Builder keeps building on momentum

The New Year is off to a smashing start at Neal Communities — already one of the bellwether homebuilders in the region.

“We have a demographic boom superimposed on top of an economic boom,” says Pat Neal, president and CEO of the Lakewood Ranch-based company. “There has been a huge release of pent up demand. We expect a very strong winter/spring season for 2013.”

The details of the growth back up Neal's optimism. Recent triumphs at the company include:
• The Sarasota County Commission recently approved a zoning change for nearly 25 acres in Englewood, in south Sarasota County, for a 75-home project the company is planning. The project, on State Road 776, south of Stoner Road, is called Keyway Place.
• The firm set a monthly sales record in January with 71 new home sales. The tally, further, bested the company's sales projections by more than a dozen. The sales were spread out through 12 communities, from north Manatee County to south Sarasota County.
• The firm is officially in its new headquarters on the Sarasota County side of Lakewood Ranch. It was previously in an 8,600-square-foot office in Manatee County, near the Lakewood Ranch Medical Center.

The new building, the former DooleyMack Constructors headquarters, is 25,080 square feet. Neal Communities paid $2.48 million for the building last summer. The employees have moved into the space, about 100 in total, and Neal expects to hire more throughout the year. The company seeks to bring on builders, drafters and IT personnel, among other positions.

Neal is confident the building will be filled sooner than later. “We have the downstairs for growth,” Neal tells Coffee Talk. “And I intend to use the entire building.”