Rick Dalton opened Wellington Homes in April 2009 after being division president of Taylor Morrison Homes in Jacksonville and Orlando for two years. Before that he worked for Pulte Homes here and before that he was in Chicago with Newman Homes for four years.
“I’ve been in building my whole life,” said Dalton. “I’m a third generation contractor and I have 25-plus years direct building experience.”
He said the long hours were killing him so he decided to leave the company and start his own.
“We started the company and never looked back,” said Dalton. “We are homebuilders. We build anything from $100,000 to $100 million. There is nothing we won’t build. We have experience in all different price levels, so it’s natural for us to build whatever the market gives us.
“Our buyers are that affordable-family buyer and move-up buyers. We also see a lot of empty-nester/active adults that are moving down from up North. That’s been a pretty good little niche for us.”
Dalton said they chose the name Wellington Homes because it sounded like something that had been around for a while.
“We looked for some old world names and just like the name Wellington,” he said. “Within the week of starting our company, we had people come up to us and say ‘I’ve heard of you before’. It’s a name that built trust and confidence right away.”
He builds production and custom homes.
Dalton said the commodities prices are up and down, and labor and land are at an all-time low.
“That is the key right there,” said Dalton. “We have low building costs and now we have low land costs to meet it. We are able to meet what the market is demanding, which is more affordable housing.”