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The O.H.I.O. Fund Report℠ — a podcast dedicated to elevating Ohio’s collective ambition by highlighting the most compelling stories of innovation and growth throughout the state. Each episode carries the industrious DNA of Ohio, exploring the state’s economic renaissance across advanced manufacturing, digital infrastructure, biotech, healthcare, energy, data centers & AI, consumer goods, and logistics advancements.
This episode of The O.H.I.O. Fund Report features Brad DeHays — Founder and CEO of Connect Real Estate and Connect Housing Blocks.
Brad’s journey spans from buying small distressed properties while still in college to leading one of the most ambitious housing manufacturing platforms in the country. Through Connect Real Estate, Brad has revitalized some of Ohio’s most overlooked landmarks — transforming abandoned power plants, trolley barns, and historic buildings into vibrant new community anchors.
That same entrepreneurial vision inspired him to launch Connect Housing Blocks (CHB), a 630,000-square-foot modular housing facility anchored in Ohio, now one of the largest modular housing factories in the world. Using state-of-the-art equipment and prefabrication methods, CHB produces high-quality apartments from start to finish, eliminating nearly all measuring, cutting, and heavy lifting—the result: faster, more consistent, and more affordable housing production at scale.
In our conversation, which took place on site at CHB, Brad shares how he’s navigated multiple chapters of starting and scaling Connect, the founding insight that drove him to take on industrial-scale modular housing, how he engages communities and leverages public–private partnerships, his unique approach to talent and culture, and his vision for solving the housing crisis by massively scaling up production capability.
00:00:00 – The Birth of an Innovative Solution
00:03:50 – Understanding the Housing Crisis
00:08:56 – Reinventing Construction Processes
00:14:58 – Scaling Modular Housing Production
00:20:54 – Transforming the Construction Timeline
00:31:45 – Vision for the Future of Housing
00:35:42 – Scaling Modular Construction: A Game Changer
00:41:33 – The Future of Modular Housing: Opportunities and Challenges
00:46:16 – Design and Aesthetics in Modular Construction
00:51:55 – Labor Challenges in the Construction Industry
00:55:15 – Cultural Dynamics and Employee Empowerment
01:00:04 – Looking Ahead: Growth and Future Prospects
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