N.D. oil boom a win-win for two states

By Erin Golden

WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Published Thursday December 15, 2011

For the people at the Champion Home Builders plant in York, Neb., the oil boom in North Dakota means one thing: there’s no shortage of work.

The state’s recent influx of oil field workers — and resulting housing shortage — has provided Champion and a handful of other Nebraska manufactured and modular home companies with the most significant boost they’ve had in years.

In York, general manager Tom Tyree has doubled his work force from the middle of the year, up to 150 production employees. He figures he’ll need to add another 50 by early next year to help build homes and modular, temporary housing bound for cities like Williston and Dickinson in North Dakota.

” It’s kind of like the good old days in the industry,” Tyree said. “Instead of buying one at a time and taking forever to get stuff done, they’re buying 20 at a time — or more. ”

Nebraska is home to a handful of companies that build manufactured homes and about 15 inventory dealers. That’s down significantly, at least on the dealership side, from a decade ago, when there were more than 40 dealers.

Martin Huff, the executive director of the Nebraska Manufactured Housing Association, said the number of dealers has been steadily dropping for years, in part because fewer lenders are interested in the business. In the late 90s, his group had 10 lending institutions as members. Today, there are two.

“The industry is really on its bottom,” he said.

But North Dakota could prove to be a bright spot.

Huff said Nebraska’s manufacturers are in a good position in part because the other manufactured home builders in the region are few and far between: None in North Dakota or Iowa, one in South Dakota, a handful in Minnesota and Montana.

The need for housing in North Dakota is clear — and becoming more urgent every day. The oil drilling operations have flooded small communities with thousands of new residents, seemingly overnight. In Mountrail County, in the northwest part of the state, a full third of the population is living in temporary housing. Two “man camp” housing compounds planned for the town of Tioga (population: about 1,300) will add another 3,700 residents to the community.

Scott Fletcher, national sales manager for Chief Custom Homes in Aurora, Neb., said that adds up to a perfect market for manufactured housing.

“There’s a big push with whatever developers and builders there are out there to be able to put up as much housing, as fast as possible,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons for us: We’re quicker.”

Huff worries that some potential business could be held up because the communities in North Dakota haven’t had time to get land developed for new housing. Executives and sales representatives from Nebraska companies have seen the problem firsthand; When a salesman for Magnolia Homes, in Gering, Neb., traveled to check out the situation, there were so few beds that he had to stay in hotel 50 miles away.

But Nebraska-made housing is already in North Dakota — and more is being built every day.

Champion has been working on projects for North Dakota for nearly six months. So far, it’s been both 8-bed housing units for man camps, along with four-bedroom homes.

Near the Wyoming border, workers at Magnolia Homes are working on modular buildings that will house six workers in the man camps. They’ll end up in Dickinson, N.D.

Roger Phillips, the company’s senior vice president, said he’s added somewhere between 12 and 15 workers over the last few weeks, bringing the total number in production to 75.

He’s hopeful the orders will keep rolling in.

“It’s kind of who you know,” he said. “You get your foot in the door, get your product in the door and others see it.”

In Wayne, Neb., Heritage Homes is also gearing up to build homes and apartments. After a few rough years, the North Dakota business could help get the company back to pre-recession staffing levels, said Rod Tompkins, Heritage’s president.

Fletcher, with Chief Custom Homes in Aurora, Neb., said his company has been following the situation since the early spring and started looking seriously at projects in March and April. The company has several in the planning and bidding process, including apartment buildings.

If the orders keep coming in, he expects that the number of workers at the factory could go up from about 100 to somewhere in the neighborhood of 130 to 145.

Other Nebraska builders said it’s likely they’ll need to expand their workforce in the near future.

Fletcher said there are plenty of companies — from across the country — looking to get their share of the oil boom. But the demand is so great that it’s hard to imagine someone couldn’t get a piece of the work.

“There’s so much to do that there’s so much for everybody,” he said.