The city of Rochester has found a builder for its first modular home project.
On Tuesday, the Rochester City Council unanimously approved the sale of seven plots of land in the Marketview Heights neighborhood to Cook Properties. Those vacant lots will serve as the location for the city’s first major modular house development, an attempt to create a lower-cost option for home buyers as opposed to new build houses. The city estimates the cost to purchase the houses will come in between $135,000 and $165,000.
The total cost to purchase the seven lots was $1,200. Nine houses are expected to be constructed.
Councilmember Michael Patterson represents the northeast district, the area of the city where the development is poised. He said, after visiting Cook Properties’ modular home site in Palmyra, and the factory where the houses are built, he sees this as a major opportunity for the city’s housing stock.
“I think this is an incredible opportunity for us, I’m so happy we’re doing this, and I honestly believe this is just the beginning of the beginning,” Patterson said.
Cook Properties was selected following a request for proposals issued by the city in June. All city taxes on property sales will be waived as part of the agreement. The city will have no further involvement with the development.
Jeff Cook, owner of Cook Properties, estimated in a Council committee meeting that the homes would take about 60 days to be constructed. He said the first are expected to hit the market in early 2026.
“We’re hoping to make a profit, a very small profit, on these nine,” Cook said. “If we don’t on these nine, that’s okay, because we’re going to learning a little bit ourselves, and it’s a proof of concept.”
Modular houses, houses built offsite in a factory setting and transported to a lot, have become an increasingly popular alternative to traditional “stick built” houses. Earlier this week, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a $50 million state investment into a modular 200, 1,500 square foot houses across the state using modular houses, dubbed MOVE-IN NY. The state estimates that the cost is about half traditional construction costs and can be completed three times faster.
The cost to complete a build is expected to come in at $250,000.
“This groundbreaking initiative has the potential to revolutionize the way we create high-quality, beautifully designed starter homes in New York,” Hochul said, in a statement. “With the cooperation of our local partners in urban, rural, and suburban areas of the state, the MOVE-IN program will help address the rising cost of housing and enable more New Yorkers to afford a home of their own and achieve the dream of homeownership.”
The pilot run of that program focused on three new builds in Schenectady, Syracuse, and Newcomb, respectively.
While the modular houses typically cut down significantly on construction time and labor hours, the actual cost-saving of prefabricated buildings is up for debate. For example, a 2023 study from the University of Omaha found a substantially more modest reduction in construction costs, at 4% lower than an on-site build per square foot.
