Northside Minneapolis modular housing project unveiled

North Minneapolis developer Devean George unveiled plans this week for a $32 million project on the northside that will manufacture residential and commercial modular housing out of an old printing plant. 

The company, George Modular Solutions, will begin manufacturing next spring, said CEO Lewis Lockwood. The 83,000 square-foot facility, which is under a partial demolition of its second floor, will be turned into a volumetric modular manufacturing plant, according to a Minneapolis City Council background analysis.

Lockwood said that means when you walk in the door of on of their modular homes, the unit looks completely finished. It has been fully built in the plant. 

“When I say finished, I mean beds, pictures on the wall, TVs. Toilets are set. Light fixtures are set. The glass doors are in on the shower,” he said. The mechanical, electrical and plumbing are routed to the site and connected to the unit after it's placed at its destination.

The plant, located on Washington Avenue near 14th Street, will build steel modular units for use in the construction of buildings, the council report said. Officials hope the units will help boost affordable housing availability in the state and the Midwest.

George Modular Solutions is expected to create 166 jobs, Lockwood said. He expects headcount will surge to 300 people in four to five years.

"We want them to stay, by all means. But if we can train them up, give them some skills that then they can take out to the real world, if they so choose, they have it,” he said.

The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development awarded a $3 million loan to the company to purchase production equipment, according to the council report. Under state law, the loan constitutes a business subsidy and requires that the city and the company enter into a business subsidy agreement. 

Under the agreement, 166 full-time, permanent jobs will be created within two years of the production equipment being placed into service.

Fourteen of the 166 jobs will pay at least $20 per hour, 112 jobs will pay at least $25 per hour, 24 jobs will pay at least $35 per hour and 16 jobs will pay at least $50 per hour.

If the job creation and wage goals are met, $1 million of the loan will be forgiven. If the goals are partially met, the loan forgiveness will be prorated.

Minneapolis also granted the company a $2 million loan. Some of it is forgivable; the rest is low-interest. 

The company’s first two manufacturing deals will be two of George’s affordable housing projects: the Village Creek Apartments in Brooklyn Park and the housing development at the Upper Harbor Terminal in Minneapolis.

Attorney General Keith Ellison, one of a number of political leaders attending the launch event on Tuesday, said the local community has been presented with an opportunity.

Ellison said George Modular Solutions “represents a chance at a community long historically denied to get into the American game of building generational wealth.”

“The people who will work here will have quality wages and benefits,” Ellison said. “It will transform lives.”

Devean George, a north Minneapolis native and former NBA player, addressed the crowd gathered for the groundbreaking. He said people always ask him why he returned to Minnesota after his career in the NBA. He said the northside community “has made me who I am.”

“This community has protected me, has taught me, has nurtured me, has babysit me, has given me every opportunity here,” he said. “And they still support me and put me on the pedestal. So now my duty is to bring these resources and opportunities to our community who have supported me.”