in having (the)
worst housing defi cit in the
country.”
According to Wolf, Ore-
gon underbuilt 150,000
homes between 2000 and
2015, and the state must
build at least 29,000 units
a year just to keep up with
demand. A severe labor
shortage, gaps in the supply
chain, and growing homeless
population are worsening the
crisis.
In some regions, the
housing shortage is directly
impacting economies, Wolf
said. On the coast, for exam-
ple, while vacation rentals
proliferate, people in ser-
vice industries like teaching
and fi refi ghting can’t aff ord
to work and live in their
communities.
To tackle these issues,
the Oregon iSector’s board
of directors is spearheading
an eff ort called the Hous-
ing Innovation Partnership,
which launched late last
year. Composed of represen-
tatives from public, private
and civic organizations from
across the state, its main
objective is to identify inno-
vative approaches that help
build housing more quickly
and aff ordably. Marsh and
Megan Loeb, senior pro-
gram offi cer at the Oregon
Community Foundation, are
co-convening the eff ort.
Working groups have
formed to tackle diff erent
issues — fi nancing mod-
els and modular housing,
for example. Cody is part
of a group studying incen-
tives that could help make
workforce housing proj-
ects viable. Ultimately, the
partnership will develop an
“innovation agenda” they
can present to the Oregon
Legislature in 2023.
Several promising ideas
are already cropping up. The
Port of Portland, for exam-
ple, is exploring the possi-
bility of building a modular
housing manufacturing facil-
ity that utilizes cross-lami-
nated timber panels. These
strong but lightweight pan-
els are composed of layers
of solid wood that are glued
together. They can be made
from small-diameter trees,
including those thinned to
improve the health of Ore-
gon forests.
In Eastern Oregon, the
towns of Lakeview, Burns,
and John Day are partnering
in a new intergovernmen-
tal agency aimed at spurring
new housing, in part by uti-
lizing 3D-printing technol-
ogy to build foundations and
walls. A lack of quality hous-
ing stifl es economic devel-
opment in these towns, but
they lack the labor to build
enough new housing quickly.
By teaming up, they hope
to garner enough resources
to build 100 houses in each
community over the next
fi ve years.
Back
in
Medford,
MOSAIC will be a test case
to see if alternative construc-
tion methods can get units
on the ground more quickly.
Cody hopes the project can
break ground this summer,
but it will depend on scaling
up a manufacturer like Inteli-
Fab to build the boxes.
“There’s currently no
modular builder or factory
in Oregon that is capable of
building the modules, yet we
have this state requirement
(to build them in Oregon),”
Cody said. “That is our big-
gest challenge right now.”
InteliFab is in the pro-
cess of shifting its operations
from panelized construction
to modular prefabrication.
To that end, the company has
enrolled four current and two
new employees in a 12-week
basic construction skills
course at Klamath Commu-
nity College. WorkSource
Oregon will reimburse
InteliFab for half of the cost
of tuition. Employees will
see a wage increase once
they complete the course.
“We have to start doing
something diff erent on the
housing front,” said Marsh,
who wrote a letter urging the
Oregon Higher Education
Coordinating Commission to
provide grant funding for the
college’s training program.
“If we keep just swinging
hammers we’ll never get
ahead.”
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