Workforce housing can be pretty basic, but when Pearl Homes’s Marshall Gobuty built 86 homes at Hunters Point that delivered LEED Zero certified homes and also showcased homes that could operate for days off grid, he created a new standard.
While the homes cost more to build, the efficiency of the homes lowered the operational costs enough to deliver significant savings over time, along with the ability to receive hefty tax credits. Plus, the homes can create more power than they consume, so excess energy is stored in a battery in each home that can be tapped during emergencies, even for days at a time.
Gobuty is on a mission to share this resilient and sustainable home template to improve the places we live on a larger scale. Recently, he teamed up with Jeff Burton, the executive director at the Community Redevelopment Agency and Economic Development for the City of Bradenton, a town just south of Tampa with a population bordering on 60,000.