| |
DEVELOPER OF THE YEAR
The Castle group receives commendations for Cahill Park in San Jose, California at the Manufactured Housing Institute’s Award Ceremony as 2005’s Developer of the Year.
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – March 30, 2005 – Amid some of the biggest players in the Manufactured Housing Industry, the Castle Group stood the tallest, winning Developer of the Year at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas this week. This award is in recognition for their multifamily town home project, Cahill Park is an exciting new community located in the historic Midtown district of downtown San Jose. The most intriguing part of the project is the way it is built: with modular technology.
In the beginning, Bruce Fairty, of Cahill Park, LLC, asked three questions. First, is it possible to physically manufacture, ship, erect, and finish thirty individual modules into a completed building? On top of that, is it possible to do it with in budget? Lastly, would consumers view factory built housing equal to site built – and be willing to pay the same price? The answer to all three is “Yes.”
Fairty, who has been in the industry for over twenty years, and has developed over 1,200 multifamily units – all site built – had a revelation. “It struck me as compellingly logical, what could be built on site could be built by a factory. The US housing market is the largest industry in the country – but is curiously the least automated industry in the country. Ultimately, all housing will be built in a factory, it is just a matter of when, not if.”
The Product:
Coining the term “I-Code,” in reference to the International Builders Code, Guerdon Enterprises LLC builds Cahill Park town homes according to the local building codes in San Jose. The catch is they build the town homes in a factory in Boise, Idaho. Using systems built technology allows the town homes to be built faster and away from weather damage, while maintaining the look and strength of site built homes.
The process started a few years back. After Fairty got a reference from an architectural consultant, representatives of Cahill Park LLC met with Lad Dawson and Jon Moon, of Guerdon Enterprises and the next generation of multifamily developments began. Guerdon’s team of experienced engineers teamed up with Cahill’s architects to start a vision of San Jose’s newest neighborhood. “I was impressed with the quality of both the management team and the plant personnel of Guerdon. By taking on a revolutionary execution of modular housing, the quality and competency of manufacturing is of paramount importance.” Said Fairty in regards to choosing Guerdon Enterprises as the manufacturer.
Each home at Cahill Park is a multi-story town home with a private two-car, direct access garage. Architectural features include details, materials, and colors to distinguish each home from its neighbors. Another structural feature is the party wall system separating homes. Two separate and complete wall systems are constructed with an air gap separation between homes. The entire party wall system consists of two separate layers of gypsum drywall boards, two layers of plywood sheathing, two wood framed stud walls – each with its own set of insulation – and the air gap, for a total wall system thickness of ten inches.
Entire components of each home are engineered in a manufacturing plant, shipped to San Jose and assembled into town home buildings on-site. The manufacturing facility is a climate controlled, well lit environment that utilizes steel jigs, laser alignment tools and quality-controlled processes at each stage of manufacturing.
Each home begins with a poured in place reinforced concrete garage. The factory engineered components of each home are set in place on top of the garage with the aid of a crane and are permanently welded together. This method of construction meets or exceeds all building, structural and seismic building codes for San Joes’s residential structures.
Each town home is three stories tall, set above a ground-floor garage. All town homes have four bedrooms and are around 1600 square feet . The Cahill Park community is 160 homes of different floorplans set around a common area.
The journey from the mountains to Northern California, is three weeks in the making. The town homes are built one story at a time, then ‘stacked’ atop one another. This process is done with a crane and experienced professionals to maximize time and cost efficiencies. An entire building of ten, three-story town homes only takes three to four months to complete – start to finish – less than half the amount of time to site build.
The Market:
Market analysis is a must for any project. San Jose was chosen as a location because of the extensive need for housing. “San Jose is part of the fast growing Silicon Valley. There is a tremendous housing shortage in the area.” Said Fairty.
San Jose is a lucrative market for home builders and developers. Because Cahill Park town homes are designed to have an upscale neighborhood feel, all town homes are manufactured with wood-look laminate floors, ceramic and granite countertops and other premium assets; elevating the final sales prices to upwards of $495,000 – affordable housing in the San Jose area.
The Technology:
By partnering with Guerdon Enterprises, the developers of Cahill Park were able to leverage the extensive benefits of modular technology. They were able to decrease their budget, while maintaining the luxury San Jose demands. “The site built construction process is really terribly inefficient from a labor point of view. You really don’t need to look any further than the fact that what it takes to build in eight to nine months at the site can be built in a factory in two weeks. Many other costs of construction that are a function of duration can be reduced by a construction time that is compressed.” notes Fairty of the modular construction process.
Aside from costs, modular technology also provides other intrinsic values. “From a market timing point of view, it does not take as long to deliver a unit, therefore, I can time commencement of construction much closer to periods of high demand and cease construction immediately when demand begins to fall.” Fairty knows that this sensitivity to the market is part of what allows modular technology, and its users, to be successful.
Cahill Park is paving the way for the western United States to join the modular home construction trend that currently is in full swing in the East. I-Code construction technology produces many benefits for developers. Cahill’s custom floorplans are engineered to local codes (including the strict seismic requirements in San Jose) and produced at an expedient pace.
Modular technology has been used in the western United States for many years in the form of single family homes. Guerdon’s innovation and success have allowed growth into the multifamily markets, creating a win-win situation for developers and consumers. Another Guerdon multifamily town home project is in Mammoth Lakes, California, furthering the Guerdon’s experience and expertise.
Doug Pill from Guerdon sums it up with, “The bottom line is simple – meeting consumer needs, when they need it – that’s what modular construction technology is all about. It’s fast and provides a significant cost advantage over site built. Modular construction is definitely the wave of the future.”
|
|
