A few months before the devastation of Hurricane Helene hit Asheville in 2024, Quartz Properties had started construction on a 90-unit, build-to-rent modular community of duplexes and single-family homes.
“We try to address the median market of workforce or attainable housing – not affordable housing and not the luxury end,” says David Roover, chief growth officer and founding partner of Quartz Properties, a modular home builder in North Carolina and consultant for other builders new to modular construction. “Those buildings stood up to Hurricane Helene, which is a testament to their resilience since they weren’t complete at the time. The development was immediately filled when we finished it after the storm because so many people needed a place to live, especially first responders and others who lived in the area or came here to help rebuild.”
Demand for workforce or attainable housing—designed for long term affordability for teachers, health care workers, first responders, retirees and young people establishing their first household—continues to grow throughout the U.S. Sometimes referred to as “missing middle” housing, these are properties that people can rent or buy when they lack the income for more costly homes and yet make too much money to qualify for subsidies.
At VISION House Hickory Grove, a partnership between Rob Howard, president of Howard Building Science in Granite Falls, North Carolina, and Green Builder Media, a cluster of 16 sustainable, energy efficient and attainable rental homes will be built. These homes will demonstrate the importance of building high performance homes at every price point for long-term resilience to climate impacts and to keep operational costs in check.
At VISION House Hickory Grove, Howard and Green Builder Media are working with experts in modular construction including Vantem, a modular builder headquartered in Raleigh, N.C. with factories in South Carolina and Georgia, and Quartz Properties to build highly efficient homes.
“Not every modular manufacturer is familiar with multifamily construction or green building,” says Steve Payne, executive vice president of business development for Vantem. “Typically, modular companies build single-family homes from simple versions to custom homes. VISION House Hickory Grove is unusual in that the buildings look like single-family homes, but each building holds four units.”
Since the units are stacked on top of each other rather than side-by-side – designed to fit on the available land – they must be built to the International Building Code (IBC) for commercial buildings rather than to the International Residential Code (IRC) for residential buildings, Payne explained. For example, this means the VISION House Hickory Grove buildings will need fire sprinklers.
Modular construction provides numerous benefits, but only if the developer and builder find the right manufacturer, Payne says.
“You need a team of design and technical professionals that can provide a suite of services to move the entire project down the road,” he says. “The modular partner should be able to provide these services to minimize field responsibilities.”
Even builders who think they’re ready to embrace modular components over site-built housing may need some additional help.
“A lot of builders think that if they do traditional construction, they can do this too, but it can be challenging for them the first time they order from a factory,” Roover says. “Consultants like us can help with everything from the permits to the trim.”
Modular construction is inherently green, Payne says, because there’s less waste when you’re doing precision cutting in a controlled factory environment.
“We use more recycled materials, plus the buildings are tighter for energy efficiency,” he says. “There’s an upfront cost when you build high efficiency homes, but over a period of time the savings from these high-performance homes neutralizes upfront costs.”
Modular buildings are indistinguishable from site-built buildings once they’re complete, Payne says. He notes that “you don’t have to sacrifice anything in terms of materials or elevations.”
Typically, modular buildings outperform site-built properties during intense storms, according to Payne.
“Modular homes have more material content than traditionally built homes, which contributes to their durability,” Payne says. “Factory built framing systems are typically superior to the framing for site-built houses. We make tighter cuts, so there’s less air infiltration, we frame inside-out and seal all the penetrations for better energy performance.”
Many builders like to use modular construction for custom homes, but at VISION House Hickory Grove the factory is being used for workforce housing.
“We wanted to flip it and use industrialized construction with a build-and-repeat method for attainable housing,” Roover says. “Plus, modular homes contribute to lower operating costs because they’re all electric and you can increase insulation easily, which makes them more affordable over the long term.”
Some of the benefits of modular construction that contribute to reduced upfront and ongoing costs include:
Vantem and Arris, a company Vantem acquired in recent years, have built more than 10 million square feet of modular multifamily buildings. Each building at VISION House Hickory Grove will have two smaller first-floor units with one bedroom and one bathroom, with two two-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom units upstairs.
Vantem will provide the modular units and Quartz Properties will install them.
“We’ll set the Hickory Grove buildings, which means we coordinate the transportation including the crane onsite that takes the modular parts from their trucks to set them on the foundation,” Roover says. “Then we hoist the roof, which usually comes folded. From there, we ‘stitch’ the modular boxes together to specific architectural plans.”
Roover anticipates that it will take about a day to stack the boxes at Hickory Grove, then another day to get the roof weathertight, plus one more day to complete the “marriage line” bolting. Some finishing touches will be required after that to get the homes ready for occupancy.
“These will be high performance homes straight out of the gate,” Roover says. “They’re environmentally friendly with less waste.”
While modular home construction can reduce building timelines, lower costs, reduce waste and result in a more energy efficient residence, factory-built homes can also be more resilient. Technology such as continuous air barriers and stronger insulation installed at the modular plant can enhance the performance of a home. At VISION House Hickory Grove, the modular construction will include FORTIFIED home features.
Decades of research into climate-related damage to residential and commercial buildings led to the development of the FORTIFIED construction method.
“A FORTIFIED certification is like an ENERGY STAR certification for resilience,” says Fred Malik, managing director of the Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS), which developed the FORTIFIED program.
Builders and remodelers can use the FORTIFIED standards for new construction and existing homes that need renovation, especially post-disaster. “A FORTIFIED roof can be largely completed in a factory,” Malik says.
Other elements required to reach FORTIFIED Silver and Gold levels include stronger garage doors and attached structures, along with other structural improvements.
Some insurance companies offer a discount to homeowners who have a FORTIFIED roof, says Gina Hardy, CEO of the North Carolina Insurance Underwriting Association (NCIUA) and the North Carolina Joint Underwriting Association (NCJUA).
“In North Carolina, researchers analyzed claims and found that there was a 52 percent reduction in claims for FORTIFIED homes after non-named storms, and a 34.5 percent reduction in claims for named tropical storms and hurricanes,” Hardy says. “Anything that can make a home more durable and resilient is good from an insurance point of view.”
Many state and local governments provide grants for homeowners to invest in a FORTIFIED roof or other certification, she says. The certification can be transferred to the next owner for an insurance discount, too.
“In 2025, researchers at the University of Alabama studied insurance claims and found that homeowners were 70 percent less likely to make a claim if they had a FORTIFIED roof,” Malik says. “Homeowners who had to file a claim had an average claim that was 30 percent less costly than homeowners who didn’t have a FORTIFIED roof.”
Malik advocates building modular homes because strength and resilience features can be systematized for safety. “Modular home factories also have a stable, trained workforce, which can help you fast track the learning curve when new technology is introduced,” he says.
Adding FORTIFIED features at the factory level requires a relatively modest investment and generates better performance along with safety for residents and the community.
“Factory building is the only way to meet the standards of a high-performance home and build homes that will be affordable in perpetuity, which is our goal,” says Chris Moeller, founder and CEO of Orion Growth and Pathways Communities, which builds homes and communities using modular construction. “We need products that will outlive us and be resilient in 100 years.”
Modular construction provides cost savings because it cuts production time in half, according to Moeller. In addition, savings are generated by a shorter debt service requirement, a shorter timeline for the project manager, onsite trailer and crane.
While modular construction packs a lot of affordability, resilience and sustainability elements into VISION House Hickory Grove, the products, systems and features in these multifamily buildings add resilience, comfort and energy efficiency for residents.
“VISION House Hickory Grove will reach even higher performance standards because of the high-tech materials deployed by the sponsors, such as the sheathing, insulation, high efficiency mechanical systems and the solar component,” says Steve Payne, executive vice president of business development for multifamily project developer Vantem.
Sponsors for VISION House Hickory Grove and their innovative products include: