BUTTE — A company that manufactures modular homes is considering opening a giant plant in an industrial park south of Butte bringing with it more housing and potentially hundreds of new jobs.
“For one, it’s job creation, it’s working in skilled trades area and then also addressing the need for affordable housing,” said Butte Chief Executive J.P. Gallagher.
Representatives with the San Diego-based Dvele gave their proposal to the Butte Council of Commissioners recently about building a 450,000-square-foot plant at the Montana Connections industrial park. This could be an $80 million investment that Butte has been working on for about a year and a half.
“It’s not a fly-by-night operation, it’s real and we’re going to work with them to get to the finish line,” said Gallagher.
They proposed hiring as many as 400 people to build and ship manufactured homes in the plant.
“Part of the reason why they’re going public with this now is they need to gauge and find out can this community support this type of manufacturing facility,” said Economic Development Coordinator Kristen Rosa.
Dvele says it would train workers and possibly provide housing for some of the workforce. Officials are confident the industrial park will meet the needs of this huge project.
“This is exactly what we’ve been striving for, what Kristen’s been working so hard to build in making sure we have sites that have all the infrastructure that are near and ready for this kind of development,” said Community Development Director Karen Byrnes.
City officials say this project would benefit Butte.
“When we’re adding jobs and we’re adding to our economy, that’s when other places like retail and stuff are going to look at our community and say, ‘hey, they’re growing, this is a place we need to build,’” said Gallagher.
The company could start building the plant this year.
