New Serviceberry Grove affordable homes breaking ground in October
Innovative infill project created by local team dedicated to affordable housing
Release date: 9/24/26
Images available here (courtesy to Front Step and JT Architecture if using)
Contact: info@frontstepclt.org
Front Step Community Land Trust in partnership with Kind Homes LLC announces Serviceberry Grove Homes, a new housing development in Missoula’s Midtown area. A property off South Avenue near Winco will be transformed into four 2-bedroom community land trust condos for households earning up to 120% of the area median income.
Stakeholders and members of the media are invited to a groundbreaking slated for Wed., Oct. 21 at 10 AM at 2220 Livingston Avenue. Light refreshments will be served.
Rendering: JT Architects
The partnership includes Kind Homes Cooperative, a new, worker-owned home building group with a focus on affordable housing. The socially-minded co-op includes experienced local builders and a working physician who advocates for housing reform in his spare time.
Project partners aim to replicate the plans on the property next door, also owned by Front Step.
The new Serviceberry Grove Homes represent an exciting opportunity to use Missoula’s new zoning code to create more accessibly-priced housing.
Brittany Palmer, executive director at Front Step, says:
“Our team has been looking for the best way to expand our capacity to develop new community land trust homes. We’re excited about this new and innovative partnership with the mission-aligned folks at Kind Homes because it’s unlocked a way for us to bring new permanently affordable housing to Missoula’s Midtown neighborhood.
“Equally as meaningful, though, is that the partnership represents a new generation of developers aligning on what’s most important to us and our peers – well-constructed, beautiful, environmentally conscious, permanently affordable opportunities for homeownership – and we’re actually getting it accomplished through this partnership.”
Andy Erickson, Worker-owner, Kind Homes Co-op, says:
“Partnering with Front Step and the City of Missoula has allowed us to put our energy towards the two issues most important to us as builders: affordability and resource conservation. As citizens of this town and this planet, offering affordable housing that performs like a high end custom home is something we have long hoped to achieve and we are so excited to finally have the opportunity to move in that direction.”
The building will be two stories tall, each unit will be a single story 1,020-square-foot home. The plans include two ADA-accessible units, street trees, attached storage units, and a parking area.
The building uses a double-stud wall system for above code minimum insulation levels and cellulose insulation made of recycled materials. The project also features a standing seam steel roof for durability, a combination of steel and wood siding, a permanent wood stem wall foundation, and environmentally friendly permeable pavers instead of concrete to allow for natural infiltration and limit the use of high carbon concrete. The units are fully electric and will be constructed to make them solar-ready.
Funding from the Missoula Redevelopment Agency made this project possible.
About the Project Partners
Kind Homes Cooperative
Kind Homes Cooperative is a new, worker-owned home building group with a focus on affordable housing. The socially-minded co-op consists of local builders Will Genadek, Andy Erickson, and Matt Cvitkovich joined by project manager and local MD Chris Hallberg. Together they have over 20 years of experience spanning from kitchen/bath remodels, to duplexes, to luxury, single-family home construction. They use high performance building techniques and sustainable materials to create comfortable, efficient and long lasting homes.
JT Architecture
JT Architecture is led by two principal architects, Keith Jacobsen and Matt Thome, who provide nimble, high value design services for like-minded community members. They have over 20 years of combined experience practicing architecture in Montana and the greater United States with extensive project experience in multifamily housing, custom single family homes and remodels as well as manufacturing and food and beverage and government projects.
About the Partnership
Livingston Avenue Partners, LLC is a joint developer partnership between Front Step and Kind Homes Cooperative.
The structure of this partnership could serve as a template for other community land trusts and partner design-build companies across the state. Upon successful completion of the first fourplex project, partners will repeat the project on the next door parcel, also owned by Front Step.
Project partners are being mentored by Chris Chitty, former owner of Hone Architects and Builders.
Project Roles
Front Step owns and will donate the land, provides access to subsidized financing and accelerated permitting, will support construction administration, will lead the application for MRA workforce housing subsidy, and will market and sell the community land trust homes. As the community land trust, Front Step will maintain ownership of the land under the four condos and will permanently steward the affordability and public investment in the project.
Kind Homes, operating on a time and materials contract as the general contractor, will donate their portion of the developer fee to Front Step, defer collection of their general contractor fee, manage the construction and development, provide capital for financing costs, fund predevelopment expenses until construction financing is secured, and provide an additional guarantee on the construction loan.
About Front Step Community Land Trust
Front Step Community Land Trust was born out of neighborhood organizing on the Northside of Missoula in the 1990s. Seeking to improve the working class neighborhood and struggling to get those needs met by institutions, Front Step founder Bob Oaks began building community power among Northsiders to organize and accomplish key projects to improve the health and wellbeing of neighbors.
Since our founding in 1996, Front Step (formerly North Missoula CDC) has led a series of transformative, community-driven projects that have become cornerstones of Missoula’s working-class neighborhoods. We engaged hundreds of neighbors in Neighborhood Planning efforts that guided development and infrastructure for two decades including the creation of the Northside Railroad Pedestrian Overpass which reconnected neighborhoods long divided by rail lines.
Front Step is also Montana’s first community land trust, and has grown to over 80 permanently affordable homes, ensuring working families can stay rooted in this community.
Missoula has changed since our beginning, but our work remains the same: building community power, thriving neighborhoods, and affordable homes. At Front Step, we open doors to one another—honoring the Missoulians who have built their lives here and making room for those still on their way.
Visit FrontStepCLT.org to learn more.