Aulick Industries designs ‘container home’ option for Gering development

Oct 04, 2023

WATCH: Jake and Kolby Aulick detail a project underway at Aulick Industries: building container houses. Point a smartphone camera at the QR code, then click the link. 

An agriculturally oriented steel builder like Scottsbluff's Aulick Industries might seem an unlikely business to evoke a show like HGTV's "Tiny House Hunters."

But housing shortages and the need to build Scotts Bluff County's workforce prompted Kolby, Jake and Austin Aulick to enter that world with a mixed-use Gering development that will include some 70 to 100 "container homes" alongside conventional "stick-built" ones and commercial businesses.

The third-generation leaders of their family's 71-year-old firm recently finished their prototype 480-square-foot "metAul" home, which Jake and Kolby Aulick say would offer cheaper alternatives for young adults seeking first homes.

Currently sitting in Aulick's headquarters building near Avenue I and South Beltline Highway, the prototype features a kitchen, living area, bedroom, bathroom and utility area within three combined 20-foot by 8-foot containers. The brothers also envision 320-square-foot and 1,000-square-foot options.

Kolby (left) and Jake Aulick, third-generation leaders of Aulick Industries with brother Austin, see their firm's prototype "metAul" shipping container house as a way for young adults starting out in life to be able to work and live in Scotts Bluff County. They’re standing next to the back wall of their 480-square-foot prototype in Aulick's Scottsbluff headquarters building.

"We’ve had people come through and tour (the prototype) and liked it," Kolby Aulick said Tuesday.

He and Jake Aulick said they see their tiny-home initiative as a logical extension of their Scottsbluff High School internship program and an Aulick-sponsored vocational trades program that trains 18 students a semester.

"My goal the last five years has been to be the best place to work in Scottsbluff and Gering, Nebraska," Jake Aulick said. The brothers have done so through things "that no one else west of Kearney does."

Aulick Industries has been adding about five positions a year to their roughly 140-person workforce in Scottsbluff, Benkelman and Uvalde, Texas. The firm makes dump truck bodies, trailers and customized boxes for mounting to various trucks.

Jake Aulick said about half of the firm's new jobs "are filled by 18-year-old kids" who have gone through either the Scottsbluff High internship program or Aulick's classes in diesel technology and electrical training. The vocational program will soon add HVAC and plumbing classes, he said.

This photo, taken in late February before the completion of Aulick Industries’ 480-square-foot prototype "metAul" container home, gives an idea of the depth of the living space it would offer interested buyers. Its kitchen area lies to the right of the entrance, with a living room area to the left and more rooms in the middle and back. A second window opens off the back room, with a bathroom and utility area to that room's right.

Even if Aulick's interns and vocational graduates don't end up working for them, the skills they gain allow them to fill jobs with other Scottsbluff-Gering firms who need them, Jake Aulick said.

But they have to live somewhere, he and Kolby added.

"We have a huge housing shortage. The average house is on the market six days here," Kolby Aulick said. "That's another problem with keeping our youth. They want to move out of Mom and Dad's place."

Jake Aulick said they expect the container homes they’re developing will appeal most to singles or couples between 18 and 28 years old. Traveling short-term workers also might find them attractive, he said.

The brothers thanked the Gering City Council for enacting an ordinance Sept. 26 allowing shipping container homes or "shipping container home communities" in "planned unit developments" such as their housing-commercial project.

Aulick Industries’ "metAul" container home prototype includes a shower in its bathroom in the far right corner of the 480-square-foot steel structure. The utility area lies beyond the door opening at right. This photo was taken in late February, before the prototype's recent completion at Aulick's Scottsbluff headquarters building.

The council March 13 finalized annexation of the part of the Aulicks’ development — located on the north side of the Nebraska Highway 71 expressway east of Seventh Street — that wasn't already in city limits.

Jake Aulick said the project's commercial lots will be developed first, followed by 70 residential lots for conventional home construction that will be sold to the general public. The container homes in Phase 3 are slated for the development's east side.

He said the brothers envision partnering with other employers to operate the intended childcare center. Participating businesses’ employees would be able to use it as a benefit of their job.

Developing and building container houses is "really stepping out of our realm" from Aulick Industries’ path blazed by Grandfather Harry Aulick and semi-retired father Vinc Aulick, Jake said.

But "when people in the community come to us for help, it's always been steel-based, because we’ve done that for years," he said.

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