Bradenton sustainable builder makes magazine's global innovation list

Bradenton-based Pearl Homes, working on several environmentally friendly real estate and development projects in the region, has been named to Fast Company magazine’s 2024 World’s Most Innovative Companies list.  

The magazine evaluated thousands of submissions across multiple industries for the list, according to a statement. Other companies on the list include YouTube, Taco Bell, Taylor Swift Productions and AI chip maker Nvidia. Brightline, with its Miami-to-Orlando rail service is on the list. Another company to make the list: jelly brand JM Smucker, for, says Fast Company, “demonstrating PB&J plus R&D can be a BFD.”

“We saw extraordinary innovation across the board in 2023, but we also saw a handful of clear patterns: the growing footprint and impact of AI, the triumphant return of live events, and great leaps forward in climate tech,” Fast Company editor-in-chief Brendan Vaughan says in the statement.

Pearl Homes, in the list’s urban development and real estate category, is the developer behind Hunter’s Point in Cortez, a west Manatee County fishing village. The 86-home community, with houses priced from $1.49 million to $1.89 million, generates more energy than is consumed.

“A combination of solar panels and home batteries as well as ultra-efficient insulation will enable these three-story residences to generate more energy than they consume,” the magazine writes. “After five years of work and 18 months of testing and verification, Hunter’s Point is set to be the first LEED Zero community in the United States. Developer Marshall Gobuty promises it won’t be the last. His firm, which recently purchased another 120 acres nearby, has already begun work on multifamily iterations using the same technology.”

Gobuty and the firm have been recognized for the sustainable building before. That includes being named LEED Visionary of the Year and Power Builder of the Year — multiple times on the second one — by the U.S. Green Building Council.

"To be recognized by Fast Company as one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies validates the efforts that Pearl Homes has put into Hunters Point and our other developments along Florida’s Gulf Coast,” says Gobuty in the release. “We hope that with this type of recognition, other homebuilders follow our lead in building sustainable, eco-friendly homes worldwide.”