Massachusetts-based Blu Homes, which employs approximately 90 people at its sole plant in western Massachusetts and offices in Boston, Ann Arbor and San Francisco, will nearly double its payroll by opening a new 250,000-sq.-ft. (23,225-sq.-m.), 80-employee manufacturing facility on the historic naval base on Mare Island, in the Bay Area community of Vallejo, Calif.
In a turnaround from the trend, Blu, a maker of prefab architect-designed homes, turned around from Nevada to consider the Mare Island location after talking to Tom Steyer, co-chairman of Californians for Clean Energy and Jobs, and founder of Farallon Capital Management.
“Tom made a very persuasive case for integrating Silicon Valley’s talent for developing and supporting innovation with the industrial strength of communities like Vallejo,” said Bill Haney, president of Blu Homes. “And with the commitment of Lieutenant Governor [Gavin] Newsom and Tom Sheaff’s extraordinary team at Lennar Mare Island, we were able to find a fantastic location in the Bay Area.”
“Blu Homes’ focus on innovation and environmental responsibility makes the Bay Area the perfect choice for their manufacturing facility,” said Steyer. “If Blu’s production facility expands as planned, hundreds of green industrial jobs for Californian workers will be created over the next few years.”
“Blu’s beautiful, green homes align well with California’s ‘Net Zero Homes’ goals,” said Newsom. Other tenants that have found their way to Mare Island have included Alstom Transportation (for railcar refurbishment), Touro University and Excalibur Design.
Originally occupied by the Patwin people thousands of years ago, Mare Island was the nation’s first naval shipyard on the West Coast, established in 1854 and ultimately closed in 1996, having built or overhauled hundreds of ships and submarines. Lennar Mare Island’s portion of the 5,000-acre (2,024-hectare) island encompasses approximately 650 acres (263 hectares). Included in the Mare Island Reuse Plan are 1,400 homes and roughly 7 million sq. ft. (650,300 sq. m.) of commercial and industrial space. The mixed-use, master-planned community is being developed through a public/private partnership between the City of Vallejo and Lennar Mare Island, LLC.
Made to Order
Blu Homes said in May it had raised $25 million in private investment capital since its founding in 2007, and its homes were going up in 12 states and a handful of other countries. Its other plant in East Longmeadow, Mass., just opened in June 2010.
Blu Homes range in price from $70,000 to $275,000. Blu’s customers begin the homebuilding process by customizing their own homes for free online and in 3D. After selecting from a wide variety of designs, floor plans, interior design palettes and appliance packages, homebuyers are able to visualize and receive pricing information for their new home in real time.
Blu then builds each home with precision tooling, trained craftspeople and structural steel frames, which not only hold up well in various weather conditions, but allow “spacious, light-filled floor plans with widths of up to 34 feet, and ceiling heights reaching 16 feet.” The factory building environment virtually eliminates concerns over mold and other allergens, which are common issues in the traditional site-building process.
After leaving the factory, Blu’s homes are put up on-site in one day and completed in less than two weeks. The timeline on Mare Island will be nearly as fast, relatively speaking, with the facility due to open in late October and the first homes to be produced by year’s end. The operation will be housed in the former Building 680, where environmental remediation was completed last year.
