TIMNATH, Colo. — New homes dot most street corners of this growing town east of Fort Collins, where the starting sale price is over half a million dollars — and rising. Prices for lumber, steel and labor have doubled in the past few years.
The cost to tap into the town’s water supply alone is $35,000.
But just down the street from one construction site lies a dirt lot full of metal shipping containers — the kind used to transport things like cars, electronics and food on cargo ships. Instead of loading the containers up, a small crew is transforming them into one-bedroom homes aimed at filling a growing need for affordable housing in Northern Colorado.
Danny Crisafulli calls them “FlexHomes.” The 320 square foot spaces are big enough to fit a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living room with a couch.
The metal containers can be completely converted to houses on-site, then hauled anywhere and cemented to the ground. Each home goes for about $89,000, Crisafulli says, which is far less than a traditional house or even the cost to build a single apartment unit.
Crisafulli is a local realtor who nowadays helps manage this small business and is tackling Northern Colorado’s housing crunch one shipping container at a time. That’s the model of Pivot Structures, converting used containers into prefabricated housing that can be plopped down in a backyard or vacant lot. The new venture started amid the pandemic and plans to expand in the coming year.
“We have a housing crisis,” Crisafulli said while walking through the interior of one container’s bedroom, which is big enough to fit a queen-sized bed. “Are we going to solve all of those problems? No. But we can solve some of those problems.”
