New Manufacturing Plant
We ran a story yesterday about a company building modular homes on the coast thinking about building a plant here in Meridian. I want to give you a little more information than we knew or were able to give yesterday.
The business is the brainchild of a local doctor, Randy Nance. He spent several weeks on the coast after Hurricane Katrina, setting up a clinic and helping people down there who needed it. While there, he realized the desperate need for homes there. Thus, an idea was born.
Nance and local architect B.B. Archer are partnering with a company called All-American homes in Indiana to start building those modular homes for Gulf residents. The plant that puts them together is apparently going to be here in Meridian, though that has not yet been finalized yet. The plant will build homes for Katrina victims, but also for others across the South who need or want homes like they build. The homes are better built than mobile homes, but less expensive than regularly built homes. They're also quicker to build, like six weeks instead of a year.
Here's the bottom line for Meridian. It appears that very soon an official announcement about a plant will be coming. That plant will probably employ about 300 people, and pay about $10 an hour. All-American homes had already been planning to build a plant in the Southeast anyway, but the hurricane, and then the partnership with the two Meridianites were the driving force in getting it located here. The fact that Meridian is kind of a center point for New Orleans, Atlanta, Memphis, Nashville, and Birmingham was a big factor too. The Gulf Zone Opportunity Act also helped. As I mentioned in a previous post, it will provide tax incentives for businesses looking to locate in Mississippi.
No word yet on how long it will be before that plant opens, but it will have to be relatively quickly, if they're going to meet the needs of the people on the coast. We hope to know something more definate within a couple of weeks, maybe sooner.
I think that's everything I know about the company. If you have any questions, you can ask, but I can't promise I'll know the answer.
The business is the brainchild of a local doctor, Randy Nance. He spent several weeks on the coast after Hurricane Katrina, setting up a clinic and helping people down there who needed it. While there, he realized the desperate need for homes there. Thus, an idea was born.
Nance and local architect B.B. Archer are partnering with a company called All-American homes in Indiana to start building those modular homes for Gulf residents. The plant that puts them together is apparently going to be here in Meridian, though that has not yet been finalized yet. The plant will build homes for Katrina victims, but also for others across the South who need or want homes like they build. The homes are better built than mobile homes, but less expensive than regularly built homes. They're also quicker to build, like six weeks instead of a year.
Here's the bottom line for Meridian. It appears that very soon an official announcement about a plant will be coming. That plant will probably employ about 300 people, and pay about $10 an hour. All-American homes had already been planning to build a plant in the Southeast anyway, but the hurricane, and then the partnership with the two Meridianites were the driving force in getting it located here. The fact that Meridian is kind of a center point for New Orleans, Atlanta, Memphis, Nashville, and Birmingham was a big factor too. The Gulf Zone Opportunity Act also helped. As I mentioned in a previous post, it will provide tax incentives for businesses looking to locate in Mississippi.
No word yet on how long it will be before that plant opens, but it will have to be relatively quickly, if they're going to meet the needs of the people on the coast. We hope to know something more definate within a couple of weeks, maybe sooner.
I think that's everything I know about the company. If you have any questions, you can ask, but I can't promise I'll know the answer.
posted by Wade Phillips at 11:17 AM
1 Comments:
Find more modular home builders in Meridian: www.modularhomesnetwork.com
Post a Comment
<< Home