*A hempcrete tiny home village in Blanco, TX has just hit the market. Photo courtesy of LoopNet*

By Jean Lotus

A hempcrete tiny home village and natural building center in Blanco, TX has just hit the market, providing a rare opportunity for the natural building community. Saoirse Learning Center, a working hempcrete and natural materials campus on 9.71 acres is listed at $895,000, according to LoopNet.

The property at 1137 Loop 163 is less than half a mile from the center of Blanco, itself roughly equidistant — about 50 miles each way — from Austin and San Antonio, with Fredericksburg and San Marcos approximately 25 miles away. Despite the proximity to town, the site sits on a rise dense with native pecan trees, a creek forming the entire northern boundary, and no visible neighbors from anywhere on the property.

Jennifer Bailey, who developed and has operated Saoirse since 2020, is selling in order to support her sister’s health problems on the east coast, Bailey told HempBuild Magazine. She said she acquired the land in 2018 and began building in 2019; the name Saoirse — an Irish word meaning freedom — reflects the spirit she brought to the project.

"People have so many times come here and said, 'I think I’ve come here to heal.' It has a really wonderful energy about it," Bailey said.

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What's on the Property

The campus includes a three-bedroom, two-bath original house; a permitted two-story workshop facility with a drive-through garage, commercial kitchen, office, half bath, and bunkhouse on the upper floor; a hexagonal hempcrete building connected via a planted archway to a completed monolithic dome; a second, smaller 14-foot dome currently used for storage but suitable for conversion into a massage studio or additional sleeping space; four outbuildings; a small barn inside a fenced pasture; a chicken coop; three full-hookup RV/camper pads; an outdoor shower; a composting toilet; and tent camping areas throughout the property.

Infrastructure — often the costliest and most time-consuming element of developing a rural property — is already in place. The site has two independent septic systems, a productive well, and full electrical service. The property is zoned mixed-use commercial, is fully perimeter-fenced, and is within the city limits of Blanco while also falling under county jurisdiction.

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The creek along the northern border provides wildlife habitat and a shaded retreat on hot days. The property is largely covered in native pecan trees, with some oaks; roughly three-quarters of the acreage lies within a floodplain, which shapes where additional permanent structures could be sited, though Bailey notes that elevated platforms and geodesic domes on piers are practical options.

*Interior of short-term rental dome, with adjoining sleeping quarters made of hempcrete. Photo courtesy of LoopNet*

The Buildings: Hempcrete and Hempesium

The hempcrete building — a six-sided structure — serves as a sleeping unit paired with the adjacent dome, which houses the kitchen, living area, dining space, and bathroom. Together they function as a single Airbnb unit and have held up well to Texas summers and spring rains. An 18-inch roof overhang protects the hempcrete walls, which were additionally sealed with an Italian waterproofing product; Bailey reports no cracking or moisture damage.

One building is described as a "hybrid hempcrete" — with wall and plaster created with a magnesium oxide–based material (hempesium), which Bailey says adhered cleanly to the existing lime. Both the hempcrete and hempesium structures have performed well thermally; Bailey says a single mini-split keeps the interior comfortable even in peak summer heat, rarely running at full load, at 110+ degrees F.

Two monolithic domes on the property were finished with natural plasters, including walnut hull–enriched stucco on the hempesium structure. Bailey also notes that the domes are Portland cement–based, not natural materials.

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*Original home and permitted bunkhouse. Photo courtesy LoopNet*

A Workshop and Airbnb Track Record

Bailey hosted hands-on natural building workshops throughout the development of each structure, drawing participants and instructors from across North America. Workshops were conducted for each of the four primary buildings, plus a finishing workshop on the domes that brought about 25 participants together in fall 2020. Instructors included builders from Don Gaia and others affiliated with Nomadic Earth Architecture, a nonprofit focused on natural building education.

Between workshops, Bailey operated the campus as an Airbnb, with the hempcrete-and-dome unit as the primary rental. She also describes the property as well-suited for retreats, family reunions, and permaculture education; she raised chickens and ducks on-site and kept a horse for three years.

The mixed-use commercial zoning means that a new owner could continue operating a short-term rental or workshop business without a change-of-use process — an unusual asset in a rural Texas setting.

*Drone image of the workshop property. Courtesy of LoopNet*

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Blanco: Town on the Rise

Blanco, population roughly 1,600, has seen growing interest from weekend visitors from Austin and San Antonio seeking Hill Country respite. Bailey describes the town as musically active — a pickin' circle takes place every Wednesday night downtown — and community-oriented. Recent development of nearby large ranches has brought additional services and a more cosmopolitan character, including specialty coffee shops.

The region also benefits from proximity to the Pedernales River corridor near Johnson City, the Guadalupe River, and Fredericksburg, all active ecotourism destinations.

For buyers who have spent years trying to source, permit, and build a hempcrete structure from scratch, Saoirse represents an unusual shortcut: the experiments have been run, the infrastructure is paid for, and the land has a community around it already.

As hemp-lime construction delivers high-performance structures in the United States, more projects will pop up on the resale market for those who want to get a head start on their hempcrete dreams.

Bailey is available for questions and can be reached through the listing.