Dive Brief:
- Finland-based Admares, an industrialized manufacturer of buildings and homes, plans to invest $750 million into its first U.S. manufacturing facility in Waycross, Georgia, according to a company press release.
- The 2.5-million-square-foot mega factory will focus its production on the housing sector, with operation expected to begin in late 2025. Admares has not yet announced a general contractor to lead the project.
- Admares, which produces buildings for the residential and hospitality sectors, is in the process of relocating its headquarters to the U.S., according to the release.
Dive Insight:
Pat Wilson, commissioner for the Georgia Department of Economic Development’s global commerce team, said the factory will help alleviate attainable housing shortages for workers in the state.
“Workforce housing is a growing national challenge, and Georgia is no exception,” said Wilson. “The new Admares facility is helping address that challenge, filling a niche that is critical to economic development.”
Similarly, Philadelphia-based Volumetric Building Companies has identified affordable housing as a growing subsector for modular adoption. The modular builder’s CEO Vaughan Buckley noted these housing projects jumped from around 10% of the firm’s pipeline to about a 50% share over the past year.
Mikael Hedberg, founder and CEO of Admares, pinpointed the Waycross site as an ideal transportation hub due to its accessibility to major highways, such as I-75 to the west and I-95 to the east, and extensive rail connections. Additionally, the location is close to the Port of Brunswick, one of the busiest ports on the eastern seaboard.
Admares leverages robots in its manufacturing plants.
In 2018, the offsite manufacturer developed its first automated and robotized factory, which has the capacity to mass produce buildings specifically for the residential, hospitality and healthcare segments.
“With the rise of modern industrialization practices, we have combined our expertise to create a revolutionary robotic-driven manufacturing process that allows entire buildings to be manufactured at a factory rather than on a traditional construction site,” Hedberg said.