YOUR AD HERE »

Oregon prefab homes a fit for Kings Beach

Julie Brown
Sierra Sun
Emma Garrard/Sierra SunOne of the 14 modular boxes is moved by crane in Kings Beach Tuesday afternoon. Seven new homes will replace an old trailer park on Trout Street.
ALL |

Instead of building new structures on the site of the old Denny’s Trailer Park on Trout Street, developer John Anderson shipped in seven pre-fabricated homes from Oregon for the Kings Beach redevelopment project.

The Bay Area-based Anderson Consolidated Construction is redeveloping the Kings Beach trailer park using modular construction. Each 1,400-square-foot unit was built in a plant in Hermiston, Ore., and shipped to Kings Beach last week, where the two-story homes will be installed and finished.

“Everything has to be trucked in anyway,” Anderson said Tuesday afternoon on the construction site. Modular construction lowers the number of required trips, he said.



A 70-ton crane, using metal beams connected to a heavy-duty yellow strap, precariously lifted the 14-ton manufactured unit in an ultimate balancing act.

The crane operator spun the unit counter-clockwise until it faced south. Slowly but gently, the operator lowered the pre-fab home on top of its new foundation.



Instantly, the structure’s first floor was complete; the contractor installed the unit’s second-floor next.

“This morning there were no houses here,” said inspector Jim Rogers of Marlette Homes, the modular home manufacturer. “Tonight, there will be five of them set up.”

Modular construction costs 20 percent less than standard frame homes, Anderson said.

But the real savings is in building time, Anderson said. Modular construction allows builders to start and finish in one season, before the snow flies.

Contractors started to lay out the foundations of Anderson’s Trout Street mobile home renovation in June, and will likely complete the project in November.

“That way, we’re able to pass [cost savings] on to future buyers,” Anderson said.

The developer has not determined the listing price for each three-bedroom home, but Anderson said they would be on the market by December.

Anderson bought the trailer park just off Trout Street in 2000. The trailers were relocated, but the land, listed as Denny’s Trailer Park, is still deemed a mobile-home parcel by the State Department of Housing and Community Development, the project’s governing agency.

“It’s still a mobile home park, it’s just the people will be buying a more expensive home in a mobile home park,” said Ron Javor, assistant deputy director for the Department of Housing and Community Development.

The privately financed development is upgrading the property into homes with granite counter tops, cherry cabinets, stainless steel appliances and high-vaulted ceilings.


Support Local Journalism

 

Support Local Journalism

Readers around Lake Tahoe, Truckee, and beyond make the Sierra Sun's work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.

Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.

Your donation will help us continue to cover COVID-19 and our other vital local news.