Oxford home manufacturing plant still in limbo

Leslie H. Dixon/Sun Journal

The sign for the Oxford division of Excel Homes on Route 26  sits behind a dilapidated walkway that once led to a modular home displayed by the adjacent Maine Home Crafters. That business closed its Oxford site in January for the winter and never reopened. The land is now for sale.

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- Leslie H. Dixon/Sun Journal

OXFORD — The president of Excel Homes, a Pennsylvania-based modular home-building company since 1984, said this week that plans to re-open the former Oxford Homes site on Route 26 were still on hold.

"We're still in the holding pattern," said Steve Scharnhorst, president and chief operating officer of Excel Homes. "The housing market has deteriorated."

Scharnhorst said he believes things will eventually turn around, but until the company sees increases in business, it is unlikely the Oxford site will reopen soon.

"The housing market is cyclical," he said. "We're at the bottom of a severe pullback." 

Excel Homes bought the assets of Oxford Homes last summer after the manufactured-homes business ceased operations in April 2008. Company officials had hoped to reopen the plant this spring under the Excel name, bringing as many as 50 to 70 hourly and salaried jobs to the area.

In April, Scharnhorst said that even though the market was "tough," Excel was faring well in the Maine market but not well enough to open the plant at that time.

Excel Homes manufactures Excel and Avis Homes with facilities in Liverpool and Avis, Pa., and in Marlboro, N.Y.

The assets of the former Oxford Homes were purchased by Eco Systems Buildings in 2007. The company owed more than $318,000 in unsecured loans to nine creditors from across New England. The company was forced by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Portland to liquidate.

  In April, Eco Building Systems laid off its 93 employees. The site has since remained closed.

ldixon@sunjournal.com