Alquist 3D tells Greeley City Council infrastructure products coming ‘soon’ as first Hope Springs building nears completion

As Alquist 3D continues to make progress on the Hope Springs community, the company maintains that it is on track to deliver 79 jobs, the number promised when its move to Greeley was announced last year.

Alquist representatives updated the Greeley City Council on the company’s work at a council work session on Tuesday.

Discussing the designs for a curb system with integrated drainage — which was set to be the company’s first project with the city — Alquist 3D CEO Patrick Callahan acknowledged the company is behind the schedule officials had anticipated. Alquist remains in the prototype phase of the design process.

“I think there is a collective frustration that we haven’t gone faster,” he said, adding they would begin printing products “very, very soon.”

Prototypes will be delivered to the public works department in January, according to Callahan. Similarly, Alquist expects to deliver planters that will aid with water retention in 2025.

Greeley’s Economic Development and Urban Revitalization Department began working with Alquist in 2023. Along with Aims Community College and the state of Colorado, Alquist 3D and the city of Greeley partnered with the goal of making Greeley the center of 3D technology growth in the state, with the city and state collectively awarding more than $4 million in incentives.

Alquist 3D’s first homes in the area are being built in partnership with the Greeley-Weld Habitat for Humanity for the nonprofit’s Hope Springs project.

Hope Springs will include 174 homes, some of which will be 3D-printed — another benefit of the company’s relocation that was touted by officials announcing Alquist’s relocation last year. The first duplex, however, is only now in the final stages of reaching completion, Callahan said Tuesday.

“Again, I know another frustrating subject,” he added.

Temperature control of the printing material in the area’s colder climate has been a learning process, Callahan reported, one he said no one else in the world had tackled. Although it’s taken longer to print the home while solving this issue, he expressed confidence they’ll be able to move much faster moving forward.

Habitat CEO Cheri-Witt Brown told the Tribune Alquist’s work on the duplex is about 75% completed. Once Alquist finishes printing the walls, Habitat will go in and finish the two units of the duplex, including trusses, roofing, frame interior walls, electrical, plumbing, heating, ventilation and air conditioning and all the interior finishes.

“Thanks to the continuous support from the city of Greeley, Alquist 3D has rapidly become the 3D concrete printing industry thought leader in commercial, residential and municipal projects,” Callahan said after announcing their recent success in completing the country’s largest 3D-printed commercial structure in Athens, Tennessee. “Alquist looks forward to advancing its capabilities alongside the city of Greeley.”

From 2023-24, the city has provided Alquist 3D with $2.85 million in financing. The majority of this financing was in the form of a $2 million construction grant for a new 25,000-square-foot facility on the Aims campus for Alquist 3D research and design.

Callahan also shared with council the company’s recent success with their 3D-printing certificate program with Aims that the city’s funding helped develop. The online course has a total of 50 students, and Alquist 3D founder and chairman Zachary Mannheimer anticipates even more in the next semester.

Alquist 3D is in the process of developing an in-person workshop that will focus on design and coding, material science, robotics and kinematic motion as a supplement to the online course for the 2025 spring semester.

“It has been a very, very positive relationship with the city of Greeley over the last 12 months,” Callahan said.

As of January, Alquist has moved its headquarters to Greeley and is now employing a total of 22 full-time employees, 12 of whom are Greeley residents, with the expectation of hiring eight more by the end of January.

Council members asked Callahan and Mannheimer to clarify whether that meant they were on track to meet their goal of providing 79 new jobs to Greeley. The Greeley Director of Economic Development John Hall answered that the company is on track to meet its goals.

Mannheimer confirmed they plan to have 50 total employees by the end of 2025.

“As long as we’re making money,” Callahan said.

Originally Published: December 14, 2024 at 2:27 PM MST