Good Luck Builder

There's nothing quite like the development of a new residential community to suggest an economic recovery.

Sunrise-based GL Homes is just weeks away from the opening of Riverstone, a new residential community off Immokalee Road in Naples. The new development is spread over 640 acres and will have 850 single-family homes when it's completed. GL Homes is building seven models and has started 18 speculative homes in time for the community's Jan. 28 opening.

“Naples is just still so desirable,” says Patty Campbell, president of the Southwest Florida division of GL Homes. The privately held company doesn't disclose financial details, but Builder Magazine says the company ranked as the 30th largest builder in the U.S. in 2010 with $330 million in revenues.

GL Homes has been building in the area through the downturn while many of its competitors fled the area. For example, it opened Marbella Lakes in Naples in February 2009 and recently sold out of 282 single-family homes and 208 condos there.

In Fort Myers, where residential development suffered more, the company sold 232 homes over the last three years at Botanica Lakes. Since that development opened in 2005, GL Homes has sold 510 of the 685 homes there.

While the company's initials stand for “Good Luck,” the company's sales didn't happen by chance. Campbell attributes GL's momentum to good locations and attractive prices. “We didn't have any bad land buys,” she says. “Our land holdings are 'A' locations.”

Homes at Riverstone will cost from $300,000 to $600,000 and will range in size from 2,000 square feet to 4,650 square feet. “The price is key,” Campbell says.

But GL also has been nimble, responding to buyers' needs. For example, it included lawn maintenance in the homeowners' association fees because many residents are seasonal. Such fees will cost less than $300 a month at Riverstone, relatively low because there's no expensive golf course to maintain and no community development district debt.

Campbell, a former Burger King executive, says GL expects to sell 125 to 150 new homes at Riverstone this year. The company has designed homes with bigger lanais, larger sliding-glass windows, bigger laundry rooms with extra storage space and larger master bathrooms.

Already, Campbell says about 1,500 people have inquired about homes at Riverstone and she's had to hire a security guard to keep prospective buyers from clogging the busy construction zone.

Campbell expects a mix of buyers at Riverstone, including families of working professionals and seasonal retirees. She says about 60% of seasonal residents pay cash for a new home and families are having an easier time qualifying for mortgages. “The banks have loosened it up a little,” she says. “People aren't getting denied.”