A developer has completed one modular home in South Shore and plans to build at least two more, using the same model that affordable housing developers are building in the city but selling it at a market price. 

“It’s faster to build” than conventional construction “and easily repeatable," said Marcus Dailey, whose rehab and construction firm is called Summer Qwest Holdings. “It’s an innovative way to bring new construction that people can afford into the community.” 

A modular house is built in pieces in a factory, in this case in Archer Heights, and then assembled onsite, shortening construction time by about half. That and the standardized, pre-cut materials reduce the builder’s costs. Thus the house can be offered at a lower price. 

The house, a three-bedroom on Ridgeland Avenue with about 1,620 square feet of living space, is listed at $449,900 and is represented by Jason O’Beirne of Jameson Sotheby’s International Realty. It’s the first of three Dailey said he plans to build on three vacant lots at 72nd Street and Ridgeland. 

Public records indicate the lots have been vacant for about two decades. 

A dozen South Shore homes have sold in the past year for between $425,000 and $475,000. They have all been rehabs of older condos or houses. There is nothing else listed for sale in South Shore that is new construction. Condominiums announced last summer with prices starting at $649,000 are not actively listed for sale now.

Dailey, who in the past has mostly done rehabs in South Side neighborhoods, is the first developer of market-price housing to use the modular design of Kinexx Modular Construction. 

Kinexx, based in Archer Heights, has previously built for affordable housing programs. One is in Back of the Yards, where the Resurrection Project offers the finished houses at under $200,000. The other is in East Garfield Park, where Structured Development is building the modular houses to fulfill two developers’ obligations under the Affordable Requirements Ordinance.

Paul Tebben, one of two Kinexx principals, said the firm has delivered seven modular homes to the affordable housing projects—eight including the market-price house on Ridgeland. Four of them are in the East Garfield Park project, where two more will be delivered this week and the developer’s total order is for 28 homes.

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