Check Out Miniopolis ’s Story

Hello Miniopolis, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Miniopolis is the first General Contracting company to offer site-built tiny homes measuring from 500-750 square feet using traditional building methods with pre-fabricated structural materials rated to withstand Florida’s powerful storms, all while offering above-average energy efficiency. “Builders are cutting corners. You can’t cut corners in Florida construction because the next big storm will blow them out of business.” The first model was built in Cocoa, FL. Due to stringent zoning laws in Brevard County, Miniopolis has moved operations to Southwest Florida, where they will continue to focus on building strong, energy-efficient, sustainable, and affordable housing. “What makes our builds unique is our selection of structural materials perfectly suited to Florida’s extreme weather. This includes Structural insulated panels, insulated concrete forms, & even 3D concrete printed structures” says Brian Sodre. “Due to the versatility of our product, customers frequently request our structures to be used as an elegant single-family home, ADUs (accessory dwelling units), & even as affordable housing options.”

Please talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned. Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
“When you pioneer new products into an industry, it’s always challenging. We continue to run into building and zoning ordinances throughout FL that limit our ability to build our concept without limitation. If you own land, you should be open to more than what you can build on, especially for housing.” With the average single-family residence averaging $385,000, Florida should incentivize builders and investors to offer homes under $250,000 with the same benefits. Sodre says that Local & Federal grants dedicated to offer affordable housing are not what they seem to be. “If you don’t make friends with local politicians, then you’re not even considered for available grants.”

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might need to be more familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
With the recent changes in lending, affordability has yet to be out of reach for many. As a state that empowers capitalism, I don’t see why Governor DeSantis hasn’t made it a point to move the needle on finding creative ways for government and private companies to come together to solve a serious issue: safe & affordable housing. Housing grants exist, but only to non-profits. What does that mean? That means now we have another mediator eating at the cost and making it more complicated for General Contractors to do what they do best: build more housing. “If Elon Musk is changing the way we sell cars, direct to consumer, why is the government using outdated methods to solve home affordability? You don’t solve reducing costs by including middle men. Non-profits still have significant operating costs that carry over to the end consumer.”