Ex-NBA star breaks ground on N. Mpls. modular building plant (2024)

Growing up in north Minneapolis, Devean George gainedgritanda “hard-work ethic”from parents who worked two jobs each while supporting his basketball dreams.

When George retired from the NBA, after a career that included three championship runs with the Los Angeles Lakers, he turned to real estate development — working on projects that brought him back to the community that nurtured him.

“I saw my community, which my dad still lives in, getting worse [with] more abandoned buildings,” he said. That fueled his passion to “start here at home.”

On Tuesday, George joined a crowd of nearly 100 supporters and local dignitaries to break ground on a $11.8 million manufacturing facility in north Minneapolis that will build modular residential and commercial buildings.

The goal of George Modular Solutions is to both speed up the development of new housing in north Minneapolis and boost the community’s job base. Financial support for the project came from various sources, including Sunrise Banks, the city of Minneapolis and U.S. Bank.

Work on the facility’s interior will begin this week and is set to be completed in November, George said. He said he expects production of modular units to begin in January.

Right away, there will be 166 jobs created at the facility, George said. In the following couple of years, the number is expected to reach 320 jobs, he added. Job training for specific certificates and GED training will be offered to workers.

“We did this the right way, which is working together collaboratively,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said at the groundbreaking.

“The success of this project isn’t going to specifically be because it is a Black-led project, it is going to be because of the wages it’s going to provide, the benefits, it’s going to be because the workers here are going to be treated with dignity,” Minneapolis City Council Member Jeremiah Ellison said.

The facility will build and assemble most of the components needed in a housing unit — from flooring to the ceiling and fixtures — on a production line. Units will be then moved to their final destination, where they can be stacked like “Legos” to create multi-unit buildings, George said.

George has developed several properties through his company George Group North, which specializes in multifamily residential developments. They include two affordable apartment complexes in north Minneapolis, The Commons at Penn and Penn Avenue Union.

Those projects were not built in a modular facility, he said.

About two years ago, George and his team began diving into modular building after a report highlighted its potential for boosting housing growth in north Minneapolis.

The ability to assemble units on a production line helps keep prices more consistent and allows construction to continue even during winter months in Minnesota, George said.

George has two upcoming affordable housing developments, one in Brooklyn Park and the other at Minneapolis’ Upper Harbor Terminal, that will use modular units built at the new facility. He said he hopes to develop more projects outside north Minneapolis in the future.

A pivot to a new career

George said he didn’t begin thinking seriously about life after basketball until his seventh year in the NBA.

“From playing in the NBA, everyone has their hobbies or vices,” he said. “Some guys like cars, fast cars. Some guys like jewelry. I was a home guy. I was a decorating guy.”

He took a class at the NBA summer program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, which sparked his interest in real estate development.

Two years after he retired in 2010, George announced his first affordable housing project in north Minneapolis.

At Tuesday’s event, George thanked many supporters and talked about his passion for investing into the community that shaped him.

“All of the people that still live in this community, or some of the elders, were people that were here when I grew up, and those are the same faces that I see that helped me, that protected me, that gave me toughness,” George said in an interview before the groundbreaking.

Family members at the ceremony included his son and father, George said.

“That’s one of the things that I look back on, is how they molded me to become who I’ve become, is all the people in the community,” George said. “So I feel in debt to the community for what they’ve done to push me or to catapult me forward, to be successful.”