David Smith isn’t the guy who wants to build one or two communities. He wants to build 10 or 20.
“I like to take a business and to grow it,” he said.
It makes him a good fit for AV Homes, where he serves as Florida division president.
The Scottsdale, Ariz.,-based homebuilder is on a growth trajectory, going from 400 homes to 1,000 in a two-year time span.
The company entered the Jacksonville market last year when it purchased valuable Skinner family land near the St. Johns Town Center for a 124-home subdivision, Old Still.
On the heels of that came the announcement AV Homes had joined a select group of builders at Nocatee, the nation’s third-fastest growing master-planned community.
A 50-year-old company, AV Homes is new to Jacksonville. Smith isn’t.
He was the Jacksonville division president for Pulte Homes from 2001-07. Before the downturn, he grew the division’s production from under 400 homes a year to 1,500. It was a time when a lot of builders grew, but Pulte grew faster, Smith said.
When he joined AV Homes three years ago, the company promised Smith it wanted growth. From its end, it delivered.
Its chief financial officer recently brought in $135 million from private investment firm TPG Capital.
“He keeps telling me that I can’t outrun the capital,” Smith said. “He said he’ll continue to get and give me the money I need to make the correct investment in every marketplace.”
With a footprint in Arizona, Florida and South Carolina, about half of AV Homes’ product today serves the active adult community.
But, AV Homes’ reach extends into move-up, executive and empty nester markets, as well. The company last year purchased construction company Royal Oak Homes in Orlando, broadening its base with move-up buyers.
Smith and AV Homes share similar beliefs about how to grow a homebuilding company.
The idea is to target an underserved market, find a great location for them and create a product that adds value, Smith said.
A prime location, Old Still will likely attract a wide range of buyers.
But Smith especially sees value for empty nesters, who want a smaller home without having to move far away from their country clubs and other social hubs.
So, the value-add is to offer homes instead of apartments or condos.
“You’d probably have to drive out four or five miles to find the next single-family opportunity,” Smith said. “It’s becoming a much more urban environment here, with a lot more pieces of the pie being taken up.”
Smith targets locations where people want to live, work and socialize.
“The best marketing is the best location,” he said.
If Smith’s strategy is an asset, his decade-long history in Jacksonville is even more so.
The city is a place where relationships matter. And Smith knows the players and the places he wants to be.
Old Still was a deal he cultivated for 10 years. The land was sentimental. It was the Skinner family’s original homestead among thousands of acres they had settled in the early 1900s.
Smith negotiated a land plan that honored the property’s legacy.
The community would be an oasis in the midst of an urban setting, preserving stretches of oak canopies. Its 10 floorplans and three elevations would be complex for such a small community, but would create a streetscape that would not appear cookie-cutter.
It would also be a front-porch community, with lots shaped wider and shallower, putting people closer to sidewalks and neighbors wandering by.
“This is the kind of place where you’re going to know your neighbor,” Smith said. “It’s the kind of place I grew up in.”
Smith came from the small town of Oxford, Ohio, a place he said, where people weren’t afraid of each other.
Smith said his best lessons in business came from his parents.
As a young boy, he helped his father at the funeral home he ran by picking up cigarette butts, sweeping walkways, and opening and closing doors for people.
“It taught me you pay attention to details. You can’t afford to have a bad reputation in the funeral home business,” he said.
Smith’s mother worked in retail. From her, Smith learned to treat everyone like they have $1 million in their pocket, because you never know who does.
The lessons stick with Smith today, as he works out the kind of fence that will replace the orange netting at the edge of a lot or what kind of lights will go on the outside of a home.
He’s been seen on the jobsite with his own personal backpack blower, clearing dirt away.
Smith tells his employees that quality and service are givens.
“What are you going to do beyond that?” Smith said.