Twin Lakes at Avon Park: Champion Homes Builds Affordable Housing Development in Florida, Highlighting Benefits of Offsite Construction

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Twin Lakes at Avon Park: Champion Homes Builds Affordable Housing Development in Florida, Highlighting Benefits of Offsite Construction

2025-03-25 04:15 Last Updated At：04:31

TROY, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar 24, 2025--

Champion Homes, Inc. (“Champion Homes”) celebrated the grand opening of a new Champion-exclusive manufactured housing development helping to address the affordable housing shortage in Florida. Twin Lakes at Avon Park, a community of more than 300 affordable homes for rent or purchase, had its official grand opening on Mar. 22, 2025, in Avon Park, Fla. Residents have already started moving into their homes, and the community is currently accepting applications.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250324683623/en/

All homes in the development will be built at Champion Homes's manufacturing facility in Bartow, Fla., with the first 118 already completed. Additionally, the above-ground setting and installation work for the homes is being completed by Champion Construction Services, an affiliate of Champion Homes.

Owned by Rocklyn Capitalization Group, Twin Lakes at Avon Park demonstrates that offsite construction can be a fast and cost-effective solution to affordable housing shortages in the state. Champion Homes employs a skilled, centralized workforce in manufacturing facilities where homes are protected from the elements during construction. These efficiencies contribute to quicker project timelines, which can enable residents to move in faster and avoid expenses associated with construction delays.

“Twin Lakes is an ideal example of high quality, factory-built homes produced on an efficient timeline in a cost-effective way,” said Richard Olenhouse, General Manager of Champion Homes’s Bartow, Fla., manufacturing facility. “Offsite construction is the future of housing, and we’re excited to utilize these manufacturing techniques to bring more affordable homes to Central Florida.”

Each three-bedroom, two-bathroom home features a porch, kitchen island, en-suite primary bathroom, laundry room and an optional carport. The community is nestled in beautiful Highlands County near lakes, golf courses and wildlife refuges.

Community amenities include a swimming pool, pickleball court, fitness center, dog park and clubhouse. Outdoor enthusiasts will love the private beach area, tiki hut and lake access with a public boat ramp. Notably, there is no age restriction for living in the community, distinguishing it from many other Florida housing developments.

A private grand opening was held on Mar. 20. Builders, community members and government officials were invited to walk the homes and view the quality of construction.

“Highlands County is a fast-growing community,” said Olenhouse. “It’s essential to build more affordable housing in the area, and we’re excited to be a part of it.”

About Champion Homes, Inc.

Champion Homes, Inc. is a leading producer of factory-built housing in North America and employs more than 9,000 people. With more than 70 years of homebuilding experience and 48 manufacturing facilities throughout the United States and western Canada, Champion Homes is well positioned with an innovative portfolio of manufactured and modular homes, ADUs, park-models and modular buildings for the single-family, multi-family and hospitality sectors.

In addition to its core home building business, Champion Homes provides construction services to install and set-up factory-built homes, operates a factory-direct retail business with 72 retail locations across the United States, and operates Star Fleet Trucking, providing transportation services to the manufactured housing and other industries from several dispatch locations across the United States.

Manufactured and Modular Homes
www.championhomes.com
www.skylinehomes.com
www.genesishomes.com

Park Model RVs
www.championparkmodelscabins.com

Star Fleet Trucking
www.starfleettrucking.com

A look inside the Tampa Bay Rays' 120-hour makeover of the Yankees' Steinbrenner Field

2025-03-29 03:37 Last Updated At：03:42

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Junior Caminero opened the narrow white door in his new spacious locker and the Tampa Bay third baseman discovered a bat Giancarlo Stanton left behind.

Down the row at the other prestigious corner stall, pitcher Shane Baz had no idea he was in Aaron Judge's spring training abode.

“I haven't found anything yet,” Rays pitcher said. “I'll take anything.”

Left homeless after Hurricane Milton destroyed the Tropicana Field roof on Oct. 9, the Rays began their season as renters at Steinbrenner Field, the New York Yankees spring training headquarters, playing the Colorado Rockies on Friday in the final major league opener.

The Rays replaced more than 3,000 signs and images in the 11,000-capacity ballpark during a 120-hour makeover after the Yankees' final home spring training game ended Sunday at 3:33 p.m. By the time of Friday's first pitch shortly after 4 p.m., banners spelling “R-A-Y-S” covered the “Y-A-N-K-E-E-S” signs above the first- and third-base stands and large photos of Shane McClanahan and Taj Bradley were on the back of the scoreboard, visible to cars driving in.

An interlocking “NY” chandelier in the spacious Rays clubhouse was covered with a square canvas highlighting the Rays yellow, Columbia blue and white starburst with “Home of the Rays” written on each side. The replica of the Yankee Stadium frieze above each stall was concealed, too, and a mat with white “TB” letters was on the floor leading to the showers, obscuring tile the read “The Bronx” and “New York,” meant to emulate a subway.

Clubhouse staff found a touchpad and changed the 12 thin ceiling lights imitating Yankees pinstripes from white to deep blue.

Misters were installed in the dugouts and bench padding was replaced along with the bat and helmet racks.

But there were reminders this was a ballpark built for spring training's expanded rosters — most Rays had two lockers. Just 39 of 77 stalls were occupied, including 25 of the 51 ringing the walls.

“New York Yankees executive offices” was etched in the doors of an office entrance and the statue of late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and the display of New York's retired numbers outside the ballpark remained unaltered. Yankees logos were in place at the end of each row in the seating bowl and while “TB” replaced a Yankees sign atop the scoreboard, the letters “George M. Steinbrenner Field” remained underneath.

Their locker room repurposed as the visitor manager's office, umpires were moved to a trailer more than 100 feet beyond the left field corner, near a city street.

Rays players luxuriated in facilities far more lavish than the ones they were accustomed to in the Trop: a two-level weight area, three therapy pools with TVs at water level, sauna red-light therapy, four batting cages and an indoor/outdoor dining area.

“It’s almost too much,” said pitcher Zack Littell, prepping for his start Saturday. “There’s so much space. I think if you had to complain about something, you have to walk a really long way to get places.”

Some players switched their season rentals from the St. Petersburg side of the bay to the Tampa flank, shortening their commute. Rays manager Kevin Cash said his 10-minute trek to the Trop was now a 30-minute drive.

When he opened a drawer in his new desk, Cash came across a handwritten note from counterpart Aaron Boone.

“He just said: `Enjoy it. You guys, hope to have good health,'" Cash recounted, expressing appreciation.

“This one was pretty classy. Some of the things that Tito leaves is not so classy,” he said, referring playfully to new Cincinnati manager Terry Francona.

While the visitors clubhouse is cramped, it is not uncomfortable. Extra space was created by moving the trainer's room to what had been storage space.

“They’ve done everything they can to make this feel like a big league park,” Colorado's Kris Bryant said.

Tampa Bay has played 2,148 games at the Trop, including the postseason, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The Rays previous outdoor home games were a pair of series at Kissimmee, Florida, in 2007 and ’08, games against the Yankees moved to New York’s Citi Field in 2017 and in San Diego during the 2020 neutral-site postseason.

Last year's schedule at St. Petersburg's Tropicana Field averaged just 16,515, 28th among the 30 teams, and opening day was the only sellout. The Rays withdrew this month from a deal for a proposed new ballpark on a site adjacent to the Trop, and Major League Baseball will be watching closely where there would be an attendance advantage to a new stadium on the Tampa side of the bay, such as a proposed Ybor City site.

“I think the fans have always kind of wanted baseball over in Tampa Bay instead of St. Petersburg,” Littell said.

Given the intimate atmosphere of the one-deck, 34-row ballpark. the Rays are expecting fireworks — actual fireworks are to be set off following home runs during night games.

“I know a much smaller capacity here but it will feel like a much-more packed house,” Rays infielder Taylor Walls said. “We're excited to play in front of our fans here, in front of the fans of Tampa, maybe even Orlando that now get a chance to commute to the game.”

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb