A state-backed manufacturer of modular homes is seeking $5.7 million from a developer after that developer ordered it to stop work on a modular apartment project in Granby.
Fading West, which has been making modular buildings in Buena Vista since 2016, is asking an arbitrator to make Summit Housing Group, a Montana-based developer, pay up. Modular homes are created in a warehouse and then assembled on-site to save time and money.
In 2023, Summit and Fading West agreed to work together on the 76-unit Summit at Granby Apartments, 24 Pioneer Drive in Granby. Fading West was to be paid $10.2 million.
“This innovative project is blazing the trail for a significant change to the future of low-income housing,” Summit announced at the time. It called the project an “advance in modular building design and execution” made “possible through the deep experience” of Fading West.
Fading West says it was chosen because of its experience with state tax credits. The project’s first two bids for help from the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority were denied in 2023 and 2024. But at the end of 2024, Summit was awarded $1.5 million in tax breaks.
Fading West says it fast-tracked the Summit job in 2025. But in October, it was told to stop.
“Cease any and all work being performed by Fading West for the property located at 24 Pioneer Dr., Grandy (sic),” Summit attorney Quin Seiler emailed, according to a copy of her letter.
“It is worth noting that Summit has no obligation to purchase or otherwise acquire modular units from Fading West,” Seiler wrote Oct. 22. “Summit is not a party to the supply agreement.”
The contract that requires Fading West to provide modular units in Granby is between Fading West Building Systems and Fading West Construction, according to a copy that BusinessDen obtained. A Fading West attorney did not respond to a request for an explanation of the arrangement, which Summit now believes exempts it from having to pay Fading West.
Summit wants a federal judge to throw out Fading West’s demand for arbitration, since Summit never signed the supply agreement. Its answer to Fading West’s arbitration lawsuit also accuses Fading West of breach of contract, fraud and unclean hands, without further explanation.
For its part, Fading West says it “moved other customers into Summit’s production slot” after the October stop work order and sold them $4.9 million of units, so it is asking an arbitrator for the difference between the $10.2 million Summit order and that $4.9 million, plus fees.
As for what’s next at 24 Pioneer Drive in Granby, Summit Housing CEO Paul Capps declined to say, as did Seiler, the Summit attorney. A spokesman for the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority said “the project remains in compliance” with all deadlines and milestones.
“Summit at Granby Apartments was awarded federal and state housing tax credits in 2024,” said CHFA spokesman Matt Lynn. “Under the tax credit program, the credits themselves are not available to the investor partner until the property places in service and is available for occupancy.”
Fading West has been a beneficiary of tax dollars. CHFA put up the collateral so it could borrow money and build its manufacturing plant in 2021, then gave an additional $2 million in 2023.
“CHFA has been supportive of Fading West from the beginning,” Eric Schaefer, chief development officer at Fading West, said in a 2023 news release. “Our factory in Buena Vista could not have been built without the (CHFA) partnership and financial assistance.”
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