The prototype apartment sits in a mostly empty parking lot in Chelsea, but when you walk out the front door, theres quite a view: boats docked at a marina, and a small estuary that connects to the Mystic River.

Kevin Saba owns the marina, and he is a cofounder of BeQuall, a startup company that aims to make city living more affordable and energy-efficient and compact. He refers to the prototype dwelling as a BePod, and it has about 330 square feet of interior space. The companys objective is to sell these modern-looking manufactured units to real estate developers in pricey parts of the country for use as rental units.

Cofounder Scott Bailey says they would likely be rented fully furnished for about 75 to 85 percent of the price of a comparably sized unfurnished apartment. (Most of the BePods furniture is integrated into the unit.) In Bostons Seaport neighborhood, at current prices for a small studio that would be roughly $1,350 to $1,575 a month.

The demographic were focused on is a segment of the market that hasnt seen a lot of love, says Bailey, who previously helped run the nonprofit MassChallenge entrepreneurship program. Its people who live with roommates in cities, people who want privacy.

Saba chimes in: I think itll be interesting, post-COVID. Expectations are going to change, as college students come out of school having lived in singles for the last year or two. Many of these younger renters may want leases shorter than a year, he adds, and they may prefer a furnished, ready-to-occupy apartment.

Saba says the company is talking with real estate developers about potential sites and getting regulatory approvals to ship manufactured housing to California, a key first market. Well do Massachusetts, as well, Saba says, though the state has historically been less friendly to any kind of prefab housing.

BeQuall has five early buyers lined up in California all for individual units initially. So far, Saba has provided most of Bequalls capital, but the company hopes to raise a round of funding sometime this year.

Saba contends that lots of folks are over-housed, living in homes or apartments that are too large. He predicts that smaller living spaces are going to be like electric cars on the verge of an inflection point in acceptance.

Scott Kirsner can be reached at kirsner@pobox.com. Follow him on Twitter @ScottKirsner.

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Could you live in this 330-square-foot pod apartment? - BetaBoston

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January 3, 2021 at 8:57 pm by Mr HomeBuilder
Category: Manufactured Homes