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Grow Fairfield cuts ribbon on prefab home
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FAIRFIELD – Grow Fairfield held a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house Monday afternoon to celebrate the completion of its prefabricated home at 700 S. Seventh St.
The home is the first Neighborhood Revitalization Project Home, built through local partnerships. It was manufactured by Iowa Prison Industries at its Newton Correctional Facility and transported to Fairfield in May. Since then, a two-car garage was built for it, landscaping was added, and the flooring and utility hook-ups were finished. Fairfield Area Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors got to check out the new house at the ribbon-cutting on Sept. 15, and learn about exciting developments coming to Fairfield’s housing stock.
Grow Fairfield Executive Director Ed Malloy said he just received word the prior week that his organization would receive a grant for $167,350 in the form of workforce housing tax credits, which would go toward building three more prefabricated homes just like the one on Seventh Street, plus two spec homes to be built in the new Sunrise Trail Subdivision that Grow Fairfield is developing on the south side of town.
Malloy told those gathered in the house Monday afternoon that his board liked the style of homes Iowa Prison Industries has been supplying for Greater Fairfield Area Habitat for Humanity, which has a row of such homes on North 12th Street. The prefabricated home measures 24 by 50 feet and was transported in one piece on a trailer. After bringing one to town in May, Grow Fairfield followed that by bringing a second prefabricated home to town in July, just a block east of the first one at 504 S. Sixth St.
The Seventh Street home is now on the market, and the Sixth Street home will soon be ready to list, too. Malloy said there is an income requirement to qualify for buying these homes, but it’s not very restrictive, and he said it applies to anyone who makes $125,000 or less.
Fairfield Mayor Connie Boyer said that ever since she became mayor in 2019 she has been interested in pursuing in-fill housing, developing lots already in the city as opposed to building farther out. She said the city council has attempted to spur development by changing zoning laws in certain parts of town like the southwest area that permits smaller lot sizes.
In the case of the Sixth Street lot, the city worked with a homeowner who wished to move out of the house, so the city found them new housing and the homeowner gave the property to the city. That led to the demolition of the dilapidated home on the lot to make way for the new prefabricated house courtesy of Grow Fairfield. Boyer said the city has learned that another Fairfield couple is planning to donate a lot to the city so it can do the same thing once more.
Boyer described the house on Seventh Street as “adorable,” and mentioned she was glad Grow Fairfield could work with Iowa Prison Industries, which gives inmates skills they can use once they’ve served their sentence, to create affordable homes for local families.
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
