VALLEY CENTER, Kan. (KAKE) - The City of Valley Center is in talks to build Kansas’s first-ever community of 3D-printed homes. 

The development would include at least 100 multifamily homes, with a focus on duplexes, for rent. City Administrator Brent Clark said the speed at which these could be built would help address the city’s housing issue. 

“I've only seen toys, you know, or shoes we said be 3D-printed, so house is kind of a big deal,” Tempa Huffman, who lives in Valley Center, said. 

The project is in partnership with the Crain Company 3D, or CC3D. The city sold the land, near Ford and Dexter Avenue in Valley Center, to the Kansas company earlier this week.

“We all knew that this property was meant for something amazing, just something extraordinary,” Clark said.   

Valley Center is expecting a 35% population increase in the next three to five years. Clark said, especially after Amazon opened its plant in Park City, families are flocking to Valley Center. 

“What happens in a few months can be done in a few days through this new technology,” Adrienne Korson, vice president of business development for CC3D, said.

 

Korson said the homes are printed using a concrete base. She said building them is faster and more cost efficient because the company uses less equipment, machinery and people than a normal build. 

“Concrete homes can last for 175 years,” she said. ”They are hardened surfaces, and so they are going to be more tornado resistant as well.”

The project still needs to be fully approved, including zoning and construction measures. If approved, Korson said the company hopes to be on site by the end of the year.

The homes would include three bedrooms, two baths and covered parking. The development would be one of only a few 3D-printed communities across the United States. 

“3D homes are...they've been around for a few years in the United States, but more so overseas and across the world,” Clark said. Nothing to this size and this magnitude has been done in the U.S. that I'm aware of, and so this helps put us on the map.”