At Grow, we believe that what we do now affects future generations, so we’re trying to build a community that respects the resource and cultural needs of future generations. In this category we will be spotlighting forward thinking technologies and concepts being utilized at Grow, and in the wider sustainable development community.

HARD HAT TOURS: Want an inside look at your future home?

Want an inside look at your future home? Green Canopy NODE, along with our trusted brokers, are hosting exclusive hard hat tours this September to support lot reservations.

These tours offer an up-close view of your future home – don’t miss out! Tour the two townhome types, and learn more about the project and the reservation process.

By appointment only. Please RSVP by contacting Anne Reichard at 630.842.6294 or emailing Anne Reichard and Dana Fitzpatrick at trilliumatgrow@gmail.com.

Thursday, 9/21, 5-7pm

or

Saturday, 9/23, 12-2pm

200 Shepard Way NE, construction site

RESERVATIONS OPEN FRIDAY, 9/22/23, AT 10AM

Be the first to secure one of the 14 townhomes in this final phase of Grow Community. Green Canopy NODE is excited to announce reservations open for The Trillium this Friday, 9/22/23, at 10am. Reserve your preferred townhome lot in advance of pre-sales, ensuring your claim to your dream unit.

CONTACT:

Anne Reichard, Broker
630.842.6294
anne.reichard@compass.com

Dana Fitzpatrick, Broker
206.488.8632
dana.fitzpatrick@compass.com

 

Unveiling The Trillium: A New Era of Sustainable Living in Grow Community!

Exciting update! The final phase of Grow Community, The Trillium, is well underway with construction. Teaming up with Green Canopy NODE and Davis Studio Architecture + Design, we’re bringing you 14 sustainable townhomes with striking design, comfort, and modernity. Choose from spacious three-bedroom or cozy two-bedroom units, all boasting 5-star built green standards, premium finishes, EV-ready parking, and private rooftop spaces. Secure your spot with lot reservations through Compass brokers, and exclusive hard hat tours are coming this September. Construction progress is moving smoothly with roofing and siding phases underway, targeting completion in Spring 2024. Get ready to experience exceptional sustainable living!

MORE DETAILS HERE

Final phase now under construction

The Final Phase of Grow Community is now under construction. Green Canopy NODE and Davis Studio Architecture + Design are partnering to complete Grow Community by adding 14 single family townhomes currently under construction. There will be two types of townhomes but all will share a modern aesthetic complementing the established Grow Community, with premium appliances and finishes. All will be 5 Star Built Green with the six larger units Net-Zero-Energy homes by way of installed roof-top solar. The smaller units will be Net-Zero Ready for homeowners to add solar if they choose. 

Six of the two-story townhomes will have three bedrooms and two and a half baths and a bit more than 1,810 square feet. These homes are designed with two primary bedrooms, one on the ground floor with age-in-place features like a curbless shower. Double-height space above kitchen will bring in lots of natural light. A strong connection with the outdoors will come with a private patio garden and a roof deck on the second floor. Entry to these homes is along walk-in landscaped, shared courtyard. 

The other eight units face Shepard Way with pocket patios on both sides of the home. They will comprise 1,160 square feet with two bedrooms and one and a half baths. The second floor enjoys the same roof deck plus high ceilings for lots of light. There is also a special attic loft space for storage or a kids play area.  

All units will have a dedicated parking stall in the adjacent lot with EV conduit provided. Homeowners can easily install their own EV charging as they see fit. 

Expected completion: late 2023.

Preparation of the site for final phase construction

July 2022 Update

As you likely already know Green Canopy NODE is developing the final phase of Grow Community. But you may not know when!

We plan to begin preparing the site in August. It is exciting for us to be part of this innovative project and to bring it to completion.

One of the first activities you will notice is the installation of a perimeter fence, and construction staging in the parking lot near Lilac. Please see the site map below for details, such as the continuation of the pedestrian passage along Shepard Way.

There are more details coming so please hold your questions for just a little bit. Soon we will follow up with timelines, what to expect, construction hours, etc.

Green Canopy NODE is a special purpose corporation focused on environmental sustainability in residential development. Our Grow community construction team includes these on-site members, and many behind the scenes:

  • Ben Handziak, Construction Project Manager
  • Evan Welch, Construction Site Supervisor
  • Nina Milligan, Construction Communications Project Manager
  • Sam Lai, Chief Development Officer
  • Justin Hooks, VP Construction
  • Greg Lotakis, Project Construction Support

And you may recognize these Bainbridge Islanders also engaged in the project:

  • Joie Olsen, Sales and Marketing, Grow
  • Anne Reichard, Sales and Marketing, Compass Real Estate
  • Dana Fitzpatrick, Sales and Marketing, Compass Real Estate
  • Deb Henderson, Marketing and Outreach, TRUE Creative

As we approach significant milestones and activities onsite, we will keep you posted. The best place to get the latest news will continue to be right here on this website. From here you can sign up for the email list at the bottom of the page, and link to various social media channels. “Follow” us to optimize your news feed.

Thank you for your support! More details coming soon!

Grow Mentioned in NY Times Article: Developers Build More Net Zero Homes as Climate Concerns Grow

Grow Community is mentioned in the following article published in the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/16/business/net-zero-homes.html

 

Energy-Efficient Isn’t Enough, So Homes Go ‘Net Zero’

Demand for residences that produce as much energy as they consume is being spurred by climate concerns, consumer appetite and more affordable solar technology.

Jan and Julie Sehrt in a model home at the Catskill Project, a “net zero” development in Livingston Manor, N.Y.
Arden Wray for The New York Times

In the three years that Nicole Rae and Brian Mastenbrook lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, they grew increasingly concerned about California’s wildfires. The skies would turn orange, ash would settle on plants and porch railings, and Ms. Rae, a 30-year-old teacher who has asthma, would have trouble breathing.

So in May, she and Mr. Mastenbrook, a 37-year-old tech worker, sold their home and moved to Ann Arbor, Mich. Mr. Mastenbrook has family in Michigan, and officials in Ann Arbor were taking steps to lower the city’s carbon footprint.

They admired plans for a “net zero” community there, Veridian at County Farm, to be filled with solar-powered, all-electric homes that would be free of the fossil fuels whose greenhouse gas emissions have contributed to climate change.

Matthew Grocoff, left, a developer of a net zero community in Ann Arbor, Mich., with Lori and Mitch Hall, who are investing in the development and buying a home there.
Sylvia Jarrus for The New York Times

“If those homes were built and ready to buy today,” Ms. Rae said, “we already would have purchased one.”

The couple’s experience as climate refugees may be dramatic, but across the country, more home buyers are seeking net zero residences, so called because they produce as much energy as they consume and, because they typically achieve this via solar power, do not add carbon to the atmosphere. And developers are increasingly stepping up to meet the demand.

Data on net zero housing is scarce, but a report from the nonprofit group Team Zero tallies about 24,500 homes in the United States that achieve “zero energy” performance and estimates that the actual number “is considerably larger.” The Department of Energy has certified 8,656 as “net zero ready,” meaning they could reach zero energy with the addition of solar.

The numbers are expected to grow, spurred not only by consumer appetite but also by building code updates, more affordable solar technology, a growing familiarity with once-exotic appliances like induction stoves and the “electrify everything” movement. Now investors are increasingly steering money toward sustainable real estate, making it easier for developers to raise money for housing that addresses climate concerns.

And although the net zero movement is sometimes associated with homes for the affluent, it is also resulting in housing for those at the other end of the income spectrum, who stand to benefit from lower energy bills.

“The housing industry is being disrupted the way the auto industry was,” said Aaron Smith, chief executive of the nonprofit Energy & Environmental Building Alliance, referring to the popularity of electric cars and pledges by manufacturers to phase out gasoline-powered vehicles.

A rendering of  Veridian at County Farm, the development in Ann Arbor.
Union Studio / Renderings by McLennan Design

But even as the climate crisis has highlighted the need for sustainable construction, challenges remain. The building industry has resisted code changes. The surge in demand for single-family homes spurred by the pandemic may weaken the urgency for change because conventional houses are finding ready buyers these days.

Many consumers are still more interested in granite kitchen counters and other cosmetic details than in electric heat pumps, but surveys indicate that millennials are likely to bring their concerns about the environment to their home-buying decisions, said Sara Gutterman, chief executive of Green Builder Media, which has conducted surveys of this demographic group.

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Jan Sehrt, 37, and his wife, Julie, 39, both Google workers with a three-bedroom condominium in Brooklyn, spent the better part of the pandemic searching for a second home where they could enjoy nature with their two daughters.

After scouring more than 1,000 listings online, the Sehrts settled on a solar-powered, all-electric house in the Catskill Project, a net zero development in the upstate New York hamlet of Livingston Manor. Their home — which will cost about $1 million and is expected to be completed next fall — will be one of 11 single-family residences designed to maximize solar power and prevent energy loss through airtight building envelopes.

The Catskill Project in Livingston Manor will have 11 single-family residences.
Arden Wray for The New York Times
The homes there will maximize solar power and prevent energy loss with airtight building envelopes.
Arden Wray for The New York Times

“We stepped into the model home, and they said, ‘These are triple-pane windows,’” said Mr. Sehrt, who was familiar with green building from his childhood in Germany. “After that it was just one win after another.”

There is widespread agreement that residential buildings are crucial to limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius over preindustrial levels. Buildings, including their construction, account for about 40 percent of carbon emissions, with housing responsible for about half that. Retrofitting inefficient structures is the biggest challenge, but building sustainable homes is also important.

For decades, homeowners experimented with solar panels and off-the-grid houses. Then pioneering developments began cropping up. Grow Community, on Washington State’s Bainbridge Island, introduced its first solar-powered homes in 2012; its third and final phase of development is about to get underway.

Marja Williams, a development consultant who helped guide Grow in its early years and has lived there since 2014, said her monthly utility bill was just $7.97 — the basic service fee. Her house produces more energy than it uses, with the utility funneling off excess power in summer and crediting her account in winter when the solar arrays are less productive. A Grow home that originally cost about $480,000 sold recently for nearly double that, she said.

Builders such as Mandalay Homes and Thrive Home Builders have specialized in homes with ultra-efficient energy use. Others are experimenting with net zero construction.

Crown Pointe Estates recently introduced what may be the most upscale version: the “zero series” homes at the company’s MariSol Malibu development in Ventura County, Calif. The first residence, more than 14,000 square feet, is on the market for $32 million.

Brookfield Asset Management and Dacra have joined forces with Tesla on 11 homes under construction in Brookfield’s Easton Park in Austin, Texas. The homes will look identical to the other single-family houses in the development except for their solar roof tiles.

Tesla is supplying solar roof tiles and batteries for 11 homes in a development in Austin, Texas.
Brookfield Residential

Ranging from $384,000 to $681,000, they cost about 10 percent more than neighboring homes but are expected to generate and store all the energy residents need, freeing them from energy bills and vulnerability to blackouts.

About 1,400 people expressed interest in the 11 homes, said Brian Kingston, chief executive of Brookfield’s real estate group, who interpreted that as “proof of concept.” The development team plans to build 200 more like them.

Low-rise, single-family homes are not the only kind of net zero housing in the works: Multifamily housing contains the majority of net zero units in the United States. Sustainable Living Innovations, a Seattle tech company, is building a 15-story, 112-unit apartment tower with factory-made panels preloaded with plumbing, electrical wiring and mechanical systems.

A prefabricated approach is being used on a much smaller scale elsewhere in Seattle: The Block Project is building micro solar homes for the homeless.

Block Project volunteers wrapping a new house in Seattle in a weather barrier before the installation of siding.
Bernard Troyer

The effort, by the nonprofit group Facing Homelessness, crafts panels in a workshop and then assembles them in the yards of homeowners who have agreed to turn over part of their property to a 230-square-foot residence for someone in need. So far, 11 of these homes, which cost about $75,000 to build, are occupied, and more are in the works, said Bernard Troyer, project manager at Facing Homelessness.

Veridian, the Ann Arbor project, aims for a mix of income levels on its 14-acre site. Avalon Housing, a nonprofit provider of affordable housing, will construct nine buildings containing 50 apartments on a portion of the site.

The 110 units of market-rate housing, to be developed by Thrive Collaborative (which is unrelated to Thrive Home Builders), will range from $200,000 apartments to $900,000 single-family homes. Work on the site is expected to begin this fall, and the market-rate homes should be completed in 2023, said Matthew Grocoff, Thrive’s founder.

In addition to securing financing from mission-driven funds, Mr. Grocoff has attracted local investors, among them Mitch and Lori Hall. Retirees with three grown children, the Halls have decided not only to buy a townhouse at Veridian but to become the largest equity partner in the project.

“It’s the way we need to move as a planet and a country,” Ms. Hall said. “Hopefully, 30 years from now, it won’t be so unusual.”

 

 

Grow Featured in Two Recent Publications

Grow Community has been featured in two recent publications.  The first Pre-Fab Living by Avi Friedman, published by Thames and Hudson, p68 – Room to Grow.  The other Good Energy by Jared Green, published by Princeton Architectural Press, p74.  

Grow featured in Departures Magazine

“The truly health-obsessed don’t just want to eat right and get some exercise. They want to live in a new kind of “wellness community.”  Grow Community was recently featured in Departures Magazine. The Guru Next Door looks at our One Planet Living model where “sustainability and well-being are inextricably linked.”

Read article here

Now available: Juniper homes entering the market

Grow Community is pleased to announce 2- and 3-bedroom condominium units in the Juniper building are now entering the market for the first time.

Each unit offers the full range of quality construction, fine appointments and planet-friendly, energy-saving features buyers have come to expect from Washington’s largest planned-solar community.

These beautifully designed, ultra-efficient homes boast Bosch appliance packages, quartz counters, floor-to-ceiling windows, all-home circulation and heat recovery, and efficient low-flow fixtures.

Rooftop solar offsets utility costs and provides a refund to the homeowner each year.

All Juniper homes feature convenient, single-level living with bedrooms and active spaces on one level. Ground-floor garden homes open onto secluded outdoor patios, while second- and third-floor units offer spacious private decks.

A semi-private elevator provides access from underground parking and storage directly to your entryway.

The first three units are now open and available for showing:

Juniper Unit 104: A corner unit facing south onto the Grove, this 1,477 sf. home offers three bedrooms, 1.75 baths and an open, spacious living/dining area. An expansive private patio offers an additional 522 sf. of outdoor living, opening directly onto a community greenway. See photos and floorplan here.

Juniper Unit 201: This popular layout includes 2 bedrooms and 1.75 baths over 1,468 sf. of comfortable living space. A covered deck adds 98 sf. of year-round outdoor living with generous south views for family and guests. See photos and floorplan here.

Juniper Unit 303: Enjoy a birds-eye view of the Grove from the master suite of this 2-bedroom, 1,454 sf. unit. An open living/dining layout, ample walk-thru closet and 1.75 baths complement the many fine features.  See photos and floorplan here.

More available units will be announced soon as they enter the market. Contact Joie Olsen at 206.452.6755 and visit Grow Community and the Juniper homes today.

Click here for more information on these homes.