WAYNESBORO – The parent company of Homes by Keystone, a five-decade business in greater Waynesboro, is looking to the late 1990s and early 2000s as it makes plans for the business’ future.
Guardian Booth acquired Homes by Keystone in 2022 and kept the modular home manufacturer’s former principals, brothers Jason and Tim Miller, on board for a while to ease the transition.
“One of the promises I made myself was that I wasn’t going to come in and upend things,” said Abraham Taub, owner of Guardian Booth.
Greatly impacted by the 2008 recession, Homes by Keystone had a low volume of sales when Taub acquired the business. He is optimistic about the potential of declining interest rates and increased customer inquiries, so he hopes to reach the earlier sale thresholds of more than 100 homes per year in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Homes by Keystone guides buyers through the design, build and delivery service.
“The homeowner gets to deal with the manufacturer directly,” Taub said.
Guardian Booth and Homes by Keystone submitted expansion plans to the Washington Township Zoning Hearing Board. The plans call for expansion that would quadruple their footprint at 13338 Midvale Rd., but Taub said the expansion would be done in phases.
Taub moved Guardian Booths’ New York operations to Washington Township; it maintains hubs in Texas and Mexico as well. He did not acquire the former modular home village on Highway 16 in Washington Township when he bought Homes by Keystone.
Guardian Booth provides prefabricated booths and workspaces that serve as press boxes, booths for parking lot attendants, airport offices, theme park checkpoints and military-grade booths. Taub recently spotted a few on several legs of a trip he took.
“It’s nice wherever you go in the country, you see a Guardian Booth, and it’s all coming from Waynesboro,” he said.
The two businesses have about 77 employees in the Waynesboro area. They are advertising for a modular home sales representative, draftsman, marketing coordinator and several positions in the engineering department.
Taub said Washington Township has proven to be a prime location not only because he can be a larger-scale employer within the region, but also because of the proximity to Washington, D.C., Baltimore, New York City, Chicago and other major cities in the eastern portion of the country.
“We have trucks leaving the Waynesboro facility every day,” he said.
