This year’s Solar Decathlon Design Challenge was held virtually in the wake of COVID-19. Collegiate teams compete in categories such as mixed-use multifamily, urban single family and suburban single family; winning projects feature innovative designs for buildings that excel in affordability, efficiency and occupant health.

If you’re wondering how your company can get involved with this annual Department of Energy competition, consider participating as a mentor in the Design Partners program.

Your company could gain exposure by providing student teams with real-life experience working on buildings and homes with your clients. Whether you’re a seasoned high-performance builder or relatively new to the market, the Design Partners program allows you to mentor students and receive a zero-energy design — i.e., a building that produces as much energy as it consumes — for a new or existing building in your project portfolio.

The program requires a 20- to 30-hour commitment over the course of a year of in-person or remote consultation with the student team to discuss your design requirements and give them ongoing feedback leading up to the competition. There are also minimum parameters depending on the building type. For example, in the urban single-family housing division, the building must be between 300 and 2,500 square feet, and the lot size can be up to 5,000 square feet.

In return for completing the consultation hours and fulfilling basic design parameters, your company will:

• Have the chance to mentor and work with students;
• Establish relationships with the younger workforce and build your company’s exposure for potential future employees;
• Receive a zero-energy design for a real project in your portfolio that you are already contracted to design and build; and
• Receive a basic cost estimate for the building.

To see how other organizations have contributed and interacted with the Design Partners program, visit the Solar Decathlon’s project profiles page or see how other NAHB members have mentored previous winners. If you have a project in mind and are interested in participating, the Design Partner form is now available.

For more information about NAHB’s sustainable and green building programs, contact Program Manager Anna Stern. To stay current on the high-performance residential building sector with tips on water efficiency, energy efficiency, indoor air quality, and other building science strategies, follow NAHB’s Sustainability and Green Building team on Twitter.

OSHA’s Safe + Sound Week, Aug. 10-16, is a nationwide event held each year that recognizes the successes of workplace health and safety programs and offers information and ideas on how to keep America’s workers safe.

Successful safety and health programs can proactively identify and manage workplace hazards before they cause injury or illness, improving sustainability and the bottom line.

This week is the perfect time for home builders to review their written job site safety and health programs. A written safety program is a requirement for construction job sites under OSHA regulations. All employees must be aware of the program and many elements are required to be posted on the site.

NAHB has developed free safety program resources for home builders and contractors. The Safety Program Toolkit is designed for small to medium-sized home builders and general contractors to use as a model for their own safety programs.

The NAHB model safety program contains the materials needed to effortlessly set up a successful, company-wide safety program, including company and employee documentation and notices that can be posted on the job site. It can be customized to reflect the particular circumstances of each job site.

Last year, NAHB teamed up with sponsor James Hardie to offer a safety program for siding contractors. It also serves as a model program designed for small companies primarily engaged in installing siding of fiber cement, wood, aluminum, vinyl, or other exterior finish material (except brick, stone, stucco, or curtain wall) on residential buildings.

In addition to a written plan for general job site safety, NAHB reminds members that diligence must be continued to slow the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. NAHB published job site guidance for coronavirus safety early in the pandemic, and has since updated it to stay current with the latest guidance from government and public health authorities.

The safety and health of NAHB members, and all who work in residential construction, is a top organizational priority. A culture of safety begins with a thorough plan that is readily accessible to managers, workers and subcontractors.

For questions about safety programs, contact Rob Matuga.

In NAHB’s webinar House Plan Designs that Can Save You Thousands, on Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2-3 p.m. ET, participants will learn how to get the most out of every square foot in a new home and slash costs while increasing curb appeal.

Through the power of smart, economical house plans, discover how design can unlock functionality and provide home buyers with contemporary, money-saving features at a price that is well within most budgets.

Speaker Michael Walker, owner, Walker Home Design, will help participants:

• Discover how to reduce waste and construction time while increasing profits.
• Learn design tips so you can provide your clients with a more aesthetically pleasing product.
• Review a case study where implementing value engineering provided substantial savings for both the builder and client.

Register today.

Registration is open until 3 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Aug. 18. For questions about registration, please contact Deborah Krat at EdWebinars@nahb.org.

Participants can earn one hour of continuing education credits for the following designations: CAPS, CGA, CGB, CGP, CGR, CMP, CSP, GMB, GMR, Master CGP, Master CSP, and MIRM.

After an accelerated pace of layoffs in March and April stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, construction sector hiring roared back in May and posted a slower but solid pace in June, according to the latest data from the BLS Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS).

The construction sector hired 679,000 workers in May, followed by 498,000 in June. By comparison, 423,000 construction workers were hired in June 2019.

In May, the construction hiring rate [the number of hires (679,000) divided by total employment and sector job openings] increased to 9.7%, after a subdued 3.7% rate in April. This was the strongest rate of hiring in the history of the JOLTS data. In June, the rate was 6.9%, slower than May but still well above average.

This pace of rehiring, combined with weakness in the nonresidential sector, reduced the open jobs rate to just 3.3% in June, with a  total of 245,000 open construction sector jobs. The open job count was 325,000 a year ago. However, builders continue to cite limited access to skilled construction workers as a concern as they seek workers to undertake more home construction and remodeling.

NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz provides more details in this Eye on Housing blog post.

Opportunity Zones (OZs) are an economic development tool created by the federal government in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Investments made into Opportunity Zones go through a qualified opportunity fund (QOF). QOFs can take the form of a corporation or partnership. Two tax incentives for investments are provided in an Opportunity Zone:

• It allows taxpayers to defer federal taxes owed on any capital gains invested in a QOF. Investors may be eligible to reduce federal taxes owed on the deferred capital gains over time.
• The law excludes from gross income the post-acquisition gains on investments by QOFs that are held for at least 10 years.

The Treasury Department lists the final tracts of all the Qualified Opportunity Zones (QOZs) here.  Some localities have attempted to attract investments by building capacity in their QOZs. For example Erie, Pennsylvania, added free WiFi for its eight designated QOZs. Other communities are currently seeing project development. Duluth, Minnesota, home to five qualified census tracts, has about $125 million of investments in six public-improvement projects, with at least six more in the works.

Here are some examples of successful OZ projects across the country:

Gravity — Columbus, Ohio

Gravity (Phase I) began construction prior to OZ legislation in early 2017. The project is located in the Franklinton neighborhood of Columbus and “seeks to elevate and build into the surrounding community by supporting local artists, driving innovative events and programming, and promoting wellbeing,” according to Frank Sasso, president of Kaufman Development. Gravity I is a mixed-use project of 234 multifamily units and 80,000 square feet of commercial space.

“Both the long-term nature and lower return thresholds [of Opportunity Zones] have allowed us to conceptualize a second phase of the Gravity Project that will be even more impactful than the first,” Sasso said. Phase II of Gravity, five acres south of Phase I and still in the Franklinton QOZ, is nearly twice as dense as Phase I with a total of nearly 400 multifamily units due to locating in the QOZ.

Other benefits of locating in the QOZ include a variety of price points from affordable to market-rate and enhanced public art and spaces. Phase II contains an additional 170,000 square feet of office space to support job creation in Franklinton, as QOZs can attract business activity and relocation.

Antelope and Bluestem Commons — Nebraska

These two projects by Hoppe Homes are still in the entitlement phase, yet highlight the process of developing within OZs.

Antelope, an urban redevelopment in Lincoln, was acquired by Hoppe prior to the 2017 tax act. At the time, the surrounding area was deemed blighted and substandard, incentivizing redevelopment with tax increment financing (TIF), which is what originally attracted Hoppe. In trying to develop workforce housing at an 80% to 100% area median income (AMI) level, any incentive is beneficial, according to Jake Hoppe, vice president of development and finance at Hoppe Homes. By developing in an QOZ, additional tax incentives may be available to Hoppe.

After realizing the benefits of developing the project in Lincoln, Hoppe Homes bought land in another QOZ outside of Freemont, Nebraska. Hoppe began the new project, Bluestem Commons, within an QOZ, and is attempting to make this project a good financial asset for potential investors and meet the needs of the community at the same time.

Bluestem Commons is planned as a mixed-use community of multifamily workforce rentals and for-sale townhomes and rowhomes among commercial and amenity space. Hoppe Homes intends to hold each project to maximize the potential deferral of taxes, which has led them to plan more rental units than they might have done otherwise.

Hartford — Statesboro, Georgia

To take advantage of the potential tax benefits available when developing in a QOZ, a developer must consider the maintenance and management for a designated period of time. For Lamar Smith Homes, developer for Hartford, this meant transitioning from its traditional single-family, build-and-sell model to a 10-year rental management operation.

Lamar Smith Homes plans to build uniform homes and landscaping that is practical to maintain for the 10 years. It instituted a strict covenant for house care and built a surrounding fence to restrict traffic flow to maximize asset appreciation.

Overall, OZs can attract investors to areas in a community they may have initially overlooked. When identifying potential projects, builders and developers should factor in all the requirements of the development process, including the potential for long-term project management and locating competent advisors to ensure the project stays in compliance with federal guidelines. Use this map to explore OZs that may be available in your area.

For additional resources on housing, housing affordability, and tips and tools for the development process, please check out NAHB’s Land Use 101 webpage. The resources can be helpful in tackling development projects in new areas.

NAHB also provides the most up-to-date and relevant information on OZs through its Opportunity Zone webpage.

NAHB is providing this information for general information only. This information does not constitute the provision of legal advice, tax advice, accounting services, investment advice, or professional consulting of any kind, nor should it be construed as such. The information should not be used as a substitute for consultation with professional tax, accounting, legal, or other competent advisers.

This article originally appeared in Best of American Living. Read the full post here.