By Phil Castle on September 13, 2022 No Comment

Phil Castle, The Business Times

Bill McDonald likes to say he’s in the business of building healthy housing. At the same time, though, the unique housing McDonald’s company builds has developed into a healthy business.

Phoenix Haus, the Grand Junction-based company McDonald founded and oversees as chief executive officer, manufactures prefabricated and panelized houses that are assembled onsite. The designs, materials and construction techniques come together in homes that meet high environmental and energy efficiency standards. With the addition of even small solar energy systems, the houses achieve net zero energy use and can operate off the grid if the owners so desire, McDonald says.

Phoenix Haus relocated in June to a larger facility that offers twice the space and allows for increased production to meet increasing demand, he says. The company recently started work on its 54th project and is booked through at least the next year, he says.

The operation has gained recognition in other ways.

Phoenix Haus was among the winners of 2021 Colorado Companies to Watch program honoring fast-growing firms in the state. In April, McDonald received the Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award from Colorado Mesa University. And in July, Phoenix Haus received a $250,000 investment from Greenline Ventures as part of the Greater Colorado Pitch Series.

Given the central location among the mountain markets upon which Phoenix Haus has focused as well as the tax incentives offered through the Rural Jump-Start Program, McDonald says Grand Junction offers a great place from which to operate. “We’re really happy to be here.”

McDonald oversees Phoenix Haus with his sister, Kate McDonald, who serves as chief operating officer.

The company evolved from a business Bill McDonald started in 2010 to retrofit older homes to improve energy efficiency. He traced his interest back even further to his childhood, when he suffered from allergies exacerbated by dust, mildew and mold. 

McDonald says he realized it would be more effective to design and build more energy efficient and healthy homes rather than address problems with existing homes.

In 2014, he built his first prefabricated panelized passive house — a 2,300-square-foot home for his mother in rural Michigan. In early 2015, he purchased a century old stamping plant in downtown Detroit for manufacturing operations.

The McDonalds relocated Phoenix Haus from Detroit to Grand Junction in 2017 in part to take advantage of state and local tax incentives provided by the program, but also the proximity to the projects in which the company was involved. At that time, all of the projects were located in Colorado.

Bill McDonald says they also found in the Grand Valley access to commercial real estate and a strong labor market.

Since then, Phoenix Haus has been involved with projects in nine states — most of them in the West.

The company has developed seven models of what it terms homesteads that range in size from 900 to 3,000 square feet.

The homes are prefabricated as panels in the company’s facility in Grand Junction and then assembled onsite by contractors.

McDonald says that approach offers a number of advantages. The panels are manufactured indoors under an exacting process that assures precision and reduces waste. Onsite, the panels come together in fraction of the time it takes to construct a house using traditional techniques. That’s an advantage in areas with short summer building seasons.

One of the biggest advantages, though, is the design and materials that go into the houses that make them energy efficient.

Phoenix Haus specializes in what’s called passive home construction, which includes an airtight building envelope that reduces heating and cooling needs. Mechanical ventilation improves indoor air quality. 

McDonald says the result is a home that’s not only more comfortable and conducive to health, but also uses far less energy.

Some of the models offer floor plans or accommodate what McDonald calls accessory dwelling units that allow for multiple generations of a family to live in the same home. A new model offers a co-living space. 

Spending more time with family and friends can promote healthy living in another way, he says. 

Phoenix Haus constructed a home near the Powderhorn Mountain Resort east of Grand Junction to offer prospective customers a chance to experience what it’s like to live in a passive house.

McDonald expects increasing demand for the kinds of homes Phoenix Haus offers will bolster growth for the company. But he says he wants to manage that growth in a sustainable way. 

At current capacity, Phoenix Haus can handle 24 projects a year, McDonald says. Adding a second shift would double that capacity.

The $250,000 investment from Greenline Ventures will help, he says, in hiring more employees to help with design and planning.

In the meantime, McDonald says he’s happy to be in the business of building healthy housing — and happy the housing the company builds has developed into a healthy business.

For more information about Phoenix Haus, call (877) 548-8237 or visit www.phoenixhaus.com.

In building healthy homes, company builds healthy business added by Phil Castle on September 13, 2022 View all posts by Phil Castle →

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Phil Castle is editor of the Grand Valley Business Times, a twice-monthly business journal published in Grand Junction. Castle brings to his duties nearly 30 years of experience in editorial management positions with Western Colorado newspapers. In addition, his free-lance work has appeared in a variety of publications, including the Washington Post. He holds a bachelor's degree in technical journalism from Colorado State University.

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