Petaluma firm launching treehouse glamping venture
This isn’t the tree fort of yesteryear. A newly relocated Petaluma company is betting that professionals yearning for respite in the outdoors but with the comforts of home will be eager to spend big on modern treehouses for themselves or as a rental business for glamorous camping — better known as glamping.
O2Treehouse has been on quite the trek since owner and designer Dustin Feider built his first geodesic dome in a Wisconsin poplar tree in 2005.
He launched the company the following year in Minnesota, custom designing children’s playhouses. That took the business to Los Angeles, where the jobs morphed into bigger structures, and demand for detached offices and bedrooms grew. The company then relocated to Oakland in 2011, and within a few years it started getting national media attention for its designs.
When the San Francisco East Bay design and production center lease was expiring, Feider turned his focus to the north.
“The North Bay has always been on my radar because it has the giant trees, is corridor to the north and has a lot of money and interest in these structures,” Feider said. “Quite a bit business has been done already in North Bay.”
While the new location, in renovated industrial complex at 133 Copeland St., has room for future automation equipment inside and ample yard space, the shift across the bay has come at a cost.
Some of the 15 employees and contractors opted not to move or commute, Feider said. So the company is seeking a project manager, entry-level and experienced carpenters, and preconstruction personnel.
Historically, the company has been making eight to 10 custom treehouses annually. The average cost is on par with that of a high-end home — $800 to $1,400 a square foot. At the average size of 120 square feet, that works out to be $96,000 to $168,000.
And demand for outdoor living spaces has been growing, Feider said.
“COVID provided us with a lot more business,” Feider said. “People were getting back home and looking to improve their back yards.”
Glamping is estimated to be a $2.35 billion market globally as of last year, with a projected compound annual growth rate of 10.9% through 2030, according to Grand View Research.
Nearly half (46%) of the market is dominated by camps with cabins and similar “pods.” Tents make up a quarter of the market, followed by yurts (one-eighth) and treehouses most of the remainder. Europe commands the biggest share of glamping worldwide, at 35%, with roughly 8,000 campsites in France alone.
A number of the treehouses Feider’s company has built have become short-term rentals. An example is The Pinecone, one that Feider owns in the Santa Cruz area. Featured on NBC Nightly News in 2017, it’s designed with angles and glass to look like the conifer seed carrier and rents for over $550 a night via Airbnb.
