Carbonate Street

Because of its proximity to downtown Buena Vista, the development will be within walking distance of downtown, schools, the Arkansas River, and the South Main neighborhood. As a result, it will help solve for both parking and transportation issues in addition to providing some much needed housing to our workforce.

Additionally, the town of Buena Vista will be donating land in exchange for the developer building out the core and shell of a 4600 square foot childcare space. Given the pressing need for more childcare facilities, this will be very beneficial to our community.

None of this would be possible without the support of a great community partner in Fading West Development. They opened a 110,000 square foot state of the art manufacturing facility locally in November, 2021. Their location in Chaffee County ideally positions them to provide cost effective, high quality modular homes to communities across the state.

Fading West’s approach also plays a critical role in allowing us to provide housing that our workforce can afford! Modular manufacturing reduces cost up to 20% versus a stick built approach. In addition, this strategy can reduce the timeline to build by more than 50%. We are really excited by this in that anything we can do to accelerate our process gets us one step closer to addressing our housing crisis.

CHA entered into a special limited partnership with Fading West in July 2023. As CHA does not pay property or sales tax, the special limited partnership enables Fading West to also avoid paying taxes which helps keep rents at Carbonate Street affordable for the workforce.

CHA has a Special Limited Partnership Policy. This policy creates a framework, criteria, and process for how CHA will enter into special limited partnerships. It is designed for the purpose of assisting developers that wish to construct and own affordable rental housing units.

CHA is excited to enter into future special limited partnerships with other developers who wish to construct units that meet the needs identified in the 2022 CHA Housing Needs Assessment. These tax exemptions represent meaningful cost savings to a developer and can help a project achieve its affordability objectives.

The Carbonate Street development will serve as a template for future projects. We need to tap into every community resource we have in order to continue making progress on the housing front. The CHA is committed to continuing to bring innovative strategies to help solve for this critically important issue.

CHA has partnered with Fading West Development to bring a meaningful workforce housing development to the county. This agreement will serve as a blueprint for other successful public private partnerships between CHA and other developers.

The project known as Carbonate Street will be located in Buena Vista. The development includes 30 studios, 24 one-bedroom units, and six two-bedroom units. All 60 units will be deed restricted at area median incomes ranging from 80%-120%.