Edging into building shelter from the storms
Home Depot follows Lowe's with modular hurricane cottages but tries to go one better, building on-site.
By JUDY STARK
Published April 7, 2007
Now Home Depot is getting in on the cottage act.
The home improvement giant introduced its own line of modular housing at a home show last weekend at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans.
The homes, with cottagey features like shutters and front porches, will be offered at first only in Louisiana and other regions badly hit by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, including the Gulfport-Biloxi, Miss., area. They are for sale now only at three Home Depots in greater New Orleans.
The homes are similar to the Katrina cottages that competitor Lowe's started marketing in February in Louisiana and Mississippi. Designed by architect Marianne Cusato, they have been hailed as a model of affordable, hurricane-worthy, attractive and dignified housing.
But spokesman Don Harrison said Home Depot's modular housing plan has been in the works "for 18 months or so" and was not a reaction to Lowe's move.
One way in which Home Depot's modular home sales differ from Lowe's is that Home Depot will take responsibility for the construction of the house, once it arrives "85 percent built" from the factory in Texas, Harrison said. "We will not let go of responsibility for it until we are sure you can get your utilities hooked up and a certificate of occupancy."
He contrasted that with the Lowe's plan, which delivers a kit of materials to buyers, who then must find their own contractor to assemble it. Lowe's does not install or build the cottages.
"There's a bidding war these days in New Orleans for qualified contractors," he said. "We take the bidding war off the table."
Home Depot has not decided whether to expand sales to other markets such as Florida.
There are nine models, ranging in size from 680 square feet one bedroom to 2,100 square feet (four bedrooms) and are base-priced at about $95 a square foot for the smaller models and $90 a square foot for the larger.
The builder is Homestar Homes, with headquarters in League City, Texas.
The homes are built to comply with the new Louisiana statewide building codes, Home Depot says, which meet or exceed those for site-built homes.
A question-and-answer sheet developed by Home Depot asks whether the modular building project puts the store in competition with its professional customers. No, Home Depot says: "The need for housing is so great in the area along the Gulf Coast we've selected for this project that we will not impact local builders. The housing demand far exceeds the supply capacity of builders in the area." Home Depot will also work with developers and builders who want to build multiple modular homes.
Judy Stark can be reached at (727) 893-8446 or stark@sptimes.com.