George Modular Solutions will soon transform an old building in order to build a new type of affordable housing, adding dozens of steady jobs along the way.
MINNEAPOLIS — As an NBA player, Devean George never let the odds stand in the way of realizing his dreams.
He’s now bringing the same underdog mentality to his old neighborhood… with a new twist.
“We’ll have an impact immediately,” said George, as he stood inside a large manufacturing building that will soon be home to George Modular Solutions.
The 82,000-square-foot building in north Minneapolis will soon begin manufacturing new apartments, hotels and other forms of multi-family housing in pieces before sending them to building sites where they will be connected and stacked like blocks.
“We’re going to build better, smarter and faster,” said Lew Lockwood, CEO of George Modular Solutions. “We’re building out of cold-form steel. We have machines that specifically build each component of that building, designed for that part of the building.”
“To simplify it, we’re building a hotel room right here,” George said, referring to the manufacturing site. “Then we’re bringing it to that hotel site and we’re stacking it and we put everything around it.”
George, who grew up in north Minneapolis and went on to become the first — and only — NCAA Division III basketball player to ever be selected in the first round of the NBA draft, has a long track record of investing in his old neighborhood.
In 2016, he opened The Commons on Penn Ave., one of two mixed-use developments he’s invested millions into. Still, he says the need for new, affordable housing continues to far outpace construction.
“It’s just taking too long, it’s too expensive, there’s winter conditions here,” George said.
George Modular Solutions will address that by taking much of the manufacturing indoors, and the process will also ensure steady, year-round work for more than 160 employees — long before the first development is complete.
“We’re trying to take people where they are,” George said. “So if you don’t have your high school diploma, we’re getting you your GED. We’re still hiring you. We are going to make sure you have a good, living-wage job with benefits.”
That approach is what attracted at least $5 million in public money to get the nearly $30 million project kick-started.
“At the base of it, it creates those sustaining jobs for middle-class families,” said Governor Tim Walz, who spoke at a ceremonial groundbreaking for the facility on Tuesday. “That’s what everybody’s looking at.”
With that type of public investment, George knows all eyes are now on him to start producing. He says he wouldn’t want it any other way.
“I was able to be successful because of the people in this community,” he said. “I just can’t sleep at night without doing everything I can to pool my resources back into this community, so that’s what I’m continuing to do.”
George Modular Solutions will soon begin moving in the manufacturing equipment, and hiring is already underway. The company plans to start delivering those modular units by the first quarter of next year.
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