-
THE TOWN OF BOULDER, COLO., WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1859 on the site of a supply camp for gold seekers. The developers laid out 4,044 lots at a cost of $1,000 each and, in an early case of discounting, quickly dropped that price to attract more buyers. The town grew steadily through the rest of the 19th...
-
Experience has never been more valued than right now, as builders deal with the double whammy of robust competition and weakening sales. In our eighth annual Fast Track list, we examine the secrets of fast-growing builders'success—and what they're doing to keep the pace.
-
EARLIER THIS YEAR, PARK SQUARE HOMES pulled out of a project in Claremont, Fla., that the Orlando, Fla.–based builder had spent the previous 18 months resolving with local officials and homeowners. Development costs were heading north of $50 million, and local home prices had fallen by 10 percent...
-
ANY NUMBER OF CLICHÉD SUPERLATIVES COULD be used to describe the Washington development team of Jim Gibson and Sam Dunn: heroes, white knights, last-minute saviors, men among men. The terms would all be appropriate for a duo who recently wrapped up a whopper of a NIMBY saga.
-
WHY IT WORKED: In Jacksonville, Fla., most of the luxury condo buildings are located at the beach or miles away along the St. John's River. Deerwood Place Condominiums is the first luxury mid-rise to be built on the Southside, in the heart of the city's newer business and entertainment district.
-
WHY IT WORKED: These attached villas offer up great architectural design and a location that can't be beat. Covenant Hills is the last—and most prestigious—village to be built in Orange County, Calif.'s ultrasuccessful Ladera Ranch.
-
TO SUPPORT ITS BURGEONING role as a full-service building product commercialization consulting firm, the NAHB Research Center recently held a groundbreaking ceremony to start construction of a new material and structural systems testing laboratory facility on its Upper Marlboro, Md., campus. With...
-
HOUSING AFFORDABILITY CONTINUED TO weaken through the middle of 2006, falling to the lowest level since the late 1980s, and many of the investors/speculators that entered the market in 2004–2005 were canceling sales contracts and reselling units they had closed on earlier. In this environment...
-
IT'S NOT AN EXAGGERATION TO SAY THAT HOME builders are extraordinarily generous and caring people. In just the past five years, the housing industry has donated more than $12 million to help people rebuild their homes and their lives following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Indian Ocean tsunami...
-
FASTTRACK SCHEDULE 9 FROM AEC SOFTWARE just may be the project management software that will convince you to stop using that old white board. The software runs on both PCs and Macs, and at $349 for a single-user license, it's roughly half the cost of Microsoft Project.
-
WITH QUICKBOOKS: PREMIER CONTRACTOR Edition 2006, Intuit has moved firmly into the visual age. The program's starting page features icons of popular work tasks, and everything is just a click or two away from an easily identifiable icon. Longtime QuickBooks users will be thankful for the way the...
-
- Nemetschek North America now offers a full line of training workbooks for its popular CAD software, VectorWorks 12.
- Kimball Hill Homes rolls out AirWavz, the handheld scheduling application from AirToolz Software, to all of its operating divisions.
-
SOMETIMES, YOU JUST HAVE TO DECIDE THAT your company is different; one condo developer in Philadelphia offers a full home-technology package as standard.
-
A new Internet Home Alliance pilot program looks to use technology to ease the pain of doing laundry.
-
FIBERGLASS IS THE MOST COMMON insulation in the United States, accounting for at least 75 percent or more of the market. Though the product is effective at insulating a home, manufacturers have found ways to make the product work even better.
-
AIR CONDITIONING A HOUSE IS THE costliest part of owning it. Though this has always been the case, rising energy costs mean that an efficient system is more important than ever. The fight to conserve energy took a giant leap forward earlier this year when a new seasonal energy-efficiency rating...
-
Sometimes it takes a lot of vision to see what a community could be. That was definitely the case when Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.–based EH Building Group first looked at the development near West Palm Beach that would become Wyndam Park.
-
This month's top shelf products includes roofing materials from Huber Engineered Woods, the innovative Fuego outdoor grill, and the Wrap 'N' Snap column covering from Royal Wood.
-
IT TOOK ONLY A FEW HOURS ON AUG. 29, 2005, for Hurricane Katrina to scrub whole towns off the shores of Mississippi and Louisiana. Weeks were spent rescuing stranded citizens from the rooftops of New Orleans. As months go by, the worst-hit Louisiana parishes still look like abandoned war zones. And...
-
AS CONGRESSIONAL DEBATE ON immigration reform drags on, states and municipalities from coast to coast are taking matters into their own hands. Dozens of state laws and local ordinances have been passed, many of them targeting business owners who hire undocumented workers.