Colorado is losing its top facility in the push to make home construction more efficient and, by extension, the costs of new homes more affordable.

Clayton Homes filed a notice with the Colorado Department of Labor on Tuesday that it will shut down its Heibar Installation manufacturing plant at 475 W. 53rd Place in unincorporated Adams County. By the end of January, 74 workers will lose their jobs at the 200,000-square-foot facility near the intersection of Interstates 70 and 25.

“The layoffs involving the manufacturing department at the Heibar Colorado location will be permanent, and there will be no ‘bumping’ or transfer rights. Affected employees will be able to apply for open positions at other company locations,” Mike Whitmore, the senior director of Human Resources at Clayton Homes, informed the state in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act letter.

The impact goes far beyond the 74 jobs being lost. The plant was a key supplier to Oakwood Homes, which is building some of the most affordable non-subsidized homes along the northern Front Range. It offered a model to emulate when Gov. Jared Polis made fostering innovation and introducing manufacturing efficiencies into the home construction process a top economic development priority.

Oakwood, the state’s largest privately-owned homebuilder, launched Precision Building Systems (PBS) in 2003. Clayton Properties Group, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, acquired Oakwood in 2017, and placed PBS under its Heibar Installation subsidiary, which is based in Maryville, Tenn. The PBS plant kept its name until early 2024, when it was rebranded as Heibar Colorado.

Heibar declined to provide a reason for why it closed the Colorado plant. It also appears that shipping components from its remaining plants in Indiana, Utah and Tennessee long distances to Colorado won’t make economic sense.

Oakwood Homes, in a statement, emphasized that it remains committed to providing attainable homes and that its sales remain strong, rising more than 25% this year over last. While new home construction has slowed nationwide this year, low demand at Oakwood does not appear to be an issue.

“We remain focused on opening doors to home ownership for more families. Heibar’s decision to close its Denver facility will have no long-term impact on Oakwood Homes,” the company said in a statement.

Oakwood Homes did not provide details on how it would replace the components or which manufacturing plant would do so. Although the companies were once closely intertwined, Heibar may not be as essential to Oakwood’s plans as it once was.

Pat Hamill, Oakwood’s founder, focused on building homes affordable for first-time buyers and PBS was key to that strategy. Building more home components indoors, from trusses to floors to complete walls and eventually larger modules, helped lower costs. A wall, for example, would include the framing, insulation, drywall, and electrical wiring and connections.

Components were sent to a homesite, where they could be assembled much faster than with traditional stick build methods. Manufacturing could take place while the lot was being prepared and then the home assembled. That process could take a month or two versus nine months or more for a traditional approach.

Oakwood Homes used the PBS plant most heavily for its On2 Homes, which remain available in Reunion. That line, which is smaller in size and uses larger modules, starts in the mid-$300,000 range in a market where the median price of an existing single-family home sold last month was $640,000.

Building larger sections of homes in a more controlled environment indoors allows for higher precision, tighter quality control and less material waste. Workers could focus on specific tasks along an assembly line, and that line could run day and night, depending on demand.

The construction industry has long struggled with severe labor shortages, which are expected to only worsen as the workforce ages and immigration tightens. Attracting young adults to the field has been a challenge, and manufacturing is viewed as a more palatable option for them than working outdoors in bad weather and dealing with seasonal layoffs.

Manufacturing wages are below what a skilled tradesman could make, providing additional savings to builders. But for workers,  manufacturing jobs can provide higher pay and more consistent schedules than many service jobs.

The closure comes despite the Polis administration’s push to make Colorado a national leader in integrating manufacturing into the construction process and fostering innovative technologies, something the state has spent $50 million to encourage via grants and loans.

Heibar Colorado received a $1 million grant under the state’s Innovative Housing Incentive Program in return for a pledge to build 285 homes in the state.

“To date, the company has been awarded $283,000 for 57 units that qualified for the IHIP incentive funding,” said Alissa Johnson, communications director of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade.

It is not clear if Heibar will fulfill the terms of its grant. But its departure will not deter the state in its efforts, Johnson said.

“The off-site construction industry is growing, advancing our commitment to build more housing now that Coloradans can afford. Some companies will succeed and some will fail and technologies will evolve, but the sector continues to grow,” she said. “We do not believe these layoffs are a reflection of Colorado’s off-site construction industry as a whole, and our state is advancing the development of this important industry across the state.”

Nearly two-thirds of the cost of a new home nationally is tied to construction, with 14% reflecting the cost of land and 22% coming from government-imposed costs, according to the Construction Cost Survey from the National Association of Homebuilders.

E-bikes, e-scooters and e-motorcycles, it can be hard to tell just by looking which type and class your child’s bike is. With the holiday shopping season in full swing, Lone Tree Police Department wants parents to know the risks and the rules that come with each kind of e-bike.

Lone Tree PD has seen an uptick in unsafe e-bike behavior in youth.

Recently, Lone Tree Police asked for the public’s help identifying teens riding e-motorcycles and e-dirt bikes in the Park Meadows area. Police are not looking to get these kids in trouble, but rather have a conversation about safety.

A video shows the teens doing wheelies and riding the e-motorcycles where it is not legal to do so. Joe Deland, operations commander with Lone Tree PD, says scenes like it have become too common on Lone Tree streets.

“As more and more kids are getting access to these e-bikes, we’ve had much more of an issue with kids riding through traffic, doing unsafe things, running red lights,” Deland told CBS Colorado.

While they haven’t cited any kids yet, the police department wants parents to know what is legal and what isn’t.

“Everybody sees this happening,” Deland said. “Everybody wants something done. So we’re trying first with education.”

Class 1 and 2 e-bikes are the only ones allowed on sidewalks and paths. They reach a maximum speed of 20 miles per hour.

Scott Howard, a Lone Tree school resource officer showed CBS Colorado examples of said these vehicle types, demonstrating the difference with two police e-bikes.  

“This is an example of a Class 1. It’s only going to assist you when you’re pedaling,” Howard explained. “This one over here is a Class 2, and it’s going to assist you when you’re pedaling or by throttle.”

Class 3 e-bikes go up to 28 miles per hour and must be ridden by someone 16 years or older on the road or bike lane, not the sidewalk.

“If you’re on a Class 3 bicycle, you must be 16 years old or older, and, if you’re under 18, you have to wear a helmet, by law,” Howard said.

“Those are the ones that we really have an issue with, also the motorcycles and the e-dirt bikes,” Deland said. “If you ride on the paths, or if you’re under the age of 16, you can be cited under state law.”

E-scooters may not be ridden on sidewalks or paths and require registration and a driver’s license.

The same is true for e-motorcycles, which also require insurance, and many are designed for offroad use only.

“The electric motorcycles require a driver’s license, a motorcycle endorsement, insurance and registration. So, in other words, an electric motorcycle is like any other motorcycle on the roadway,” Howard said.

“These are performance machines,” Deland said. “They can reach high speeds and cause really unsafe conditions for everybody.”

Howard says some electric dirt bikes are powerful enough to be considered an electric motorcycle and need to go through a process to become street legal. He says e-motorcycles and e-dirt bikes that are not street safe can be ridden on private property. The city suggests RAM Off-Road Park, Jewell Motocross and Rampart Range.

“There’s offroad riding tracks that are open year-round. There are mountain trails up at Rampart Range. So there are places that you can take one of those and go and enjoy it,” Howard said.

State lawmakers recently passed a law requiring retailers to sell e-bikes with correct labeling for class, speed and wattage, but it is not yet in effect.

“Right now, it’s going to be on the parents to make sure they’re doing their research prior to buying the e-bike,” Deland said.

Lone Tree Police Department hopes education, not citations, will stop behavior like this.

“Our goal is to try to get in touch with these juveniles or their parents, so that we can educate them on the safety concerns that there are with these bikes,” Deland said. “Our ultimate goal is to avoid a tragedy.”

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation has issued an endanagered missing person alert for a 20-year-old Northern Colorado woman who has been missing since Nov. 30.

Kaylee Russell was last seen at 6 p.m. Nov. 30 and her last known location was near the Loveland/Johnstown Park-N-Ride at Colorado Highway 402 and Interstate 25.

She is listed as white, 5-feet-6 inches, 125 pounds with brown/blue eyes. She was last seen wearing a black hoodie, tan pants and brown slippers. Her vehicle is a 2016 black Tiguan Volkswagon with Colorado license plate 7880903.

Law enforcement said if seen to call 911 or the Evans Police Department at 970-350-9600.