George Modular Solutions will soon be renovating old buildings to create a new type of affordable housing, creating dozens of stable jobs in the process.
MINNEAPOLIS — As an NBA player, Devyn George never let it get too hard to achieve his dreams.
Now he's bringing that same underdog spirit to his old neighborhood, with a new twist.
“The impact will be immediate,” George said, standing inside the large manufacturing building that will soon be home to George Modular Solutions.
Work will soon begin on an 82,000-square-foot building in north Minneapolis where new apartments, hotels and other housing complexes will be manufactured in pieces, shipped to a construction site and connected like blocks.
“We're building better, smarter and faster,” said Lou Lockwood, CEO of George Modular Solutions. “We're building with cold-formed steel. We have machines that manufacture each part of the building specifically, designed for that part.”
“Basically, we're building hotel rooms here,” George said, referring to the manufacturing site, “and then we transport them to the hotel site, stack them, and position everything around them.”
George, who grew up in north Minneapolis and became the first and only NCAA Division III basketball player ever to be selected in the first round of the NBA Draft, has a long track record of investing in his home community.
In 2016, he opened The Commons on Penn Avenue, one of two mixed-use developments he has invested millions in. Still, he says demand for new affordable housing continues to far outstrip construction.
“It would take too long, it would be too expensive and we have winter weather here,” George said.
George Modular Solutions addresses this issue by carrying out the majority of its manufacturing indoors, ensuring a steady, year-round workforce of more than 160 employees, long before the initial development is complete.
“We're trying to put people where they are,” George said, “so if you don't have a high school diploma, we'll get you a GED. We'll keep you employed. We'll make sure you get a livable wage job with good benefits.”
This approach has raised at least $5 million in public funds to kick-start a project worth nearly $30 million in total.
“Fundamentally, this is about creating sustainable jobs for middle-class families,” said Gov. Tim Walz, who spoke at the facility's groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday. “That's what everybody's focused on.”
George knows that with such public investment, all eyes are on whether or not he starts production, and he says he wouldn't want it any other way.
“I owe my success to the people of this community,” he said. “I can't sleep at night if I'm not doing everything I can to give my resources back to this community, so I will continue to do that.”
George Modular Solutions will soon begin moving in its manufacturing equipment and has already begun hiring. The company expects to start delivering these modular units by the first quarter of next year.
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