Force 10 International, a leader in the rising industry of energy-efficient, environmentally friendly home construction expects to build its first U.S. manufacturing plant in Warren County inside the “spec building” at Ceres Research and Industrial Interplex, the company’s president and CEO Brandie Dollar-Puls said Tuesday.

Paperwork is expected to be completed in weeks between the Australia-based firm and Warren County, but company executives and those working to promote the company’s unique, storm-resistant housing line indicate a deal is imminent.

“We will probably close on the building September 5 or 6,” Dollar-Puls said.

Specializing in homes built featuring flooring and walls made of recyclable steel and cement, the company was formed as research and development advanced during the 1970s and ’80s on building homes that could withstand hurricane-force winds, earthquakes and such natural home pests as termites.

Named after the terminology for the cyclonic and tsunami belts in the Pacific Ocean, Force 10 homes have a patented roof-trussing system joining fiber cement panels.

“Our company’s unique structural design and materials enable us to construct sturdy, custom-designed homes, particularly in areas where weather is unpredictable and sometimes disastrous,” Dollar-Puls said.

Dollar-Puls and her father, Bob Dollar, purchased the U.S. license for the company from Force 10 International following Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of the central Gulf Coast in August 2005 and established headquarters in Tampa, Fla.

The first U.S. Force 10 home is to be unveiled in New Orleans’ mid-city Gentilly neighborhood Friday.

In Vicksburg, tentative plans call for full production to begin by January and its initial target market will be storm-vulnerable coastal areas in Louisiana and Mississippi, Dollar-Puls said.

Its work force of about 100 employees will be Mississippi residents, 30 percent of whom will be parolees and other former offenders who will be given a chance to work their way back into society, Dollar-Puls said, adding the company wants to provide education advancement incentives for its workers by paying college tuition and an on-site day care for workers’ children.

Landing a tenant for the building – empty since its construction in 1995 – represents the first feather in the economic development cap for Warren County Port Commission executive director Wayne Mansfield.

Mansfield, a former city planning official before being hired by Warren County supervisors to succeed Jim Pilgrim in 2007 following Pilgrim’s retirement from the port authority, has worked since early this year to land an industry to Ceres to offset the loss of the CalsonicKansei plant and the soon-to-close Simpson Dura-Vent. Despite local foreclosure trends that have remained inside historical patterns in the past five years – insulated from national trends seen in such states as Florida and California – a lack of affordable housing for middle-income wage earners and new construction only in the $150,000-and-up range has emerged as an issue for local government and economic leaders.

Details of the company’s pending choice to manufacture in Vicksburg and Warren County have been held closely for months, with Mansfield terming negotiations “sensitive” in recent weeks.

The 64,000-square-foot building, which sits on 10 acres just west of the Flowers exit off Interstate 20, is expandable to 120,700 square feet, according to port commission information. Its dirt floor allows for easy assembly of the homes, Dollar-Puls said.

Marketing officials said Tuesday what clinched Vicksburg and Warren County over other cities was the cooperation with officials on the ground.

“Mayor Laurence Leyens was absolutely great,” Dollar-Puls said. “He needs affordable housing in Vicksburg.”

Plans to make the homes available to interested buyers in non-coastal areas, including Vicksburg, are on executives’ radar screen, but are not immediately clear.

“I don’t really know yet how we’re going to do that,” Dollar-Puls said.

No tax incentives have been approved publicly by Warren County to land the company. On Monday, supervisors passed more than $3.1 million in improvement-related incentives for five existing businesses at the port and the U.S. 61 South industrial corridor.

Industrial development at Ceres began in 1986 when Warren County purchased a 1,290-acre tract from descendants of the U.G. Flowers plantation. Since then, industries including Tyson, Yorozu, Vicksburg Metal and Magnolia Metal & Plastic have operated alongside state and federal entities such as the Mississippi Department of Transportation and the Mississippi National Guard Armory.

In April 2007, Ceres was designated a “Certified Site” by Entergy Mississippi after passing a battery of criteria based on property assessments, active infrastructure improvements and development plants.