Boxabl ‘Boxes Up’ Success in Southern Nevada

The idea for Boxabl didn’t start as an idea. It started as a problem.

“We said, let’s find a problem, and let’s find the biggest problem,” said Paolo Tiramani, Boxabl CEO. “Once we found the problem, which was building construction–effectively still in a pre-industrial condition–we got to work.”

Paolo and his son, Galiano Tiramani, founded Boxabl in 2017. The company manufactures prefabricated homes (also known as Accessory Dwelling Units) on a factory assembly line in a 170 thousand-square foot facility in North Las Vegas. The individual homes are then ‘boxed up’ and shipped to clients across the US.

The company’s signature home, a 375-square foot plug-and-play ‘casita,’ measures 20 by 20 feet when unpacked, and costs just $50,000.

“The core innovation behind Boxabl was to solve the shipping problem,” said Galiano. “If you look at all the modern products, they’re all built on assembly lines except for housing. If we can transition housing onto the assembly line, we can lower costs, increase quality, and build houses faster than you could outside.”

Federal highway laws only allow for a maximum width of eight and a half feet wide. So, Boxabl designed the largest room possible that could still fold up to highway legal size.

“Another cool part about the product is, not all of it folds up,” said Galiano. “We are still able to finish the kitchen, and the bathroom, and still fold it up for shipping.”

Company officials also note that despite the misconception that factory assembly lines and automation eliminate blue collar jobs, they see their manufacturing business adding high-skilled workers.

“As we develop and perfect our product, we’re able to automate certain processes,” says Yanni Tassev, head of Business Intelligence at Boxabl. “That allows us to scale and add more jobs. And not just any kind of jobs, but high-skilled jobs. And as we add more products and models, that requires more designers and more engineers.”

Paolo and Galiano moved to Las Vegas in 2017 from the East Coast, lured by southern Nevada’s business friendly climate, a large labor pool, and accessible municipal officials.

“We looked at tax structures for various states, we looked at shipping logistics, and we needed a large labor pool, so Las Vegas just really stood out,” said Paolo. “Everything here happens very quickly. We were able to go from an empty building to a working production line within nine months.”

Boxabl credits LVGEA for that accelerated timeline and for assistance with approval for tax abatements by the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development in March 2021.

“When we came to town, we didn’t know anybody,” said Paolo. “But in a very short timeframe, LVGEA got us connected to the world here in Las Vegas, and we still foster those relationships today.”

Boxabl’s founders say they have a vision that extends beyond their current casita offering. They’re looking to roll out a building system where different sized rooms can stack and connect to each other. When it comes time to open a second factory, they’ll be looking to locate it right in their backyard in Southern Nevada.

“We love Las Vegas for a startup,” said Galiano. “I’ve had startups elsewhere where you’ve had to deal with a lot more regulation and taxes. Here we just feel freer. It’s a smaller community feeling, and we’re really happy with our choice to be here in Southern Nevada.”

 

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