Interesting news from ICON: they’ve launched a new residential building project.
ICON writes:
“ICON is excited to share with you today that we are announcing our new project in partnership with renowned firm Michael Hsu Office of Architecture and Catellus on a dozen two-story residential homes breaking ground in 2025 in the desirable Mueller community in Austin, TX.”
The company has performed similar projects in the past, so why is this a big deal? It’s because the company had previously announced significant layoffs from its workforce.
In January, the company submitted a notice to the Texas ”Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification Notices” (WARN) report suggesting they were to lay off 114 people on March 8th. This is required by local labor laws.
At the time, I thought this was very curious because the company had attracted an immense amount of investment capital, nearly US$500M over the past few years. Had they run out?
Then a month later, the company announced a new investment of US$56M, primarily obtained from prior investors in the company. The new money was said to be used in the development of their next-generation 3DCP 3D printer, the “Phoenix” line.
Did the warned layoffs actually occur? Did the new investment prevent or decrease the number of staff layoffs? It’s not clear, as the company has not indicated so.
What we do know is that they are launching a new build project, and it seems pretty substantial with twelve homes being printed. However, it’s lower than the far larger projects the company has undertaken in the past. They continue on a few other projects, as ICON explains:
“This marks the first ICON homes for sale in Austin since 2021. ICON has recently built the world’s largest community of 3D-printed homes with Lennar in Georgetown, TX, a series of homes in Wimberley, TX, and is underway delivering 104 more homes to Mobile Loaves & Fishes’ Community First! Village in Austin for the chronically homeless and more.”
What does all this mean? It seems that ICON is continuing, fresh with some investment, and perhaps with a few less staff on hand.
Via ICON
