Escape Tampa Bay Village is a one-acre parcel with 10 tiny homes that attracted buyers so fast, Dan Dobrowolski, founder of Escape Homes, halted sales just to keep a couple models for show until new villages open.
Buyers ranged from snowbirds wanting to ride out the pandemic in a warmer climate to local residents who were paying more to rent compared with the monthly mortgage.
Dobrowolski is so sold on the potential of the Gulf Coast market he plans to open an Escape Homes manufacturing facility in the area, to complement the one in Wisconsin. It could be a new plant or an existing facility repurposed to make tiny homes. He’s zeroed in on two potential sites in the Tampa area and one in Sarasota, where his family has owned property since the mid-1970s.
“We have to expand,” Dobrowolski says. “not only in terms of the numbers of units we need to build, but also distribution — we have so many new customers that are in Florida and the Southeast that it just economically makes more sense.”
Advertisement
Related Stories
Construction
Prefab ADUs: A Rising Trend in Affordable Housing and Off-Site Construction Solutions
Factory-built accessory dwelling units use off-site construction methods to provide housing at a time when affordability and a shortage of homes have made housing less attainable for Americans
Comfort + Health
Tiny Home Community Offers Safe, Affordable Homes With Mental Health Support
Garman Homes is creating a community of affordable housing in collaboration with nonprofit social work agency XDS and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Affordability
As Housing Costs Rise, Millennial Buyers Turn to ADUs
Accessory dwelling units offer a compact, affordable, and energy-efficient alternative to traditional single-family housing
