NextGen Habitats brings global idea to Freeville

If you’ve ever driven on Route 13 toward Cortland, chances are you’ve seen what looks like a refurbished shipping container on the side of the road next to a large sign reading “2 Pros Construction.” You may have even stopped to look inside, something 2 Pros co-owner Jack Litzenberger is used to by now.

“People [are] asking questions about it,” he said. “I get odd emails and weird phone calls. But that’s OK.”

The crate is actually an outdoor, self-contained, mobile office, one of the newest creations of NextGen Habitats, a business Litzenberger launched earlier this year with his 2 Pros co-owner and partner, Terry Smith.

NextGen Habitats takes one-use shipping containers and outfits them into portable outdoor spaces to be used for any of a number of purposes, from an office to a bedroom to a hunting shed. The concept has been used across the country and the rest of the world, and now, NextGen is bringing the idea to Tompkins County.

As Litzenberger described, the idea for NextGen was spawned about three years ago and got bounced around a while until COVID-19 hit the county.

“[We] had an opportunity to have to do something when we were doing nothing,” he said. “So, we did something because we can’t do nothing.”

Last year took a toll on 2 Pros initially, bringing the business to a total halt in March and April. Most employees were laid off, and even though 2 Pros resumed operations in June of 2020, it still wasn’t able to bring everyone back on. But, as 2 Pros Office Manager Annette Spearman explained, 2021 has fared better for 2 Pros.

“When we came back, people were still apprehensive about their own personal finances,” she said. “We had projects that we were already working on, but we had a lot of clients that were apprehensive to sign on and commit to a project when they weren’t so sure about their own financial futures. So, it was a little scary. We trimmed down our staffing, but boy, it’s picked right back up again. We can’t keep up.”

While business is picking back up, Spearman and Litzenberger don’t plan to return to their pre-pandemic business model.

“We took the opportunity to reassess our 2 Pros business of what we were focusing on,” Spearman said. “We were doing a lot of home building prior to COVID, and we really had to take a step back and look at that and see what was best for the crew that we had, the talent that we had, what their forte was and what was best for our business. And we decided that, although we are still doing new construction builds, we’re not doing as many, and we’re focusing on remodels and additions. And it fit where we wanted to be going forward.”

That refocus helped aid NextGen’s launch, Litzenberger explained. NextGen officially began operations early this year, but with winter slowing down production, its formal launch came just last month.

NextGen shares the same office building as 2 Pros along with two other businesses — TS & JL Properties, also owned by Litzenberger and Smith, and Creative Cabinet Interiors, where Litzenberger took on a joint venture with the owners.

While the four businesses are all separate, Litzenberger sees them as working in cooperation to benefit all those involved.

“All of them work together hand in hand, and I think that’s a valuable proposition for a company to have, that each one of the businesses complements or is complemented by the other businesses,” Litzenberger said.

NextGen Habitats benefits from Litzenberger’s and Smith’s long experience in remodeling and construction, and it has the advantage of being a bit more streamlined than 2 Pros.

“Our remodeling and building business is all custom — ‘What would you like? How would you like it? What do you want in it?’ Everything is available to you because the internet is available to you,” Litzenberger said. “NextGen was developed more from a standpoint of trying to standardize some products. … We really try to standardize it down into some simple but very nice living. And controlling that, we’re able to keep it at a price point … for affordable-type housing that can be mobile, technically. It can be temporary and move to wherever.”

While NextGen’s rooms are mobile, they have an advantage over mobile homes in that they don’t depreciate in value immediately after construction and placement, Litzenberger said.

The containers used for NextGen’s structures are one-use containers, which helps ensure sanitariness and reuse of what would normally go to waste. During the retrofitting process, the containers are insulated, with the option to add in utility hookups depending on the room’s purpose.

The original plan for the containers was for outdoor spaces that grandparents could use as a living space on the same property as their family members, a space that could include a bedroom and bathroom with an attached deck. And while Litzenberger still plans to construct such a room, the pandemic helped expand NextGen’s scope.

“COVID really gave us a whole new light of ideas and needs for people,” Spearman said.

With thousands working from home in 2020, NextGen saw an opportunity to meet that need, with an outdoor office space that could provide a private area to work and bring back structure to a person’s work week.

“When you’re working from home, a lot of people have a hard time cutting that cord,” Spearman said. “If you’re working from home, you can work [a] 10-hour a day, you can work a lot more. But this really helps to keep a work and life balance, that you’re actually going to work. And [it] keeps your computer safe.”

While NextGen builds off of the idea of tiny homes, NextGen’s creations have far fewer restrictions, as Litzenberger explained.

“The way we’re designing these is to really have less restriction because that product can be removed from the site,” he said. “So, being temporary, that appeals to certain municipalities, and they will adapt to allowing these things onto what’s called R1, or residential one properties, which means you can only have one livable home structure on the property.”

NextGen hasn’t done much marketing since launching, trying to keep business at a level the owners can keep up with, but already, folks are offering more ideas for what NextGen could build. Litzenberger referenced a person in Seneca County who wants to use NextGen rooms as temporary rental spaces, like an Airbnb. And another person wants several containers spread across their property to allow them to enjoy their property more, Litzenberger said.

While NextGen has big ideas, Litzenberger’s immediate hopes center around starting small and fulfilling his original motivation behind NextGen — a grandparent’s living area.

“That’s where it really started,” he said. “People are staying closer to home or in their homes longer. If we could produce something that allowed that and then give a better quality of life, I think that would be a hope for NextGen.”

For more information on NextGen Habitats, visit its new website at nextgenhabitats.com. More information about 2 Pros Construction can be found at 2prosconstruction.com.

In Brief:

Community portrait project

As part of the countywide Spirit of Tompkins portrait project (see t.ly/2eG7 for more information), Ithaca-based photographer Robyn Wishna will be in the village of Freeville next month to take a group portrait of the Freeville community at the very place where, as an Ithaca Journal staffer in July of 1987, she took the famous picture of local residents assembled in the street during the Freeville Centennial celebration.

Residents congregate on the sidewalks, driveways and parking lots just west of the four corners July 3 shortly before 10 a.m. Then, at the top of the hour, participants converge on Main Street itself, where Robyn will once again record the village for posterity.

All are welcome to participate. If you don’t happen to live within the hallowed square mile that defines the only municipality on the planet named Freeville, no matter! Come on over anyway, and bring your friends, neighbors and extended families!

Open House on Factory Street

Looking forward to Freeville’s villagewide photoshoot on July 3? Thinking about what to do once the photo is taken? Do you like cake? Want to meet the Freeville-based business Jarmazing Products?

After the photoshoot ends, take a stroll down Factory Street and join other residents for delicious cake, iced coffee and tea, and an open house for Jarmazing’s new building at 18 Factory St. The open house is scheduled for July 3 from 10:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Local baker Adira Sharp will be creating a special cake for the occasion, and there’s even talk about a chocolate train topper! Once you’ve had cake, take a tour of the facility, where workers assemble a wide variety of soap dispensers and home decor products.

To learn more about Jarmazing Products, visit jarmazingproducts.com.