The Denver Gazette just ran a business feature by Hap Fry on a Greeley-based company called Alquist 3D, and it is one of those rare articles that makes you sit back and say, “See? This is what progress looks like when it is not buried under a 400-page rulebook.”
The story tracks Alquist’s rise in 3D concrete printing for commercial and residential construction, starting with founder and chairman Zachary Mannheimer’s winding path from theater to community development to construction tech. It is equal parts biography and “here’s the next wave,” with Alquist positioning itself as a national-scale player that can actually deploy this technology in the real world, not just talk about it at conferences.
It also spotlights why Alquist picked Greeley, what they are building toward with local partnerships, and how workforce training at Aims Community College is becoming part of the company’s long-term plan to scale.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Zachary Mannheimer founded Alquist in late 2020, moved the headquarters to Greeley in 2023, and is now pushing 3D concrete printing as a practical, scalable construction tool, not a sci-fi hobby.
- Alquist built what the article calls the first 3D-printed home in Virginia in 2021, worked with Habitat for Humanity on multiple projects, and then went big on commercial work.
- The company landed its largest contract with Walmart and says it will print more than a dozen new Walmart buildings, building on prior Walmart projects in Tennessee and Alabama in 2024. That is not a “pilot program.” That is deployment.
- The article lays out Alquist’s partnership ecosystem, including Hugg & Hall and FMGI, and frames it as the kind of partner stack needed to scale 3D construction printing at a massive level.
- Locally, the Aims partnership is the secret sauce: courses, workshops, and Alquist becoming the first industry tenant at the Aims Workforce Innovation Center, plus a $25,000 donation for scholarships. That is workforce development with calluses, not slogans.
My Bottom Line
It has been my honor to visit the facility and spend time with the people at Alquist. Weld County is proud to have them here, and this is exactly the kind of free-market solution we should be cheering for if we are serious about housing affordability and sustainability.
While the folks under the Gold Dome keep acting like affordability is something you can legislate into existence with another program, another mandate, or another press release, Alquist is out here doing the hard part. They are tackling the problem head-on in the marketplace, with real equipment, real workers, and real outcomes.
And here is the part that should make every policymaker pay attention: this technology is not done improving. It will get better. It will get faster. It will get cheaper. That is how innovation works when you let builders build and entrepreneurs innovate.
I have nothing more to add other than this: good on the folks at Alquist. This is Colorado at its best, and Weld County is lucky to have the front-row seat.
Source: Denver Gazette
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