Once fast-growing homebuilder now struggling

A once highflying homebuilding firm, Sarasota-based Paradise Homes, has been grounded in financial difficulties over the last month, troubles that culminated in a bankruptcy filing.

The company, founded by Jim Butler, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in federal court in Tampa Oct. 25. That bankruptcy section indicates the company might seek liquidation of all assets, while Chapter 11 is usually a reorganization. Paradise Homes and the related entities named in the bankruptcy filings listed assets and liabilities of between $1 million and $10 million, court records show.

Butler, the subject of a September 2011 Business Review feature story that focused on the firm's strategy and fast growth, didn't return calls for comment. A sales and marketing employee says she and several others were laid off in mid-October.

The impact of the firm's troubles stretch across the Gulf Coast. While the bulk of Paradise's work was in east Manatee County, where at least 20 homes are incomplete, the firm also had several custom-build clients in Sarasota. Plus, in June, Palm Beach Gardens-based Kitson & Partners named Paradise the first builder to construct homes in Talis Park in Naples, a new country club community.

The difficulties, moreover, defy the good times Butler spoke about in late summer 2011. Back then he said he had just invested more than $1 million in a new showroom, part of a campaign to grab market share while other homebuilders waited out the recession.

“Most people, family members and friends, said I was crazy for spending all this money,” Butler told the Review last year. “But I believed in what I'm doing. We had to reinvent ourselves.”