• The Durbin Crossing developers, Wood Development and Sessions Development, have completed the final phase of the infrastructure for the community. The final phase included a piece of roadway that connected the two amenity centers, North and South, together.
• Signature Realty & Management is opening a new office at the World Golf Village. Bryan Cantrell is the broker and the office will be in the Lakeside Business Center and the phone number is 940-9882. It is a full service real estate company including sales, property management and community association management.
• The Jacksonville division of Lennar is currently celebrating the grand opening of its newest home collections available at the brand new Willowcove at Nocatee. Lennar has eight new single-family home designs with prices starting from the upper $200s to the $400s, and the homebuilder’s new Atlantic Series Collection of floor plans range in size from 2,361 to 3,236 square feet.
• The Remodelers Council of the Northeast Florida Builders Association will have a luncheon on Thursday, August 20, at the NEFBA Offices. The speaker will be interior designer Juli Catlin.
• Mercedes Homes, a Florida-based homebuilder with additional operations in Texas, North Carolina and South Carolina, has filed a plan of reorganization and a disclosure statement with the court and has reached agreements in principal, subject to court approval, with its secured creditors/banks and the official unsecured creditors committee. In light of these recent developments, the company hopes to emerge from Chapter 11 financial reorganization by September 30.
• Collins Builders is giving homebuyers the opportunity to own a newly built home in 89 days. The company’s new homebuying program, “Contract to Keys in 89 Days,” assures buyers that their new home will be built in 89 days from the date the contract is executed to the day they receive the keys to their new home. In the event that Collins Builders is unable to meet the 89 day deadline, it will give homebuyers a new washer and dryer that will be installed prior to move-in.
• ICI Homes is offering incentives to area Realtors, including cash bonus payments and vacation getaways, for selling the company’s homes at St. Johns Forest. The company is giving a $10,000 bonus to Realtors who bring in a homebuyer that signs a pre-sale contract. This offer expires August 31. ICI also is offering a $5,000 bonus to Realtors who bring in a homebuyer who purchases one of the company’s three inventory homes at St. Johns Forest.
• Stellar, a design, engineering, construction and mechanical services firm, recently won two national construction industry certifications through the Associated Builders and Contractors’ Safety Training Evaluation Process and Accredited Quality Contractor programs.
• During the 2008-2009 fiscal year (July 2008 to July ‘09), the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation conducted over 500 unlicensed activity enforcement sweeps. These numbers were well above the 327 operations conducted in FY 2007-2009 and 147 sweeps in FY 2006-2007.
• The state’s Construction Industry Licensing Board will meet in Jacksonville on Oct. 14-16.
• Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes notched up two points in July to its highest level since September 2008, according to the latest National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index. The HMI rose two points to 17 in July as builders saw an improvement in current sales conditions but continued to express concerns about the future.