by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Lennar Corporation, a homebuilder who builds affordable, move-up and retirement homes in urban, golf course, active adult or suburban communities, recently started a Condominium Division to specifically build condominiums in the Jacksonville area.
“When Lennar purchased Admiral Homes and realized what Admiral’s properties were, part of it was going to be a great fit for Lennar on the single family side,” said Jeff Manin, director of sales and marketing for the Lennar Condominium Division. “Since Lennar has already had started other Condominium Divisions, that’s what made great positioning for Lennar to purchase them. Since Admiral already had some of these properties available within the purchase Lennar decided to make a separate division specifically catered towards condominiums since they already had some experience with this around the country.”
Lennar was established in the 1950’s and is based out of Miami. The corporation came to Jacksonville about eight months ago after acquiring Admiral and Classic American Homes.
When they acquired the company, Admiral had already begun building a condominium project, so Lennar saw a need to start a Condominium Division in Jacksonville to oversee the production of condominiums.
“We are one of five Lennar Condominium Divisions in the nation,” said Ashley Smith, marketing manager for the Lennar Condominium Division.
“We are building condominiums on five properties in the Jacksonville area.”
Those properties are The Reserve at Wynnfield at Intracoastal West and Kernan Boulevard and Coventry at Oakleaf Plantation, Millstone at Oakleaf Plantation and Fieldstone at Oakleaf Plantation. These projects are under construction and they recently sold out at The Preserve at Oakleaf Plantation.
Lennar anticipates building just under 1,000 units within these five projects.
“We’ll finish out these five projects. Based on what our volume is, there are another four or greater projects that will be forthcoming in the next year,” said Manin.
He said the sales of the condominiums will dictate what will happen next.
“There is a multitude of properties that have already been purchased and we are just waiting as we move through these projects before we expand to other projects,” said Manin.
The Lennar Condominium Division just moved into a new location in Baymeadows. The office houses 60 employees. Smith and Manin were hired a month or so ago to market the division.
Smith came to Lennar from Clearwire where she was a field marketing coordinator. Manin came from Richmond American Homes where he was director of sales.
“I thought it was an extraordinary opportunity to be with the third largest builder in the nation,” said Manin. “The excitement was to be involved in the new start-up division because you can really have your hand in building up the division. It got me really excited to know that I could be on the ground floor of a new division within the framework of a huge corporation.”
In their new positions, both Smith and Manin will work on getting the Lennar brand name and reputation out to the community.
“I don’t think a lot of people know how well established Lennar is,” said Smith. “Lennar is the third largest builder in the nation and a lot of people in Jacksonville don’t know that. We are really looking to bring that identity here.”
Smith and Manin are working together to establish a marketing plan for 2007.
“We will be reaching out to local Realtors and creating events with the Realtors and special events we are going to do on-site throughout the year,” said Manin. “Right now we are in the developmental stages. Our fiscal year ends in November, so right now we are setting up our strategy for 2007 of how we are going to reach out and how we are going to continue our branding efforts.”
Is the market saturated with condominiums right now?
“The market as a whole is fairly competitive right now. If you are building a quality product then it’s really not a factor,” said Manin. “I think that by us putting out a quality product that is unique in a multitude of ways, we do something that is called EI or ‘Everything Included,’ it is a differentiating factor for us compared to other builders.”
Manin explained that “Everything Included” means that when a customer walks into a condominium, all the features that are in the condominium are included in the price of the condominium and are not upgrades.
The condominiums they will build will range from 1,300 square feet to just under 2,700 square feet and will have a starting price of $129,900.
Other people important to the development of this new division are Division President Jon Lee, who oversees the entire operation, and Kathie May, the controller. They also have 10 new home consultants to sell the new projects.