Instant apartments erected on Lynn fire site

LYNN – With blond wood kitchen cabinets and a new microwave visible from Lewis Street, the prefabricated building sprouting up next to the Brickett School could not help but catch Stacey Roller?s attention.?It?s like a dollhouse; it?s cool,” Roller said.Roller and some of her East Lynn neighbors have gawked at 145 Lewis St. since Monday when tractor-trailers loaded with building sections wrapped in white plastic rolled down Lewis and halted in front of the vacant lot almost opposite Dunkin? Donuts.An arson fire gutted the building in March 2013, leaving residents in 25 apartments homeless. Property owner Andrew Perkins said he made plans after the fire to build on the building site even as he tried to find new housing for displaced tenants.?I placed 20 of the families and helped them get furniture,” he said last week.He made good on his rebuilding commitment by contracting for 145 Lewis? new concrete foundation and arranged for Avalon Building Systems of Peabody to coordinate construction. Lynn-based Landmark Engineering surveyed the fire site to determine exactly where the new building should be built, and Avalon coordinated with Kaiser Homes in Oxford, Maine, to start assembling the building.?Twenty-five units – that?s what we had there – that is what we are putting back,” Perkins said.Each one of the 24 “modular boxes” stacked on the Lewis Street site contains halves of two separate apartments with a hallway section running between the halves.Each box is paired with another to create two full-size apartments complete with bathrooms outfitted with fixtures, front doors and kitchens equipped with cabinets and appliances. Eight boxes will be stacked on each of the three floors with an additional basement unit.Each apartment has 9-foot-high ceilings.?They?re very nice,” said construction manager Howard Squires.Kaiser crews started parking the big boxes on Lynnway land owned by Patrick McGrath on Monday with the goal of stacking them in place on Lewis Street by Friday. Crews will bolt the boxes together, erect vinyl outer walls and a slightly-peaked insulated roof while plumbers and electricians do utility work.Prefabricated stairways will round out the building?s common areas.Squires said the advantage of a prefabricated building over traditional construction includes avoiding weather delays and quicker assembly methods. He said tenants will move into 145 Lewis by year?s end.The $2.5 million project is “mid range” on Kaiser?s construction scale and, according to area resident Buffy Scanlon, a much-needed addition to Lynn?s tight apartment market.?So many people are looking,” she said.