Could it be that modular construction is the grown-up version of playing with Legos?
Before the shuttering of its Brooklyn Navy Yard factory, modular manufacturer Capsys got to work on 51 units for Bronx Pro Group’s low-income housing project at 3361 Third Avenue.
The stacked modules form a seven-story structure at the site of a former used-car lot in the Bronx, and the locals immediately latched onto, christening it as the Lego Building.
The modules — typically 42 by 17.5 feet — for the 63-unit, around 31,500-square-foot building were the heaviest the firm ever made.
Tom O’Hara, the firm’s former vice president for business development, told the Wall Street Journal that the building was constructed in three weeks.
Bronx Pro Group, which developed the $22 million project with Services for the UnderServed and Strategic Construction & Development Group, told the Journal the modular approach made sense because the building consists of studio apartments that are roughly the same size. The developers purchased the site in 2012 and the building was finished last summer.
The building houses 62 low-income tenants — 38 of which were previously homeless, the Journal reported.
Bronx Pro Group has developed over 1,000 units in the Bronx through a mix of public and private financing. The developer plans a 30-unit apartment building, also on Third Avenue, which is likely to be below market rate.
Pennsylvania-based modular firm Whitley Manufacturing bought Capsys earlier this month, The Real Deal reported. [WSJ] — Dusica Sue Malesevic