“The agent wouldn’t even go in with us to show the place,” says Gene. “We felt the numbers in the industry didn’t make sense. How could any family with children ever hope to own their own home? We see that as a human right.” Gene and Kayla ended up buying that home anyway, then repairing it – which resulted in the property doubling in value. While this sounds great, it shocked them knowing how unattainable the new price would have been to them, let alone others or future generations. Inspired by that, and with some support from friends and colleagues, Grand River Modular launched in 2022. The vision from the start was to produce ADUs, also known as “backyard homes,” and to generally defy what they saw as the “colonial building structure.” “We decided to launch a company that built things differently,” Gene says. “We were still building homes, but just a different method of building them – faster, more affordable, higher quality, further exceeding the building code, and with less waste.” The company started with a small renovations team in the beginning. After about two years of hard work, they grew that into the commercial and council projects sectors. Investing their revenue back in the business, they eventually leased a facility that could produce two fully detached single bedroom homes per month. That’s what they have now, but that’s just the first step. Once they are ramped up, Grand River Modular aims to retain the current location as a permanent ADU and youth training and certification space, and move into a larger facility to begin standard home and multiplex modular production. They’ve preJULY 2024
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