Santa Rosa’s HybridCore Homes, a year-old company that provides builders a factory-built core section for new homes, on Monday announced an agreement with one of the nation’s largest home manufacturers for building and marketing  its designs.
The local company has agreed to work with Champion Home Builders Inc. of Troy, Mich. to build demonstration homes in two markets, the Washington, D.C. metro area and in North Dakota’s oil region. Both areas feature a significant amount of new home construction, said Shaun Faber, a co-founder and managing partner of HybridCore Homes.
“We feel like this is a big step for us,” Faber said.
HybridCore advertises that its products and designs allow homes to be constructed in half the time and for 20 to 30 percent less than a conventionally built home.
In Santa Rosa, the company unveiled its demo home last fall. It featured a factory-built core that included a master bedroom, two bathrooms and a kitchen complete with cherry cabinets, granite countertops and stainless steel appliances. The rest of the home was built conventionally around the core.
Champion has 27 factories in the U.S., the United Kingdom and Canada. The factories build what are typically called mobile, or manufactured homes, but they also build the components for modular homes, which Faber said are typically indistinguishable from a traditional home.
Champion will give HybridCore a royalty for each home sold and will perform the manufacturing and marketing. HybridCore will provide design, engineering and sales support.
HybridCore also continues to work with Clayton Homes of Sacramento for construction of cores manufactured for California, Faber said.
The company raised about $1.5 million in investment capital last year, and is currently seeking about the same amount, Faber said.
— Robert Digitale