By Tim Krohn
MANKATO — Bill Freitag and his sons figured if automakers could guarantee to buy back vehicles of people who lose their jobs, the Freitags could do the same for people who buy one of their new homes.
“We decided we need to instill some confidence in the marketplace,” said Freitag of Wilcon Construction Inc.
If someone buys a home constructed by Wilcon and the primary income earner loses a job permanently, becomes disabled, or goes through personal bankruptcy, Wilcon will buy the home back at the appraised price. They also will pay a couple of months payments first, if people need some breathing room while they get a new job.
There are conditions for buyers who sign up for the Safe-Net program. Details can be found at www.Wilcon-Construction
.com. They are offering information sessions on the program at 6:45 p.m. and 7.45 p.m. June 11 at the Country Inn.
The Wilcon program is one of many incentives that are starting to bring signs of improvement to the construction industry. While area contractors suffered through a horrible fall and winter, most are seeing a revival this spring, helped by a big first-time homebuyer tax credit, an easing of the recession, low interest rates and a upsurge in the stock market.
“Things are looking quite a bit better. Everyone I’m talking to seems to be a lot more optimistic in the past couple months,” said Tony Frentz of Frentz Construction in Mankato.
“We’re starting to see a lot of new projects coming after a very slow winter. Residential and commercial are looking good.”
Mike Hansen, of Mike Hansen Roofing & Construction, said that while his work putting roofs on new homes all but disappeared late last year, he’s been keeping his crews busy this spring. Most work has been reroofs, but some new as well.
“We did 50 new roofs for a year for Kim Born, but that new construction just dropped off.”
But his 13 employees have been getting a lot of reroofing jobs this spring. “We just did several townhomes with 900 square tore off and put on. That was a big job,” Hansen said. (A square of shingles covers 100 square feet.)
He said some builders he’s talked to say they are starting to get some work lined up for the summer, albeit at a slower pace than recent years.
Frentz, who is designing several new homes, said one thing has changed because of the recession and housing bust.
“People want quality custom homes with all the things in it they want, but you see fewer of the extremely large homes,” Frentz said. “I think people are thinking a little differently than they used to.
“We use all the spaces very well, like built-ins under the stairs. It’s like they designed them 100 years ago.”
Freitag, whose Wilcon business is based in St. James, has increasingly expanded into the Mankato market as he and his wife, Kirsten, have been joined in the business by their sons David, Andy and Nick. The company now has an office here.
Nick said Mankato is still a good market because its diversified economy has been more protected through the recession and he thinks the future is strong.
“We have a lot of seniors coming in from area towns. They are coming to retire here because there’s more to do,” Nick said. “There’s going to be a strong market for condos and townhomes, I think.”
Bill Freitag said the commercial and single-home construction is perking up, but there has been virtually no multi-family projects in the area. “There was some thought that as foreclosures picked up people would fill up apartments, but it didn’t happen. I think a lot of them just live with family.”
