There we were, minding our own business as a remodeling company and builder of single-family homes in Cooperstown, N.Y., when we were given the opportunity to embark on a project unlike anything we had ever done before. With several certified passive houses under our belt, we had worked hard to build a reputation as a high-performance builder, so when some investors decided to address the need for multifamily housing in ­Cooperstown, we were invited to the team. They wanted to leverage our expertise to help develop and refine the project design.

Chestnut Crossing, a 16,000-sq.-ft., 13-unit passive house–certified multifamily project, was the result. Not only were we involved in the design, but we were also the builder. It was both the first multifamily project we had ever tackled and the largest single project we had ever attempted, in terms of size and budget. Though it certainly was a learning experience, it was a success and became the first step in making high-performance multifamily housing part of our everyday business.

Fast-forward to the present. We have just wrapped up The Bank Lofts, a multifamily high-performance retrofit of a historic 12,000-sq.-ft., three-story brick bank building (vault included). We also have just started construction on another multifamily project, The Grove. And we have even more prospects on the radar, each at different levels of preconstruction.

To many single-family builders and remodelers, multifamily can seem out of reach. However, small-scale multifamily projects are actually very similar to single-family projects, with a few caveats. In fact, many single-family homes are larger and more complex than a small multifamily building needs to be. And if you build high-performance homes, you are in an even better position to make the move. I think that all multifamily construction should be built to high-performance benchmarks…