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Inside Multifamily Giant Greystar’s Modular Construction Strategy

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Franco Faraudo & Nicholas Pipitone
January 07, 2025

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PROPMODO EXCLUSIVE

Modular construction has the potential to transform multifamily housing, promising faster build times, cost efficiencies, and sustainability gains. With companies like Greystar and Resia leading efforts, this innovative approach is steadily gaining traction in the U.S.

Modular construction has long been a dream for many in the U.S. construction industry, promising faster build times, cost savings, and sustainability benefits. While this approach is already popular in Europe and Japan, its growth in the U.S. has been hampered by hurdles like varied building codes and limited local factory capacity. Despite these challenges, the modular construction market has grown significantly, reaching a $12 billion valuation in 2022 and capturing six percent of all building starts—a nearly threefold increase since 2015.

Modern Living Solutions' flagship manufacturing facility in historic Knox, Pennsylvania, has operated since 1917 and was transformed in 2020 into a state-of-the-art modular production hub. (Image: Greystar)

Leading the modular movement is Greystar, the largest apartment manager and developer in the U.S., which has embraced this approach through its subsidiary, Modern Living Solutions (MLS). With a flagship factory in Pennsylvania, MLS combines development, construction, and manufacturing to produce modular apartments faster and with less waste. Greystar’s first modular community, Spring Run, highlights these efficiencies, completing construction 40 percent faster than traditional methods while maintaining quality and affordability. The company is now scaling up, with plans for multiple modular projects in Maryland and beyond, aiming to deliver 1,600 homes in the next 18 months.

Other developers like Resia and Windover are also investing in modular techniques, though with differing strategies. While Resia is building large-scale manufacturing facilities to produce prefabricated housing pods, Windover partners with existing factories to streamline its processes. These efforts underline modular construction’s potential to address America’s housing shortages, especially for affordable multifamily units. As labor shortages and sustainability concerns continue to shape the industry, modular building is poised to play a larger role in U.S. construction, paving the way for faster, greener, and more cost-effective housing solutions.

Explore today’s featured article to discover how modular construction is transforming multifamily housing, reshaping the way developers approach speed, cost, and sustainability. This article is free to read for the next 24 hours. Not a subscriber? Get unlimited access to all our exclusive content for just $25 for your first year using our special code: NEWYEAR. Sign up now!

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