BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. -- The drawings were impressive and the architects intelligent, so it came as a bit of a shock to Waveland and Bay St. Louis residents when the Governors Commission on rebuilding Mississippi’s Gulf Coast suggested they look at a certain type of housing to start with: pre-fab.
No, not doublewide mobile homes, the architects assured people at both events last week.
Bill Dennis, a Rhode Island architect who led the Bay St. Louis design team, explained that the manufactured home industry has come a long way and that homes starting at $25,000 can look good, exceed storm requirements, be added onto in the future or even become a guest house when a larger home is built on one’s property.
The teams for both towns also laid out well-received ideas like new commercial areas along the beach, more open space and paths connecting neighborhoods. But most questions afterwards had to do with housing.
In Bay St. Louis, one resident said she was inspired by the home rising from the debris on Ballentine Street. “It was an aha moment,” she told her several hundred peers.
The first site to receive a new home construction permit from Bay St. Louis, the 1,000-square-foot home was donated to an elderly lady by Allen Associates, a Santa Barbara, Calif., builder.
Called a “build-to-ship” home, it arrived in pieces in October. Ian Cronshaw, a partner in Allen Associates, says the design fits between pre-fab and custom. “We don’t want to do bottom of the barrel stuff,” he says.
$100 to $135 a square foot
It costs $100 to $135 a square foot, but Cronshaw is confident that can come down significantly if the timber was cut and packaged along the Gulf Coast where labor is cheaper than California. “We may be interested” in doing just that, he says.
Bay St. Louis Mayor Eddie Favre says he’s all for encouraging such options as long as the builders meet storm codes. “There are some pretty neat looking designs,” he says, adding that he hopes more will be approved before Christmas.
Bill Carrigee, the city’s building inspector, said a few wind modifications had to be made on the two-bedroom, one-bath home on Ballentine, but that otherwise it was coming along just fine.
His advice to property owners looking at this and pre-fab options: “They must make sure they have a reputable firm and do not buy until plans are approved by this office.”
Dennis and the governor’s commission are working to get pre-fab builders to show model homes in Waveland, Bay St. Louis and the nine other communities they studied. That could happen as early as January.
As for the Ballentine house, Cronshaw is returning on Dec. 17 with extra crew to finish and have the owner move in on Dec. 23 -- just in time for Christmas dinner in her new home.
Follow-up to FEMA Flub 
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I run the Built-to-Ship Division for Allen Associates - we donated and built the home pictured at the top of this article, and now work with Clark Construction in Bay St. Louis (southernprebuilthomes.com) to supply these homes.
Let me dispel a few myths:
1) Price - no one is lining their pockets or ripping anyone off with THESE houses. Please check out CURRENT building prices before calling honest builders opportunists (or worse). Price is a simple equation of Cost+Reasonable Profit, period. You get what you pay for. If you take issue with this fact, feel free to contact me directly. bbeltram@dallenassociates.com
We are in partnership with Eddie Clark because we want to help re-build Mississippi. We do not make big profits in this endeavor & keep cost as low as we can.
2)Quality - The house you see pictured is NOT modular. It is a custom, stick-built house, that was pre-fabricated (or pre-built). Same as building a brand new house from scratch, but more efficient. Materials used are quality and eco-friendly, not cheap trash.
3)Please don't confuse this house with other lesser quality houses out there. This is a quality, custom house.
Mississippi has been kicked around a lot and some of us are sincere and want to help out. Please do your research and ask yourself if you are doing more harm than good before pointing fingers.
Respectfully,
Blake Beltram
Allen Associates
Blake Beltram, Santa Barbara California (Sent Nov 13, 2006 2:27:52 PM)
I own a company ( SYSTEM BUILT CONSTRUCTION INC)that
installs about 250 modular homes a year, we go from
PA to GA currently, We have put up as many as 4 homes a day. Give me a call.
Brian Brockway , Charlotte,North Carolina (Sent Dec 31, 2006 5:24:21 PM)
Email me about modular buuilt duplex in New Orleans,louisiana call504-524-6361
jude daniel fuselier.new orleans, la. (Sent Mar 16, 2007 9:04:42 AM)
I am planning for building a Comunity Complex in Daviston, Alabama (above Alexander City). Our Church needs two Prefab buyildings. One to be used as a Church, with office space, class rooms, and santuary. Another building for Day Care Center, Social Hall, and a Fast Food Express. I need to meet contractors who build prefab buildings.
Rev. Jacob G. Colbert, Jr., Birmingham, Alabama (Sent Oct 23, 2007 4:41:05 PM)
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