Greenspire Apartments hope to prove energy-efficiency and affordability go hand-in-hand

Tucked in the winding streets of north Longmont, Greenspire Apartments look like any other apartment building. However, the relatively new development hides a secret — the 44-unit building was developed with energy-efficiency and affordability in mind.

Greenspire Apartments has only been open to tenants since March 2021, according to owners Gary and Vicki Kinzie. The Kinzies partnered with their daughter, Valerie, and her husband to fund the property, sharing ownership. Valerie Kinzie works for Veterans Affairs in Fort Collins, they explained, and her desire to help veterans struggling with housing was one of the factors in building the Greenspire Apartments.

Residents at the Greenspire Apartments are almost all on the low-end of Longmont’s income spectrum, Vicki Kinzie said. Some are retired seniors or people who rely on housing vouchers like veterans, she explained. Others come from organizations like The Inn Between, providing a low-cost option for people transitioning into stable housing, the Kinzies said.

Greenspire Apartments is part of Longmont’s Inclusionary Housing program as well. The city ordinance requires 12% of units to be priced at 50% of Area Median Income, but the Kinzies said the rents are low enough that all the units qualify. 

“This place has turned into a situation where we aren’t looking to squeeze every last dollar from people,” Gary Kinzie said. “That’s not what we want, that’s not what our daughter wants.”

The whole project came about through a confluence of events, the Kinzies said — a combination of wanting to downsize their rental properties, provide affordable housing for people on the low end of the income spectrum and create a residence that ran on renewable energy.

Gary Kinzie, who has a background in construction and building codes, began the search for the perfect location. The Kinzies learned about the property at 2021 Kimbark Avenue which prompted Gary Kinzie to begin studying it for potential conversion to an energy-efficient property. As luck would have it, the property went on the market the day before his visit, he said. 

“It had just gone up the day before and someone had already put a bid on it,” Vicki Kinzie said. “We bid a little higher and wound up getting it.”

That was in February 2018, they said, and it took two years for the Kinzies to navigate Longmont’s building codes and ordinances before construction could begin. Gary Kinzie said the past few years has been a lot of “hard work and happy smiles” getting the property ready.

The units in Greenspire Apartment building are small — 300 square feet each — and designed for single residents. Kinzie said most of the residents are content with the size of the units. Valerie Foiles moved into one of the third floor units in October with her dog Axel. Foiles said she particularly enjoyed the view of the creek from the balcony and appreciated the coziness of the unit.

“It’s just big enough for me,” Foiles said. “I really like it and I don’t need much more room than this.”

The cozy interior has one room separated by a low wall, a small sink and a two-burner electric range built into the counter. The small units are well-insulated and airtight, which helps with heat retention and noise reduction, according to Kinzie, which also keeps costs down for utilities and rent.

There are no fossil fuels used to heat or power the Greenspire Apartments, Kinzie explained. 

“We’ve built the place to be so energy efficient, we can afford to pay people’s utility bills. It’s built into the rent and it's working fine,” Gary Kinzie said.

The emphasis on renewable energy is in part inspired by the Kinzies’ 12-year-old grandson, they said. Gary Kinzie said he had burned up enough fossil fuels in his life and wanted to do what he could to give his grandson’s generation a better future.

“His world will not be near what mine was,” Gary Kinzie said. “It’s a shame and I’m embarrassed about it.”

Greenspire Apartments purchases the majority of its electricity through the city of Longmont’s Renewable Power Purchase Program, which allows property owners to pay an additional charge to tap into the city’s renewable energy grid. The rest comes from a trio of solar arrays on the roof that primarily are used to heat the water for the building, reducing the draw from the city energy grid. Each unit has its own 12-gallon tank, more than enough for washing dishes or taking showers, he said.

Because the small units are built so airtight, the Kinzies had to install an air recovery system throughout the building that constantly cycles air through the units. This helps keep carbon dioxide levels low and heat units in the winter through heat-recovery ventilators, Kinzie said. Wall-mounted air-conditioning units help cool the small units in the summer, but Kinzie said he’s still tinkering with more efficient options for cooling as well.

The solar arrays and air recovery systems weren’t cheap, but according to the Kinzies, the expense is more than worth it for the environmental impact. The hope is that Greenspire Apartments can become a model for environmentally-friendly, low-carbon affordable housing moving forward. Kinzie said he’s happy to share the plans with anyone interested in replicating the concept.

Gary and Vicki Kinzie are retired now, but that doesn’t stop Gary Kinzie from tinkering and finding new ways to integrate efficiency into the Greenspire Apartments. Finding new ways to recover heat from water use is one of his next goals, even if he has to invent something, Kinzie said.