by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
After helping Hines build Palencia to a successful residential community, Michael Taylor was ready for a new opportunity.
Now as the division vice president for McCar Homes, a privately held home building company which recently opened a Jacksonville office in Windsor Parke, Taylor has the opportunity to start an operation in Jacksonville from the ground up.
“I’m responsible for getting this division up and running and finding new projects to start some business,” said Taylor. “Right now, my role is to find land throughout Northeast Florida. It’s going good. I have four or five projects that I am working on.”
Taylor was with Hines for seven years and said the opportunity to start on the ground floor with McCar was too good to pass up.
“This company was extremely appealing to leave what was a good career to even further my career and stay in the real estate industry and in Jacksonville,” said Taylor. “I had the opportunity to start with a company that is well-financed, has a good product and wants to create a business here in Jacksonville and meet the needs of the consumer.”
Taylor has a long history in the building industry that he hopes will give him invaluable experience when introducing McCar homes to the Jacksonville area.
“Having the experience of starting Palencia with Walter O’Shea in the early stages and putting all the elements together from the realty company, to the marketing operations to the development operations helped a lot,” said Taylor. “This is truly a ground floor opportunity where I am recreating a new business here in Jacksonville.
“Working with Hines taught me to look at deals and analyze them from the development side, which can lend value to the homebuilding side. It made the transition to land acquisition very easy. I was on the selling side with Hines in the early stages of the project. Now I’m on the buying side, so now it is a smooth transition to being on the other side of the table.”
McCar Homes, based out of Atlanta, has decided to expand its operations to Northeast Florida.
“They had studied the market prior to talking with me and realized that the growth and economy were strong and that there was an opportunity to expand into Florida,” said Taylor. “We went into Tampa first and North Florida area seemed to be a vibrant building economy and good for us with our product and the entry-level, move-up buyer.”
It’s a 50-year old privately held company owned by Keith and Dan McSwain.
“We are a production builder specializing in the entry-level and move-up home buyer,” said Taylor. “Price ranges are about $200,000 - $550,000 for single-family detached to $180,000’s and up for a townhome depending on the market.”
McCar Homes buys retail lots from developers and has done some of its own developments in other markets.
The company also builds in Atlanta, Charlotte, Greenville, Columbia, Raleigh and Tampa.
“In 2005, we are building 2,700 homes companywide,” he said.
Right now Taylor is the only employee of McCar Homes in Jacksonville, but he is looking to change that.
“As soon as I get a couple projects under contract, the first hire will be an estimator/purchasing manager to develop the project with me,” he said. “There will be a whole slew of department heads once we start building projects. We anticipate being in this location for 18 months to two years. It should take about 8-12 months to get up and running.”
In addition to his new job, Taylor is still Northeast Florida Builders Association’s Sales and Marketing Council chair.
“The positions really go hand in hand,” he said. “As the SMC chair I am meeting with Realtors and other industry trade professionals that can further my business with McCar Homes. The commitment to SMC takes quite a few meetings a month, but with the workload I have now, it is working out fine. It’s an easy balance.”
Taylor said McCar Homes will look at their success that they have had in other markets to compete in the Northeast Florida market.
“We grew those markets organically, where we didn’t buy an existing company but hired the best people,” he said. “We have the best product for our price point, so once we have the management in place, the product will soon follow. We recognize that there is a lot of good competition out there, but it’s healthy. We wanted to give the consumer a different choice and alternative. We will study the market closely, identify buyers and develop product for that buyer in this market.”
McCar Homes will target Duval, St. Johns and Clay counties first and then move on to Flagler and maybe Baker counties later on.
Right now, Taylor is slowly getting the McCar name out there and looking at an aggressive marketing campaign for 2006.
“We have a strategic marketing plan for 2006 that includes branding the company, ‘Who is McCar?’ and what we are all about which includes identifying the customer and the product,” he said. “It’s a comprehensive plan that I am working on right now.”
Taylor was the construction manager at Palencia for seven years and was in charge of all construction and development activity for Palencia.
“I was involved in permitting of new neighborhoods,” he said. “I oversaw all the construction of the neighborhoods and amenity centers until completion.”
Prior to Hines, Taylor worked for John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods as a builder in Atlanta for seven years. During his tenure there, he moved to Jacksonville for a three years before being transferred back to Atlanta, so when he got the call from Hines, he knew the marketplace well.
He has been in real estate for over 20 years starting with his family’s business, Nu-Tech Builders, Inc. a custom homebuilder. He worked with them for three years before joining Rubloff Inc., where he sold commercial real estate for three years before joining John Wieland Homes.