Communities across the West now benefit from the innovative collaboration between The Pacific Companies and Autovol. The Pacific Companies, named the number 1 multifamily developer in 2022, has deployed the power of automated modular construction to produce 10 projects and counting. Likewise TPC’s series of projects helped Autovol become America’s leading modular producer of multifamily affordable housing after less than three years of operation.
Caleb Roope co-founded Autovol after many years of association with the other two co-founders, Rick Murdock and Curtis Fletcher. The three had worked on numerous modular projects while Rick and Curtis were at previous companies. Caleb took the lead in raising over $100 million in private investment to bring Autovol to fruition.
TPC benefits from the productivity of modular construction in a variety of ways. The approach provides a consistent source of labor for projects that lend themselves to modular. It also helps reduce site congestion and noise and increases precision, especially due to Autovol’s use of automation and robotics. This helps TPC augment its own construction force, Pacific West Builders.
Autovol builds 70 to 80 percent of a project offsite, while Pacific West Builders prepares the site. Once the project is shipped from the Autovol factory to the prepared site, Pacific West Builders completes the assembly of the building, adds roofing, exterior facade, and a variety of finishing work on the building interior.
The approach has boosted productivity for TPC, with several projects contributing to TPC’s total that led the nation in multifamily affordable housing development in 2022. TPC has given Autovol an immediate supply of projects that have helped keep the factory continuously operating, quickly profitable, and leading the nation in affordable multifamily modular production volume. Since founding, Autovol has also built several projects for other developers working to provide much-needed affordable housing on the west coast.
