A builder with an emphasis on lower-income housing is making more of a push into the market, and finding challenges along the way.

Center Creek Homes, which launched in Richmond two years ago, is upping its profile locally with dozens of houses under construction or in development, highlighted most recently with a five-home infill project for low-income buyers that’s getting underway in the city’s East End.

Called 20 & R, the project at the intersection of 20th and R streets is filling land previously zoned for two single-family houses with five smaller, attached homes through a special-use permit from the city. Four of the homes will be priced near $260,000, while one will be priced at $180,000 for income-qualifying buyers.

CEO Dan Magder, who founded Center Creek with COO and childhood friend Greg Shron, points to the project as a model of successful collaboration between the private and public sectors, and of maximizing use of available land.