Small Town News

New look at construction methods and products builds goal for business plan coming to area

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Any one in and out of the Superior Industrial Park on U.S. 60 may Have noticed the two huge reddish metal cargo containers on what was once an empty lot.

Soon, if all goes according to plan of the owner of that lot, those containers will form offices and showcase for a new business.

The 2.5 acre lot's owner is David Smith and his company is Agave Development Group LLC. He is seeking a conditional use permit from the town to proceed with the conversion of the cargo containers. This is the foundation of what the business he is bringing to Superior is about, modular construction and the distribution of products used in this industry in applications such as converting cargo containers into homes or buildings for other uses.

"This will be our first attempt to demonstrate the actual converting of these containers," he said recently. This project will require the use of local contractors. "They're going to be involved with the foundation, with the structural work, utilities and as well we're looking at other trades that will be involved, including welding and also doing the interior construction," he said.

This use of the Superior site and the cargo container aspect of the modular building industry is a newer use of the property than Smith first contemplated. "When we first purchased the property at the industrial park from the town of Superior, we had several different goals," he said "Our first goal was to get involved in the manufacturing for the high end interiors of custom homes. Due to the economy, however, we've had to revise our business plan and most contractors who are still in business today understand that companies have to be diversified and go into other applications."

Smith said that seven years ago when he got his general contractor license, he made it a goal to not be a typical general contractor. "So I started doing research on alternative building products," he said. "Some of those products are a term referred to as 'SIPs,' which is an acronym for 'Structural Insulated Panels,' as well as 'ICFs,' which are insulated concrete forms."

Smith said he is certified for both of these types of construction for installation. "And we also have a couple of dealership programs available but more importantly now we want to promote some industrial activity to the town of Superior and one of the things we are looking at is bringing modular construction to the town," he said. The first phase of this will be showing and demonstrating to people how a cargo container can be converted to residential use.

Agave has specialized in interior construction, Smith said. The firm's, primary aim is to provide the interior applications, plans and information for people who want to convert their own containers. "We still will have the opportunity also to convert containers on site as well," he said.

A goal involved in the choice of modular construction is to bring affordability back into the housing market, he said. But along with that is to demonstrate certain practices of construction that have been around for years to make homes more energy efficient. Part of that is in using products such as the ICFs for foundation work and SIPs for interior wall insulation.

Smith said that both ICFs and SIPs create a very high R value (e.g., helps with energy efficiency). "Our goal is to educate the client," he said, "to let them understand that you first must protect the envelope of the home or

the dwelling."

The concept of protecting the energy egress and ingress "envelope" involves bringing in particular practices that are used in the northwest, northeast or eastern parts of the country that already exist, he said. "We can use those particular strategies in the southwest," he added. Protecting the envelope with such strategies as providing vapor barriers will allow mechanical equipment to work more efficiently and result in cost saving.

"The unique thing about modular homes," he said, "and this is technology that has been around for seveiral years, is that it would work well in. rural communities or areas that have small lots because the modular units can be constructed off site and installed on an engineered foundation and then put on a small lot on either a single level or multiple levels."

He said that in his opinion, within 20 years or less the majority of home building will be that of factory built homes. In fact, he said, Toyota already has a modular home factory in Japan. "At this point they're not exporting the product but you can believe they will be some time in the future and we need to take hints from leaders in the industry and to look at companies like Toyota, which has always been involved with quality and also maintaining a high production rate in keeping units affordable."

When the conditional use permit is obtained to convert the boxes on the Agave site, Smith hopes to demonstrate not only to Superior but other communities within the metropolitan area what can be done with modular construction. "We would hope once permits and plans have been submitted that we would be able to have things operational and people can be able to view the site within a six month period," he said.



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