Mountain Village moves forward on 88 new bedrooms at Village Court Apartments Phase IV

At its December meeting, Mountain Village Town Council approved the floor plans of two new buildings at Village Court Apartments, commonly referred to as VCA Phase IV. This will add a total of 35 new units, consisting of 88 bedrooms, to the Town’s affordable housing rental inventory.

Phase IV will consist of Building E and Building W. Building E will have eight 1-bedroom units and thirteen 2-bedroom units for a total of 34 bedrooms and Building W will consist of 13 units consisting of 4-bedroom suites and one three-bedroom unit with a storage room on the lower level.

The Town is working with Triumph Development West as the developers of the project and Shaw Construction will be the general contractor.

Thursday’s approval authorized Triumph West to move forward on the modular construction of these buildings through a company in Boise, ID. Work to prepare the site is expected to begin in May 2023 and delivery of modular buildings is anticipated for August or September 2023 with move-in targeted for the beginning of 2024.

The estimated total cost is roughly $20.29 million. The Town is actively seeking grants and other funding opportunities to finance the project as it does not collect real estate transfer tax like other municipalities.

The Town has not yet finalized rental fees or the lottery/rental process for future tenants but will share those details with the community once they’re available. In Thursday’s meeting, the council did show an interest in licensing the units in Building W to local businesses to use for their employees, so that when a business loses an employee, they do not lose housing for the next employee as well.

“We are all extremely excited to be able to move forward with affordable housing options that meet such varied community needs — from shared dorm-style housing to full apartments for rent, as we simultaneously move forward on building for-sale housing elsewhere in Mountain Village,” said Mayor Laila Benitez. “Mountain Village strives to build housing solutions that meet the needs of our residents at different life stages.”

This is the second private/public partnership the Town is currently engaged in with Triumph to provide a variety of affordable housing to the community. Triumph is also the lead on the development of 29 for-sale units in the Meadows neighborhood at Lot 644, which was approved by the Town’s Design Review Board in November. site work on that property is expected to begin in spring 2023.

We’re very excited to be teaming up with the Town on not only VCA Phase IV but also Lot 644,” said Triumph Partner Mike Foster. “This obviously doesn’t come close to solving the overall housing crisis the region is in, but if we can continue to chip away at it with these different types of projects over time we can get there.”

“Mountain Village, and the region, recognizes that we need to reestablish a diversity of housing inventory to accommodate our existing community,” said Assistant Town Manager Michelle Haynes. “The ability to start with affordable rental housing and end with a home purchase is still really meaningful to most people. The Town of Mountain Village remains committed to using every tool in the toolbox to build housing, incentivize others to build housing and utilize our existing housing inventory for housing purposes when appropriate.”

For more information about the Town’s multi-pronged Community Housing Initiative, please visit townofmountainvillage.com/housing.