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CRA approves sale to Bright Community Trust for five starter homes using 3D printing, restricted to 120% AMI
Summary
The CRA approved leasing and sale of two city-owned lots to Bright Community Trust to build five two-bedroom starter homes targeted at buyers at or below 120% AMI, using 3D-printing technology and options to hold land in a community land trust to preserve long-term affordability.
The Community Redevelopment Agency on May 28 approved an agreement authorizing the mayor to execute a lease and sale with Bright Community Trust for two city-owned parcels on 18th Avenue South. The project will produce five cottage-style single-family homes intended for buyers at or below 120 percent of area median income (AMI).
City staff described the parcels as remaining assets from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program and said the unsolicited proposal from Bright Community Trust includes an innovative construction approach that uses 3D-printing technology to shorten construction timelines.
"We've been working with the city of St. Petersburg for years developing single family homes," Frank Wells, president of Bright Community Trust, told the agency. He said the group is currently constructing a 3D-printed home elsewhere and expects the slab to be poured and printing to follow; Bright projected about 30 months from Oct. 1 to complete the five homes in this proposal.
Wells and staff said the homes would be two-bedroom, one-bath cottages sold to buyers at or below 120 percent AMI. He described Bright's usual model as operating as a community land trust, often holding ownership of the land and using long-term ground leases to maintain perpetual affordability.
Council members and CRA board members praised the proposal as fitting the city's goals to increase starter-home opportunities and to leverage city-owned land. The agency moved and approved the lease/sale contingent on the affordable-home sale restrictions and qualifications; the motion passed unanimously.
Staff said they will return with closing documents and a construction timeline; Bright invited councilors to a June 22 demonstration of their 3D-printing construction currently underway.
