New Waukegan manufacturer aims to tap into tiny home market

WAUKEGAN – Tiny homes built inside a new production facility in Waukegan are finding permanent homes throughout the country.

PrefabPads LLC, a family-owned manufacturing and distribution company, began building My Cabin tiny homes last summer in a 30,000-square-foot facility at 3805 Hawthorne Court in Waukegan.

The company grew out of a family conversation during the pandemic, said Anisha Seltenright, chief marketing officer for PrefabPads. Her husband, Peter Seltenright, is the company’s chief executive officer and co-founder. Her father, Hermang Mehta, is president and co-founder.

Lake Forest natives, the family recognized a growing desire for small living with more of an outdoorsy feel, as well as an expanded need for home office space, Anisha Seltenright said. People were pivoting in their careers and seeking more rental spaces and vacation destination spots, she said.

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Various customizations for interior finishes are available to choose from while picking out a tiny home with samples on display at the Prefab Pads LLC factory in Waukegan on July 17th, 2023. Image by Candace H. Johnson for Shaw Local News Network (Candace H.Johnson)

“This kind of just sparked an interest,” she said.

As they looked into the possibility of building a resort with prefabricated homes, they discovered My Cabin. Launched in Latvia in 2020, My Cabin offers sustainable, modular small homes in four sizes. The company sought to expand into North America.

With a background in manufacturing, Mehta suggested the family give it a try and PrefabPads was born.

“It’s going great. We’ve gotten a lot of orders and interest, which is awesome. … Honestly, it’s a huge range of people [expressing interest],” Anisha Seltenright said.

Since opening, they’ve built homes for a resort and numerous individual homeowners. Offered in a variety of styles and sizes, the My Cabin homes have been used as main homes, office space, storage areas, home gyms, pool houses, guest quarters, saunas, getaway destinations and more.

The company even has had some interest from a marina to offer a floating home, Anisha Seltenright said.

“We’ve shipped five cabins to the East Coast, one to Utah, and will be shipping nine units to a luxe Vermont resort, with more orders continuing to roll in,” Peter Seltenright said. “Our first-rate technology and infrastructure results in the production of cabins at a fraction of the time seen in traditional construction and our team of six factory workers and three executives makes it happen seamlessly.”

As described on the company’s website, www.mycabin.us, the Waukegan factory allows for the simultaneous production of from seven to 20 houses. My Cabin’s houses – My Milla Long, My Milla, My Kalmus and My Galia – are completely built indoors and transported for installation on the customer’s building site. They are delivered ready for living.

“It saves time, saves your sanity,” Anisha Seltenright said.

From purchase to delivery, the process typically takes about three months for the biggest unit, the 520-square-foot My Milla Long. It includes a kitchen with an island and living room area, a full bathroom with walk-in shower, a ground floor bedroom and a loft area. Other models range in size from 348 square feet to 132 square feet.

“It can be categorized as tiny homes,” Anisha Seltenright said. “We’re a little bigger than some of the tiny homes you see. We are definitely different and you do need a foundation.”

PrefabPad takes buyers through the entire process and offers to work with their personal contractor to connect units once delivered.

The Waukegan company represents My Cabin’s first entry into the U.S. and Canadian marketplace.

“It’s definitely a partnership, but there are some things we obviously had to do by ourselves,” Anisha Seltenright said.

Using My Cabin’s Scandinavian design, the Waukegan manufacturer has increased the level of engineering to meet U.S. building codes in almost every state, she said.

“More cities are seeing the benefit of it and more people are seeing the benefit of adding to their property to create more of a value for their own house in the future,” she said.