Affordable Housing Is Key Factor In City Survival

by Ersula Knox Odom
Originally posted 4/30/2007

“When a city loses its ability to provide housing for the people who support its infrastructure it stands a chance of losing the city itself”, said Tom deYampert at The Community Housing Blue Ribbon Task Force of the Florida League of Cities affordable housing workshop held on Friday, April 20 at St. Petersburg city hall. The attendees focused on a wide range of critical housing issues facing local leaders statewide.

The workshop connected city officials with the information and resources they need to improve or create affordable housing programs in their communities. Local government officials from across Florida, along with an array of housing experts, covered such topics as affordable housing resources and partnerships, emerging affordable housing challenges, and practical solutions for local governments.

Rene Flowers, president of the Florida League of Cities, who is also a council member for the city of St. Petersburg, has made affordable housing a top priority during her tenure and has formed a powerful coalition that led to the creation of the Institute for Community Housing. Other participating organizations include the National League of Cities, Florida Department of Community Affairs, Florida Housing Coalition, Florida Housing Finance Corporation and Florida State University’s John Scott Dailey Institute of Government.

The Florida League of Cities, Inc., is the official organization of the 412 municipal governments (cities, towns, villages and chartered counties) in Florida, designed and established to meet and serve the needs of Florida’s municipal officials.

Throughout the day leaders from around the state presented implemented and pending solutions from their prospective areas. The Blue Ribbon will report their discoveries by mid August 2007.

Jacqueline Smith, Housing Director of Homes in Partnership self help ownership program in the Orange County area, told the group about the 5000 homes her organization has built since 1975. Their efforts earned them the 1998 East Bay Estate Fannie Mae Maxwell Award of Excellence. They often take approximately two years to train and identify funding for potential recipients. It takes from three to six months to construct a home, about two weeks to get an actual buyer. Two years is a necessary timeframe because “people need to be taught things,” said Smith. Their recipients are generally farmers, teachers, senior citizens, migrant workers, immigrants, single mothers, single fathers, and single people. It not uncommon for the new homeowner to be the first person in their family to own a home.

Karen Jackson-Sims of HUD Hillsborough County informed the committee that a great number of HUD financed housing agreements are approaching the 30 year mark where building owners can “opt out” of these agreements. She said cities should evaluate their potential exposure, which would give them an opportunity to negotiate with the owners or identify replacements. The numbers could be staggering. One city discovered a potential 5000 unit loss within a two to five-year window. Ms. Jackson also said: “Cities need to know where the monies are coming from” in order to plan. To this end, she informed everyone about the upcoming conference: “Accessing Resources and Relationships to Build Better Communities.” This conference will be conducted in Tampa, Florida at the Downtown Convention Center on May 7-8, 2007. Co-sponsors include: HUD, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of St. Petersburg, Florida, the state of Florida, the cities of St. Petersburg and Tampa, and the counties of Hillsborough, Manatee, Pinellas, and Polk, and Freddie Mac.

Debra Johnson, Deputy Executive Director the St Petersburg Housing Authority explained that their Housing Choice Voucher program produced a blended public housing environment. She said that you cannot distinguish public from private housing. Ms. Johnson said they are successfully developing different income streams other than HUD addressing HUD’s push for organizations to develop an entrepreneur mindset. Ms. Jackson said during her presentation, that St Petersburg was taking a public relations beating, but that they have “some of the best numbers” she has seen.

Tom deYampert, manager of Finance and Rehabilitation St. Petersburg Housing & Community Development Department, passionately explained that if cities don’t plan for affordable housing, they might be planning their demise. He also said he did not want a city like Silicone Valley where firemen and police stay in dormitories during the week and drive home on the weekend because they can’t afford to live there. It is in the employer’s best interest to work this out which is why their employer assisted housing program works. Teachers and policemen are assisted with home purchases due to teacher income levels and policemen retention efforts.

Askia Muhammad Aquil fascinated everyone with details about steel container homes. The process reuses steel shipping containers as modular homes. The first home has been purchased and was the subject of a Bob Villa show with a resulting DVD produced. This effort is giving great consideration to its low cost, no termite, and natural disaster resistant potential.

John Hearst of Gulf Coast Legal Services gave the concluding presentation stressing the need to combat predatory lending and even homelessness due to affordable housing loss from owner sales.

For more information on the Institute and the Workshop visit www.flcities.com.

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Altamont Homes Grows

Despite New Construction Woes Altamont Homes Continues to Grow and Diversify
2007-04-18

MARTINEZ, Calif., April 18 /PRNewswire/ — There has been much recent press about the decline in new homes sales for the first part of 2007, but Altamont Homes, Inc., a licensed general contractor, has not been negatively affected; the company has recently expanded to seven western states — California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Arizona.

According to Eric Peterson, President of Altamont Homes, Inc., the reason for this expansion is due to the company’s specialization in off-site construction. Altamont Homes sells and performs the on-site assembly of homes and multi-family buildings which are built off-site in controlled-factory environments.

These are not manufactured or mobile homes; they are conventional housing with the same amenities, appearance, financing, and code compliance as houses built on-site. This type of construction is commonly known as pre-built or true modular housing in Eastern and Central portions of the U.S., but it has only recently started making a significant impact in the West.

The Automated Building Consortium reported that between 1995 and 2005, this type of construction has steadily been on the rise; it has more than doubled.

One of the main reasons for the rise in popularity is cost. Peterson explains that California homes that are identical to theirs, but “stick-built” on site by a contractor cost between $175 and $300 per square foot.

Altamont Homes can save clients hundreds of thousands of dollars by building homes off-site in an efficient and quality-controlled production facility.

Altamont Homes works with 16 different factory suppliers throughout the West to provide developers and custom-home clients with the best off-site built housing choice for their needs, location, and budget.

A full spectrum of services is offered to clients through all phases of the building process. This includes: obtaining permits, grading, installing utilities, building foundations, on-site assembly and finish of the off-site built homes. Altamont Homes also provides project consulting services and training to other contractors and developers.

Houses range from standard to luxury. Project managers will work with clients to customize elements to create the home of their dreams.

“We may be the only construction company in the West that has the experience and ability to deliver, assemble and finish off-site constructed homes in any part of any of the seven states that we are licensed in,” Peterson said.

Altamont Homes has assembly and finish crews that are mobile and capable of assembling and finishing a single home or a whole development in a remote area in a cost effective and efficient manner.

“Attention to detail and excellence in workmanship is never sacrificed,” Peterson explained.

Altamont Homes is also planning the launch of a new web site to showcase their custom, luxury off-site constructed homes that can be delivered and assembled anywhere in the states that it currently serves.

For more information, visit: http://www.altamonthomes.com

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Homes Ready To Roll

Factory-built houses getting upscale look
By Jim Wasserman
Sunday, April 8, 2007

Factory-built housing is touting environmental benefits and a fresh look to win a new generation of buyers as the industry continues to fight an image of cheap design and endure the same housing slowdown pummeling conventional home builders.

Among the industry’s innovations: tiny backyard houses where baby boomers can house aging parents, two-story log houses and one of California’s first three-story factory-built town houses — now selling in West Sacramento.

The century-old manufactured-housing industry still competes with prices estimated at 20 percent to 25 percent lower than building on site and faster move-in time. And its housing remains a fixture of the highways, where trucks haul their wide loads — half a home at a time — to their locations. But the nation’s housing slump and tighter lending standards for factory-built homes are forcing some changes that tilt toward more upscale buyers.

Fans of what’s variously called “prefab” or “modular” or “manufactured” housing say the industry is poised for new growth as architects explore fresh designs and more people associate the housing style with higher standards, better energy efficiency and less construction waste. If so, benefits could spill over regionally, where four home-building factories — three in Woodland and one in Sacramento — are among California’s 10 house manufacturing plants.

Definitions abound for this type of housing and can be confusing to buyers. “Manufactured” homes – the majority – are built to a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development code that industry experts say makes “a well-built” house. “Modular” or “prefab” homes are fewer in number but tend to be higher end, more expensive and conform to the state’s stricter Uniform Building Code. It’s the modular sector that’s grabbing the most attention for cutting-edge design.

“In the Northeast it’s been a really big business, and it’s been going across the country,” said Sheri Koones, Connecticut-based author of “Prefabulous,” a book exploring breakthrough factory-built homes from Massachusetts to San Francisco Bay. The book features log homes, lodges and mansions — all built in factories.

“There’s a tremendous need in California, particularly because everyone is so interested in energy efficiency and sustainability and green construction,” Koones said in a telephone interview.

Already, a Sacramento factory that built the West Sacramento town houses has geared up to do more higher-end house construction. Another factory in Woodland is making a similar move.

“It’s still a small part of our overall product,” said Allan Lemley, general manager of a Karsten Homes factory in Sacramento, where 150 employees manufacture up to two houses a day. “But we expect it to grow.”

Behind the move are harder-to-get home loans for manufactured houses produced in California. (Last year, nearly 8 percent of the 107,000 new single-family houses built in the state were produced in factories.) Lenders are skittish about loaning to buyers of mobile homes and manufactured homes because so many defaulted in the 1990s after a run of easy credit. The lending crackdown has shrunk the industry nationally to about a third of its former production — to about 117,000 houses a year from 350,000 — said Lemley. Indeed, the industry’s big publicly traded companies have seen their stock prices hammered just like the nation’s biggest home builders.

“Now with modular you can get the same kind of financing as a site-built house,” Lemley said.

As Lemley aims to build more modular houses and Koones touts them as the future of factory-built homes, they still represent a mere sliver of the industry in California. Of 8,281 factory-manufactured homes sold last year in the state, only 329 were in the higher-end modular segment, said Jess Maxcy, president of a Rancho Cucamonga-based industry trade group, the California Manufactured Housing Institute.

He said about 1.4 million Californians live in 658,000 manufactured homes in the state. Though nearly six in 10 are in mobile home parks, today’s trend is away from mobile homes, Maxcy said. Typically, nearly 70 percent of manufactured houses are now put on regular home lots. Locally, Karsten officials say, most still end up in rural areas.

Harriet Lane, the factory-built West Sacramento town-house development, is a modular project that conforms to state standards. The houses were built in sections at the Karsten plant and then assembled at its site. Now finished, with an edgy urban look of metal and wood, the project offers views of the Sacramento skyline and sells individual town houses for $339,000 to $359,000. Like nearly all factory-built housing it looks the same inside as any other project.

Fairfield-based Valley Home Development has carved out another niche with its new “granny unit.” That’s in response to a 2004 state law making it easier to build small second houses on existing residential lots.

“A lot of the (manufactured housing) segment has been concerned that its business has slowed. We’re going the other direction. We’re ramping up,” said the firm’s owner, Steve Vallejos.

“We found out our target market is the baby boomers. They’re dealing with their aging parents as well as their kids,” he said.

The one-bedroom, one-bath manufactured homes are sized from 400 square feet to 1,200 square feet and cost between $36,000 and $65,000. Total costs with installation, permits and fees usually run about twice the home’s cost, he said.

“The whole process takes about three months, from permits approved to handing them the keys,” Vallejos said. The tiny houses are built at the Woodland factory of Western Homes Corp., a division of Michigan-based Champion Enterprises Inc.

In Karsten’s Sacramento factory, houses are typically built in half sections and then assembled at the home site. The houses start as newly built floors on the north side of the 100,000-square-foot-interior facility and are gradually rolled south where teams of workers add walls, a roof, windows and interior walls. Eventually, in a process that takes about two weeks to build a house, workers paint interiors and install cabinets, appliances and lights before the half houses are rolled outside for trucks to haul away.

Recently, a dozen manufactured homes were displayed at Cal Expo, one of many home shows where retailers and manufacturers put their wares before the public. Prices ranged from $60,000 to more than $200,000, not including cost of land, fees and thousands more dollars for foundations and site preparation.

“We’re trying to get out there and change people’s perceptions,” said Maxcy, with the California Manufactured Housing Institute.”Those perceptions are often rooted in past decades when the industry kept costs low at the expense of good design, Koones said. Often, too, perceptions are associated with an unpopular word in the industry: “trailers.”

“The quality of the product today is vastly different than what it was 20 years ago,” said Dan DeVarennes, Karsten sales manager. “Consumer demand has changed. The consumer has really pushed us. They don’t want the old trailers.”

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FrameMax Lands One Of World’s Largest Contracts

FrameMax Takes On Algerian Housing Project
By Kelly Sheehan
APRIL 04, 2007

Algiers, ALGERIA — FrameMax, a San Diego-based turnkey steel framing company, has been awarded one of the world’s largest light gauge steel framing contracts for a project totaling four million square feet and requiring 13,000 tons of material. The project, named “Gendarmerie Nationale” and commissioned by the Algerian Ministry of Defense, includes 150 multi-housing units for military members and their families on 88 sites across the country, Phil Ellis, president and CEO of FrameMax, told MHN.

Construction is slated to begin in mid April, and the project is expected to be completed within 18 months. The Algerian government is rebuilding its infrastructure, following a 2003 earthquake that killed more than 2,000 people, injured 8,500, and left more than 150,000 homeless.

FrameMax will use its automated steel framing process, that helps reduce construction time, as reported by MHN in February. When building codes and seismic conditions are entered into the FrameMax application, the software analyzes the building and creates a 3D model for its walls, floor joints and roof trusses. FrameMax’s prefabricated frames, roll-formed from raw material steel coils, are delivered to the job site ready to assemble with layout plans. According to Ellis, any developer can master installation, even those who aren’t trained in steel framing. The consistent modular panels are riveted or screwed together using pre-punched holes, eliminating waste that is often produced during the construction process.

In order to meet the building deadlines and avoid overseas shipping, FrameMax will oversee fabrication being completed in Algiers, Algeria throughout the project. During the first phase of construction, the company will supply framing for 150 five-story housing buildings, each building totaling 16,000 square feet. In addition, 45 two-story, 14,000-sq.-ft. administration buildings will be built.

Ellis said that this project represents a significant step in Algeria’s approach to the structural engineering of mid-rise buildings. “Algeria is leading a worldwide trend, switching from other materials such as concrete and wood, for better performance under extreme seismic conditions,” he said. “FrameMax is able to provide a cost-effective solution that provides safer housing throughout the country.”

FrameMax’s engineering meets the country’s new building codes that resemble the UBC 9 Code used in the U.S., but with stricter limitations. Bullet- and blast-resistant exterior wall proofing are also required for the project. In addition to this undertaking, FrameMax has also been contracted to supply an additional 12 million square feet of light-gauge steel framing to the country for other construction efforts.

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Blueroof To Build Modular Communities

Roof is the limit for ‘green’ housing aimed at elderly
By Kim Leonard
March 30, 2007

Blueroof Technologies Inc. is expanding its vision from building one single-family “smart” house at a time to creating an entire community for elderly or disabled residents that could be reproduced almost anywhere.

The technology company that a local engineering professor and a retired high school principal founded offered plans for a 10-acre Independence Zone that would surround its gadget-packed model cottage in McKeesport, a suburb of Pittsburgh.

“This zone will become someplace where somebody can be fully independent regardless of their challenges, their handicaps,” said John G. Bertoty, executive director of the nonprofit company.

Blueroof Technologies and its sister firm, Blueroof Solutions, have existed for about five years and recently gained momentum by selling energy-efficient, handicapped-accessible modular homes to families and to agencies that run supervised group housing.

Blueroof owns or has put money down on a few properties, Bertoty said, and has identified 35 others that are tax-delinquent or in need of redevelopment.

Fifteen to 20 more technology-equipped modular houses would be built, according to Blueroof’s plan, along with a technology center and headquarters for the company and perhaps a community grocery store.

The first of the zone’s additional houses to be built would be an energy-efficient demonstration house, and a group home for people with disabilities, Bertoty said.

Bertoty, a former McKeesport High School principal, and Technology Director Robert A. Walters, an engineering professor at Pennsylvania State University’s campus in the city, first worked together on technology education programs.

The partners later turned their attention to the area’s large elderly population, deciding to create a company that would create jobs while selling affordable, technology-equipped homes to allow older residents to continue living by themselves.

The smart cottage became a test bed for a variety of computerized systems that secure the house and announce visitors, remind residents to take medicine and even track when they turn on the water or stove or flush the toilet — features that allow a relative or caregiver to monitor action in the house from another location.

Walters said a two-bedroom, single-story house equipped with a basic security system in McKeesport would sell for around $110,000.

“We can add technology as needed for the resident,” he said.

The company has sold or is building about a half-dozen homes for individuals or families, and is getting orders from service providers such as Allegheny East, which runs 11 group homes for residents with mental retardation and other disabilities.

“This is the first time that we have built from scratch,” Kate Bayer, the agency’s marketing and development director, said of a three-bedroom, Blueroof-built home that will open shortly.

Monitoring technology will help the on-site caretaker, she said.

“It was such a wonderful way for our folks, especially the ones that are aging, to stay in the community,” Bayer said of the house.

Blueroof — sustaining itself with $900,000 in grants from Allegheny County, foundations and other sources — forged partnerships with Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh researchers working on a National Science Foundation-funded study on using technology to enhance quality of life.

In addition, Blueroof is staying focused on its goal of providing education and technology-related jobs in the McKeesport area.

The firm has five employees, and brings in interns from Penn State and other universities to work and study at the cottage, and eventually the technology center, Walters said.

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Upwardly Mobile

By JENNA PORTNOY
Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Will and Gail Reeser’s children were grown and their beloved 11-room Richboro home suddenly seemed much too big when they started pricing condos and townhouses.

But a mobile home? It simply wasn’t an option.

“I had the attitude that, nah, it’s just a trailer park,” 69-year-old Will Reeser, a retired swim coach, said, admiring his manicured lawn along a suburban-style circle.

Then, he and his wife, Gail, visited friends at the Village at Buckingham Springs on Durham Road in Buckingham and understood the manufactured homes community was perfect for them. In the decade since, the age-restricted development has expanded to capacity, or 645 homes.

Despite the popularity and relative affordability of mobile homes — an umbrella term for any dwelling built off site — Bucks County data back to 1989 show only a smattering of them have been proposed, let alone built. In Montgomery County, no new parks have been developed in at least five years.

There are several reasons for the downturn, including prohibitive zoning, the stigma associated with mobile home parks of yesteryear and ever-rising land costs.

Yet, housing advocates say, mobile home developments should not be cast off.

“With more creative planning and foresight the use of modular homes could be very advantageous to the economy of the state and to individual families who could afford modular homes,” said Santo Gairo, founder and executive director of the Bucks County Housing Group. He also happens to live in Buckingham Springs.

“Everybody thinks of a trailer park,” he said, “but modular homes are different; they’re much more sophisticated.”

That’s the argument championed by Mary Gaiski, executive director of the nonprofit Pennsylvania Manufactured Housing Association.

“We know the price of housing in Bucks and Montgomery is not cheap,” she said. “It would be nice if people had some stepping stone areas to get them started along.”

Manufactured homes with minimal amenities attract retirees as well as families with costs around $40,000, she said.

But that’s just the beginning. McKee Group said homes in the Buckingham community it runs start at $175,000, plus a monthly fee of about $400 the buyer pays to rent the land on which the home sits.

By contrast, of all the homes sold in Central and Upper Bucks County and Eastern Montgomery County in February, the median price was $280,000.

“It excludes all the people who work in these communities,” Gairo said, citing new teachers, police officers and government workers.

Mobile homes make up just 1 percent to 3 percent of the region’s housing stock and nowadays only about 6,000 are manufactured in the state, compared with numbers more than double that a decade ago.

Ultimately, manufactured homes sales suffer because it’s tough to change the stereotype that such communities breed social problems and aren’t aesthetically pleasing. That’s why zoning codes often discourage mobile home living.

“There’s still that perception that manufactured housing brings in a lower class of resident and nobody wants them,” said Gaiski of the housing association.

Some developers capitalize on that fear and submit plans for mobile home parks as leverage to goad municipalities to amend the zoning code or make some other concession.

“They’ll typically say we’ve already done what we have to do for that type of housing,” Gaiski said. “To challenge them is very costly and lengthy. And time is money.”

Elaine Mothes, vice president of manufactured housing at McKee, said Buckingham thwarted her company’s attempts to put homes on another 80 acres.

In Montgomery Township, however, the Village of Neshaminy Falls has expanded several times since 1978 to place 867 homes. In the last phase, 103 homes sold in seven months, Mothes said.

“The township saw value in having affordable housing and senior housing,” she said.

Those aren’t things Reeser, the longtime Buckingham resident, worries about now that his community is built out.

He’s content to enjoy his 1,700-square-foot home and the company of his neighbors. Friends go out for pizza on Fridays, hold boccie ball tournaments, organize picnics and play cards.

“Plus, I like to mow my own grass,” he said, stopping to wave to a friend driving by. “Hey Lucky,” he called out. “He’s the luckiest guy I ever saw playing poker. He always wins.”

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Home Depot to Sell Modular Housing at New Orleans Stores

Home Depot and Homestar Builders will begin selling modular homes in New Orleans through Home Depot stores.
27 March 2007

The Home Depot and Homestar Builders will begin selling modular housing at Home Depot stores in New Orleans as part of a pilot program launched in conjunction with the New Orleans Home and Garden Show this week.

The modular housing pilot program will address some of the housing and housing labor shortages affecting the region as it continues to rebuild in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The modular homes produced for the program are manufactured in Texas and Alabama and will be built to meet the International Residential Building Codes — the same as required of site-built homes. Code compliance will be inspected by third-party inspectors to assure quality and compliance.

“There’s such a high demand for skilled home construction labor in New Orleans that it really makes it difficult to meet the overwhelming need for affordable quality housing there,” said Steve Chittenden, project manager for The Home Depot’s Home Services. “Working with Homestar Builders, we believe we can help meet this need by offering uniquely designed, quality-built homes that are manufactured offsite, transported to the owner’s property and finished using products and services offered through The Home Depot.”

The size of the homes will range from 620-square-foot homes with one bedroom and one bath, to 2,078-square-foot homes with four bedrooms and two baths.

Homestar Builders will provide on-site project supervision including site preparation, set and build out, and financing and insurance if requested. The homes will be for sale with options so home owners can customize their homes.

For more information, visit www.myhomestar.com.

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Trendsetter to Build Modular Housing for U.S. Army

By Kelly Sheehan
March 22, 2007

El Paso, Texas — Fleetwood Enterprises Inc., based in Riverside, Calif., has announced that Trendsetter Homes, its modular housing division, has been selected as a supplier to provide military housing to the U.S. Army at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. Terms of the multi-million dollar contract were not disclosed.

The project is part of the Army’s Military Housing Initiative, an effort to significantly upgrade on-base housing at Ft. Bliss, which encompasses 1.1 million acres. To complete the project, Fleetwood has teamed with another modular building firm, American Building Systems, and additional companies such as Hensel Phelps, prime contractor and owner of the government contract; Benham Cos., an architecture firm; and The Warrior Group, tasked with delivering completed units.

“The benefit of modular construction for this project is the speed of delivery to the site, as well as less clutter on the site and disturbance of base operations,” Douglas Henriquez, director for Trendsetter business development, told MHN.

“Because these apartments will be built off-site, we will significantly decrease the congestion, noise and debris issues associated with conventional site-built construction,” added John H. Riddle, vice president of Trendsetter Homes. “Modular housing construction ensures a remarkably safer job site.”

Eight months ago, Trendsetter Homes began offsite construction of the 470 units at its modular housing facility in Belton, Texas. Trendsetter is building these units to create seven apartment buildings that can house 940 Army personnel. Henriquez said the project should be completed by the end of 2007.

Henriquez explained that Trendsetter builds each unit separately. “The boxes are delivered to the site in numerical order, with nomenclature defined on the units,” he said. “The boxes are craned up onto the site, placed into the foundation built by Hensel Phelps, and are lag-bolted and secured into the site itself. We keep doing this, box by box.”

Trendsetter expects that this initial phase will enable full-time operation of its Belton plant for at least seven consecutive months. The Army is exploring the possibility of hiring Trendsetter to complete additional phases of housing, as well as a number of similar projects at other bases.

Henriquez said Trendsetter got it start with modular building in the 1950’s, to help address housing shortages after World War II. “Although we have taken on some civilian projects, our strongest ties have been with the military, by building homes for the heroes of the military forces.”

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Introducing Concrete Modular Homes

First Concrete Modular Homes Earn Fortified ”for Safer Living®” Designation
03/21/2007

TAMPA, FL — Royal Concrete Concepts is the first manufacturer to provide single-family concrete modular homes that will earn the “Fortified … for safer living®” designation from the Institute for Business & Homes Safety (IBHS), a nonprofit association of insurers and reinsurers.

The “Fortified” program specifies construction and design guidelines to increase a home’s resistance to natural disasters such as hurricane winds, wildfires and flooding, with localized guidelines based primarily on the extreme events that may occur in the region where the home exists.

“All single-family homes offered by Royal Concrete Concepts will receive the Fortified for safer living designation when sited according to our qualifying criteria,” said Chuck Vance, Fortified program manager for IBHS. “By offering affordable homes up to 2,500 square feet, Royal Concrete Concepts is furthering the ‘Fortified’ program’s goal to make disaster-resistant housing an option for more people.”

In order to meet or exceed the High Velocity Wind Zone requirements of the Florida Building Code, Royal Concrete Concepts will utilize patented, steel- reinforced concrete modules designed to withstand Category 5 hurricane force winds. Integrated insulation provides high-energy efficiency while providing strong resistance to heat.

“Homes by Royal Concrete Concepts are designed to ensure quality as well as maximum performance in safety and energy efficiency at an attainable price,” said Wally Sanger, president of Royal Concrete Concepts. “The potential for reduced insurance premiums and improved energy efficiency contribute to the lower total cost of ownership of a Royal Concrete Concepts home.”

Royal Concrete Concepts is nationally recognized for manufacturing stronger, safer schools and classrooms that give school districts the ability to meet growth demands in less time and at lower costs than conventional construction methods. Their modular residential product line includes a wide variety of floor plans and options approved by the State of Florida’s Department of Community Affairs.

For more information, please visit: http://www.royalconcreteconcepts.com

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Homebuilder Brings Jobs

Company Offers Low-Cost Solution To Gulf Housing Recovery
Bob Moser
Mar 21, 2007

The International Trade Center’s largest tenant showed off a new assembly-line style of home-building Tuesday, considered a possible low-cost solution to housing recovery in the Gulf Coast.

Louisiana System Built Homes occupies 300,000 of the 1 million square feet at the former Martin Mills Fruit of the Loom factory in St. Martinville, which closed in 2000. The process is streamlined to follow a factory-style model, proven to cut costs and turn out highly engineered modular homes that are at least 80 percent complete.

“We’re building quality houses that are so energy efficient, it’ll cost you $2 a day to live in that house,” said Aubrey Shoemake, LASBH president.

Energy savings will come from building panels made with Oriented Strand Board, an engineered wood, and six inches of insulation foam inside the walls. Electric tankless water heaters, about the size of a school textbook, will heat water at a fraction of the cost of traditional gas water heaters.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency confirmed LASBH’s modular homes withstood a hurricane better than site-built homes, and they are able to withstand 140 mph winds or higher, Shoemake said.

Homes are being sold only to builders, who’ll place the pre-made pieces on empty lots and apply finishing touches for the homebuyer.

After costs for the builder are added in, these homes have sold for $120,000 to $160,000, on average, in other states, said Katrina Collette, spokeswoman for LASBH.

The company expects to churn out an average of three homes per day eventually, with the assembly system running around the clock with three shifts of workers.

The first batch of 24 homes, which may be completed within the next two months, has been ordered by a builder for Lafourche Parish. More than 100,000 people have registered with the Road Home program to rebuild homes in Louisiana, potentially a key customer base for LASBH and other modular home builders.

More than 30 people are employed, many from the St. Martinville area that struggled after Martin Mills closed seven years ago. Two hundred employees likely will be hired by the end of the year, Shoemake said.

Tommy Theriot, a St. Martinville native, is one of the first locals to join the assembly line system. He had been doing part-time painting and maintenance jobs in Lafayette but said he is happy to have a steady job again much closer to home. Theriot will focus on installing plumbing, one of the last steps to building the modular homes.

Most materials for the homes also are being bought from about 10 area businesses.

Acadiana Building Compon-ents, which opened in the former Kaplan Rice Mill seven months ago, could see an incredible boost in its production of engineered roof and floor trusses by working with LASBH, said co-owner Rick Cloud.

“They’re avoiding the weather in this factory,” he said. “It’s a standardized, faster building process for everyone.”

The trusses, triangles used in the home’s framing, will be held at the hinges by metal connectors with dozens of little teeth, instead of traditional nails.

Homes with these trusses can withstand 150 to 200 mph winds, Cloud said, and have saved the roofs on homes in Florida under extreme weather conditions.

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