Top Stories for Wednesday, January 25, 2023

Housing Startup Gropyus Secures $109 Million for Expansion Plan

An Austrian startup that aims to streamline housing construction raised about $109 million in fresh cash from a group of investors led by Vonovia SE, Germany’s largest landlord.

Get off the Grid With These Sustainable Tiny Homes

Known for promoting simple lifestyles, tiny homes encourage people to live minimally. Originally from the U.S., the trend has become a global phenomenon thanks to its affordable and environmentally-friendly philosophy.

Roin Acquisition Strengthens Built Robotics Offering and Unicontrol Steps up US Distribution

Acquisition by Built Robotics could increase utility of their autonomous construction equipment and Unicontrol penetration of U.S. market suggest upstart companies could augment offerings from Cat, Trimble, Leica, Topcon and others.

Vistry to keep Countryside’s giant modular plant under plan to build homes for Housing Authorities

Housebuilder Vistry is planning to use the brand-new offsite factory it acquired as part of the purchase of Countryside to sell modular homes to housing associations and SME developers as well as supply its own build programs.

Construction to Begin for New, 200-Bed Transitional Housing Residence in Bed-Stuy

The Doe Fund, a homeless services organization with more than one million square feet of transitional housing across the city, is moving forward with a new 200-bed residence in Bed-Stuy.

New Las Vegas High School Dedicated to Construction Trades to Open in 2023

Taking a giant leap forward in preparing young students for a hands-on experience in the construction industry is something more schools should do. The lack of Vo-Tech schools is hopefully going to be a thing of the past if this Las Vegas trade school is any indication.

The Nevada State Public Charter School Authority’s board voted unanimously Monday to approve a new high school focused on construction professions.

Southern Nevada Trades High School is scheduled to open in August 2023 on Bledsoe Lane in Las Vegas — initially, with up to 200 students in ninth and 10th grades. It plans to gradually expand.

After sharing his own experience as a student, school board chairman Brett Willis — who owns Silver Lake Construction Company — said, “I’m still concerned that students are not getting a positive exposure to the trades.”

The school aims to fix that, he said, noting there’s a need to let students see how academics and career and technical education reinforce each other.

As part of the school’s approval, it must meet a handful of state conditions by certain deadlines, such as providing a plan for hiring a principal, a fully executed agreement with ACE High School in Reno for “ongoing services and supports,” a revised budget that includes an English-language learner teacher during the first year, and completing a pre-opening process for new charter schools.

Southern Nevada Trades High School is modeling itself after ACE High School, a public charter school sponsored by the Washoe County School District.

ACE is the gold standard as far as community and school partnerships, charter authority board Chairwoman Melissa Mackedon said.

CLICK HERE to read the entire Las Vegas Review-Journal article

Take a Minute and Help One of the Most Unique Construction Schools in the US - with Videos

A few years ago, I had the pleasure to tour a school in Vermont, unlike anything I've ever been to before. People from all over the country were at the school learning trades from the most primitive types of construction such as straw bale to tiny houses and post and beam.

This is not a school to send your staff to sit and watch how things are done. This is a real hands-on school where you learn everything from design to actually building a structure.

The crowd when I visited the Yestermorrow school was mostly young people eager to learn a trade that isn't taught in many places today. And if you think it's just a school for someone that wants to build their own home off-grid, you have to remember that Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Company was built after they took a $5 course in ice cream making from Penn State!

The group I was with back then included builders, Architects, a truss and panel factory owner and even a city planner. We toured the school and several modular and panel plants in New England.

They have hosted classes in post and beam as well as a recent one in modular construction. I just learned they are planning a course in converting a shipping container into a home.

Yestermorrow School is one of the few schools in the US that allows young people to express themselves through a series of courses ranging from a couple of days to a couple of months.

Now they are asking for a donation from all of us to keep this school running and provide more students with the skills needed to build their own homes and maybe, just like Ben and Jerry, one of them will be the next big Innovator that changes how housing is built.

So take a couple of minutes and join me in contributing to this great school!

Yestermorrow’s opportunity to host hands-on design/build programs during the winter months in a large, climate-controlled building here in the Mad River Valley.  

At that time, we asked for your help raising $20,000 by the end of August to seize this opportunity. To date, we have raised $15,000 thanks to the generous contributions of friends and supporters like you.

When you make your donation today, you move us closer to securing this indoor winter space, giving Yestermorrow the opportunity to: 

• Serve up to 110 more students per  year - (An 18% increase!)
• Build at least one more affordable dwelling each year

We know you care about Yestermorrow’s mission to inspire people to create a better, more sustainable world. Please take the time to contribute today. Or you can mail a check to: Yestermorrow Design/Build School, 7865 Main Street, Waitsfield VT  05673.

Modcoach's Prefab "Home of the Week" 8-29-22 - with video

In a two-story house constructed by Homma Group in Portland, Oregon, ceiling and banister light fixtures light up when someone places a foot on the steps leading into the home. Some 30 sensors throughout the house detect motion, and all lighting is controlled automatically.

Not only does the home automatically turn lights on and off, it also adjusts brightness and tones, blending into the daily lives of its inhabitants depending on the time of day. For example, the home softens the lighting when someone gets up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night.

Japanese entrepreneur Takeshi Homma, whose Silicon Valley-based startup has embarked on a project to build next-generation "smart homes" in the United States, sees himself as not only a problem solver but an innovator.

Although residential homes had superior functionality as compared to Japanese homes, such as good insulation, Homma realized there was little progress in housing construction efficiency.

Since pre-fabricated bathrooms and system kitchens are not widespread in the United States, with tradespeople usually building them on-site, it is typical for a house that can be built in one year in Japan to take two to three years in the United States.

Homma explained further that because American builders tend to be conservative in their thinking, he feels they avoid using new materials and equipment as much as possible, only focusing on the building itself while taking little interest in technology.

Unlike Japan, where houses have a relatively short lifespan before being demolished and the land built on again, in the United States, old houses are renovated and live on. So if a homeowner wishes to create a "smart home," they must retrofit by buying and installing various devices. Having to download a slew of apps to your smartphone to operate those devices only complicates matters, Homma says.

"So by incorporating the efficient building practices of Japan, I thought it would present a great business opportunity to introduce IT to residential construction in the U.S.," Homma said.

A Great Video on Why Housing is Simply Out of Touch with Reality

It's not often I find a video that explains exactly what we all know is the problem with affordable housing in the US. Take a few minutes and watch this one and let me know if you think the modular, manufactured and offsite construction industries can make a difference.

Grab Your Ankles…the Downturn is Coming

Looking at what is happening in the US right now would have you believe that a recession is the furthest thing we must worry about. Unemployment is holding steady at low levels, jobs are going unfilled, labor costs are reaching record highs, demand is still strong, and butterflies and rainbows are everywhere you look.

With the Federal government spending money like they print it (they do, actually) on everything that anyone wants to fund such as eliminating student debt, inflation-fighting legislation, climate change, and much more, one has to ask, “who is going to pay for all these trillions of dollars in debt when the creditors come knocking on the door?”

Well, in fact, nobody will pay the debt because it will be announced that the US is in a recession and Federal debts will be put on the back burner. You’ll have to pay your own company’s debts though, even during the downturn. 

The Fed’s rate hikes have caused average mortgage rates to double from a year ago, to 5.5 percent, causing a sharp fall in home sales and construction.

Higher rates will also likely weigh on businesses’ willingness to invest in new buildings, machinery, and other equipment. If companies reduce spending and investment, they’ll also start to slow hiring. Rising caution among companies about spending freely could lead eventually to layoffs. If the economy were to lose jobs and the public were to grow more fearful, consumers would further reduce spending.

Preparing your company for even a mild downturn is something very few even know how to do. What happens to all those modular home factories that were opened in the last 5 years when orders for housing start to dry up? Even the modular companies that survived 2008 won’t have a clue how to handle the new type of downturn about to hit them.

Offsite construction companies ranging from total home manufacturing to component assemblies and even advanced building science products will be forced to take off the rose-colored glasses and begin to realize that we’re heading toward a downturn faster than we think.

Being prepared for the worse and praying for the least is a natural occurrence in our lives and preparing for a downturn is no exception. The real problem is not many companies are preparing for a downturn. They simply can’t imagine it being as bad as some economists are predicting. 

A new DaVinci Offsite Construction Roundtable is forming called “Preparing for a Downturn” where a small group of offsite and modular company owners, management, builders, developers, and others can meet every other week to discuss the options available to help them weather a downturn.

The DaVinci Roundtable is NOT a teaching or coaching series. It is an open discussion between all the people that register for each Roundtable in a peer-to-peer setting with each sharing and contributing ideas and strategies with the group. 

If you have acknowledged there is a downturn coming in the offsite construction industry and want to learn what you can do to prepare your company, take a look at the next DaVinci Offsite Construction Roundtable and sign up today.

Oregon Non-Profit Prepares to Open Manufactured Home Factory

As a boy in the late 1950s, Terry McDonald watched as workers built an 80,000 square-foot manufacturing plant in an industrial neighborhood on the west side of Eugene. Long after childhood, McDonald felt an affinity for the factory, where American Steel once fabricated heavy-duty logging equipment until the timber industry waned in Oregon.

Terry McDonald, right, is executive director of St. Vincent de Paul Society of Lane County (SVdP) and president of HOPE Community Corp. He’s pictured in HOPE’s future manufactured-home factory in Eugene along with Bethany Cartledge, deputy director of SVdP and secretary of the HOPE board of directors.

Now, as the executive director of the local Society of St. Vincent de Paul, McDonald has made a career of turning other people’s castoff goods into cash to support low-income housing and the charity’s other anti-poverty initiatives. He easily imagined a creative reuse for the midcentury factory, a space flooded with natural light from paned-glass windows high above the manufacturing floor.

“I looked at this building and said: ‘Someday, I would like to own that building,’” McDonald said. “Old industrial buildings are just kind of fun.”

Over the next year, McDonald and his team will transform the massive space into a nonprofit manufactured home factory capable of producing as many as 80 homes a month.

Known as the HOPE Community Corporation, it’s a unique nonprofit venture, supported by $15 million in housing money from the Oregon legislature. Once the group is up and running in 2023, HOPE could employ more than 100 people to build factory-built homes for low-income families, at a time when many states face a critical housing shortage.

Because manufactured homes are built on an assembly line, they’re less expensive and faster to construct. They’re seen as essential for providing new housing, especially for lower-income buyers who may have been priced out of site-built homes or expensive rental markets. Many housing experts see factory-built homes as an effective way of meeting current housing needs, especially in rural areas.

The average factory-built home costs $106,000 to build, compared with $351,000 for site-built homes, said Lesli Gooch, chief executive officer of the Manufactured Housing Institute, a trade organization that in June exhibited some of the industry's newer home models on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

The techniques used in factory-built homes are the difference between $72 and $140 per square foot in construction costs, Gooch said, though some of those estimates, as with all construction, may have increased recently because of inflation and supply chain issues.

CLICK HERE to read the entire Governing article