Oregon Mass Timber Coalition Partners with The Housing Innovation Village Experience to Advance Mass Timber Housing

Rendering of aerial view of the Housing Innovation Village Experience (HIVE) in Newberg, OR

The Oregon Mass Timber Coalition (OMTC) and The Housing Innovation Village Experience (HIVE), produced by The Missing Middle Housing Fund (MMHF) in partnership with SEDCOR and the employers of the Newberg Workforce Housing Consortium, are excited to announce a new partnership aimed at accelerating the production of affordable, modular mass timber housing across Oregon.

The OMTC is a partnership between Oregon's leading research universities and government agencies, including the Oregon Department of Forestry, University of Oregon, Oregon State University, Port of Portland, Department of Land Conservation and Development, TallWood Design Institute, and Business Oregon, working to create equitable economic development and family-wage rural and urban jobs through sustainable wood products grown and manufactured in Oregon. The collaboration brings together OMTC's work building out Oregon's mass timber industry, from sustainable forests and manufacturing to workforce training and R&D, with HIVE's role as a proving ground for innovators who are bringing new housing products to market. Five of HIVE’s 10 cottage cluster units in Newberg are being constructed with mass timber. Houses will be available for sale this Fall.

Rendering of CedarStone's mass timber unit at HIVE

Four of HIVE’s housing units, along with a community building and recycling center, will be assembled at the Port of Portland’s Mass Timber and Housing Innovation Campus at Terminal 2, where the Port is transforming a former marine terminal into a campus for innovation in Oregon’s mass timber and housing construction industries. Located in Northwest Portland, the 39-acre campus will include manufacturing, research and development, skills training, and flexible industrial space to help small and emerging businesses grow. While campus construction is underway, the Port has already started providing space in existing buildings for partners in mass timber and housing innovation like HIVE, including Elemental Building Technologies, HumanKind Homes, Zaugg Timber Solutions, and Single Widget. Prosper Portland, the City of Portland's economic development agency, has been a key partner in supporting businesses and partners at the campus with resources and technical assistance.

Rendering of the future of the Port of Portland's Mass Timber and Housing Innovation Campus

“Advancing innovation in housing solutions addresses fundamental community needs and creates opportunities to sustain quality jobs in the design and construction industries. We are excited to support this partnership which is focused on creating affordable and workforce housing options throughout Oregon,” said Prosper Portland Executive Director, Cornell Wesley.

Rendering of HONE's unit at HIVE, constructed with mass plywood panels

HIVE aims to be the first innovation cottage cluster in the country to serve middle-income workers earning 80-120% of the area median income. HIVE’s goal is to prove how innovations across product materials and design; financing; workforce training; and policy can be stacked to reduce the time and cost to build, ultimately making housing more attainable in our region. Two of the builders, HONE Modular and CedarStone, are using industrialized, prefabricated building systems, incorporating mass timber components such as mass plywood panels and cross laminated timber (CLT), along with onsite assembly to cut both the time and cost of construction at scale. Additionally, both builders are leading workforce training initiatives, including the Home Building Foundation’s Building to Scale, that will facilitate hands-on learning for the next generation of skilled trades in modular mass timber assembly.

Building to Scale workforce training program in mass timber and modular construction

“We're thrilled to have OMTC’s support at HIVE, helping amplify why mass timber matters for Oregon’s housing future,” said Adrienne Fainman, CEO and Design Director for CedarStone. “As a growing Oregon-based mass timber builder, we know OMTC’s partnerships with industry leaders and policymakers are exactly what will help us scale this innovation statewide."

Oregon already has much of the supply chain in place to make this possible, including sustainable forests, lumber mills, veneer plants, and mass plywood and cross-laminated timber manufacturers, along with a growing wave of startups working to bring modular mass timber homes to market.

Mass timber to be used in CedarStone's HIVE unit

From left to right, at CedarStone's Springfield, OR factory: MMHF's Nate Wildfire; CedarStone's Cueyo Cataldo and Adrienne Fainman; Oregon Dept. of Forestry's Marcus Kauffman; and MMHF's Amy Snyder

The roots of this work trace back to 2020, when OMTC formed in the aftermath of Oregon's Labor Day fires, which burned more than a million acres and destroyed at least 4,000 homes across the state. That crisis raised an urgent question: could mass timber technology help rebuild? HIVE is an innovative step towards realizing that vision, pairing research, workforce training, supply chain development, and technology transfer with hands-on entrepreneurial support that turns ideas into attainable homes for Oregon’s workforce.

"HIVE supports our coalition's broader effort, it's a beachhead in housing innovation," said Marcus Kauffman, Senior Innovation Coordinator at the Oregon Department of Forestry. "It's creating a real market for modular mass timber housing, which will lower the cost and time it takes to build homes for working families."

Kauffman also pointed to what makes this partnership personally exciting: the chance to make mass timber homeownership tangible for Oregon families. "What excites me most is showing everyday Oregonians that they can actually have a home built out of mass timber, bringing the warmth of wood into their living room, at a price they can afford," Kauffman said.

Construction at HIVE is currently underway in Newberg, with completion anticipated for this Fall. The goal of the development is to create attainable housing for Newberg’s workforce, while delivering a replicable model across the state. “Our partnership with OMTC is not just about joining forces on this one project, but rather building a sustainable path to attainable housing creation using Oregon’s natural resources for many years to come,” said MMHF’s CEO, Nathan Wildfire. “Working together, we can help bring Oregon’s strong mass timber supply chain to Oregonians who need more housing options while proving that innovation, sustainability, and affordability can go hand in hand.”

The Oregon Mass Timber Coalition (OMTC) works to advance Oregon's mass timber industry through research, workforce development, and supply chain investment. The Housing Innovation Village Experience (HIVE) is a partnership-driven initiative supporting entrepreneurs bringing modular mass timber housing and other innovations to market.