SmartPads founders Darrin Fryer and Ryan Cox have watched as their innovative idea to build and deliver prefabricated homes has grown in Steamboat Springs and are now excited for home builder Jeff Meissner to take the brand into the future. 

“Finding the right buyer was critically important to us. We wanted to find someone who would honor the team, culture and brand that we had built over the years,” Fryer and Cox wrote in an email. “Keeping the teams in Steamboat and Vernal intact was non-negotiable. Jeff had all the academic accolades and experience, but most importantly he came to us with a people-first mindset, and a strong desire to continue the trajectory and legacy of SmartPads.”

In 2018, Fryer and Cox introduced the idea of SmartPads, which builds high-end, prefabricated homes and ships them to the Rocky Mountain West — primarily in Colorado. Meissner said the company is experiencing high demand and is exploring the idea of expanding its facility in Vernal to serve even more homeowners in the coming years.

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SmartPads employs 30 people who manufacture prefabricated homes at its facility in Vernal along with a staff of four employees based in Steamboat Springs that facilitate and design home builds. Meissner expects that its Steamboat staff will grow to six people as SmartPads plans to hire two new positions to handle onsite construction management and a one-stop shop for customers

“Our mission is to really enhance the lives of our team and our customers. We want SmartPads to be an awesome place to work and a great company with a great culture and great benefits,” Meissner said. “We also want to deliver an overwhelmingly positive experience to people that buy from us because its maybe the most important decision they’ll ever make.”

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Miessner said keeping the team together and carrying on the traditions and mission that Fryer and Cox started were important to him.

“We’ve got our same headquarters in Steamboat, and we are not trying to boil the ocean overnight, but there is a lot of demand,” Meissner said. “It would just be a shame if we were not able to serve more people that want this solution because mountain, ski town living is somewhat hard to acquire these days. We offer a solution that is much faster and at a more affordable price.”

The company’s website explains that because the homes are built at the company’s facility in Vernal SmartPads can eliminate construction line items, providing less hassle and more protection against budget blowouts while simultaneously elevating quality.

Meissner believes SmartPads could also respond to the increasing demand for accessory dwelling units in Steamboat Springs, and other mountain towns.

“We are working on some plans right now with multiple options for ADUs as well as full houses, so we’ll see that roll out in 2025,” Meissner said.

Currently customers can reach out to SmartPads to review a portfolio of 17 models that are already in the company’s system — ranging from the five-bedroom, four-and-a half bath, 3,066 square foot Skyview to the one bedroom, one-bath, 432 square foot Howelsen that features a sleeping loft — that have been already been designed offering customers a cost and time savings. However, if the customers have their own vision for a home, the design-build team at SmartPads is ready to bring that vision to life.

Meissner is a structural engineer with a construction background. He grew up in Michigan and went to school at Northwestern in Chicago and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He said he has always had a passion for design and creating tangible products that led him to work for a large commercial general contractor. He eventually became part owner of that business and came to Colorado when the company started an operation in Denver.

Meissner said he planted his roots in Denver where he lives now with his wife Laura and his two children. Eighteen months ago, he left the company to start Crafted Structures, his own custom home business, and said his plans are to commute between Denver and Steamboat Springs after he purchases SmartPads.

“It was important to me to honor the history of the business, and to keep the headquarters in Steamboat Springs, which is the lifeblood of our team, and our culture,” Meissner said.

Cox and Fryer take pride in having built more than 20 homes in Routt County and delivering significant savings to their clients and meeting a critical economic need. Their efforts extended beyond Steamboat Springs as SmartPads grew to serve many other mountain markets stretching from Telluride, Colorado to Whitefish, Montana.

“We are incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished and are excited to see the SmartPads team continue setting the standard for quality for prefab construction in the mountains,” Cox and Fryer wrote in the statement.  “Building on this experience we are eager to expand our impact by serving real estate clients with a heightened level of expertise and business acumen. Our goal is to continue driving innovation in the housing and real estate sectors, contributing to transformative projects that elevate our local community and others throughout Colorado.”