Attainable High-Tech Efficiency
Date Posted: September 12, 2024
Posted In: Discussion,
From Offsite Builder: iUnit, a property developer based in Ashburn, Virginia, which was founded by Brice Leconte in 2013, is seen as an innovator by its business partners. One reason is its forward-thinking commitment to Zero Energy Ready modular homes that make optimal use of cell phone and solar-power technologies.
The company’s manufacturing partner is Skyline Champion, based in Troy, Michigan. “[Brice is] pushing the envelope,” says Steve Payne, Senior Director of Business Development at Champion’s builder/developer group. “Zero Energy Ready structures have been around for a long time, but they’ve been largely overlooked. It’s people like Brice who won’t let you forget about them. He is bound and determined to be a leader.”
Payne says that his organization, a publicly traded company with 11,000 employees, is following iUnit’s lead by modernizing its materials and processes for modular net zero construction.
Champion’s first project with iUnit was the Eliot Flats apartment building in Denver, Colorado, which it built in 2017. “At the time we built Eliot Flats, it was Denver’s first modular urban apartment building. It was the highest-ranking ENERGY STAR-performing multifamily housing project in Colorado,” Leconte says.
The success of that project has made Champion eager to do more work with iUnit. “Not only can we offer these types of structures for Brice and one of his upcoming projects, but these are also going to become readily available for our customers around the country,” Payne says. “In that sense, he’s been a driver for us.”
Currently, Champion and iUnit are in the process of permitting a 200-unit, build-to-rent modular community in Strasburg, Virginia called Derby Ridge. The homes will be Zero Energy Ready, and will be manufactured using energy-saving materials and equipment.
The development will also include a seven-acre solar farm, that Leconte estimates could produce twice the energy needs of the community. (The amount they’re allowed to generate will be determined by the utility.) He says he is very excited about working on microgrid systems and figuring out how communities can produce energy through distributed generation.