by Michele Gillis
Staff Writer
It’s one thing to start a new company in this economy, but when you bring in a team with combined experience of more than 40 years to run the operation, it’s a whole new ballgame. And one you have a good chance of winning.
GreenPointe Homes, which was launched in December 2010, has brought a new idea to the market — intelligent green building practices, technologies and products — and an experienced team to deliver it to the market.
The team consists of David Smith, president; Vicki Bratvold, president of GreenPointe Realty; and Paul Wyatt, who heads construction. All three were formerly with Pulte Homes until they became casualties of the market.
“There is a strong friendship, tremendous trust and loyalty among the three of us and that is a powerful base upon which to build this company,” said Smith.
GreenPointe Holdings LLC, a diversified holding company, was founded in 2008 by Ed Burr, former CEO of LandMar, to create and develop sustainable, high-value communities throughout the Southeast.
“Today’s real estate market is evolving faster than ever before and it is our goal to adapt innovatively to those changes,” said Burr. “We believe there are tremendous opportunities in the Southeastern region to acquire land and create communities that will be livable, sustainable and welcomed by homebuyers for decades to come.”
Smith came to GreenPointe Holdings first. Bratvold and Wyatt soon followed.
“I had been in discussions with GreenPointe about starting up a homebuilding company and Ed Burr and I had long discussions about it,” said Smith. “It was something he wanted to do and I was fortunate he tapped me on the shoulder to lead the effort. When he asked me who was going to do it with me, I had been working with Vicki and Paul for years. We knew without a doubt that we would stick together.”
GreenPointe Holdings has three corporate divisions – GreenPointe Communities, the community development division led by Roger Postlethwaite; GreenPointe Homes, the homebuilding division led by David Smith; and GreenPointe Pathways, the infrastructure division led by Walt Bussells, former JEA CEO.
All three divisions work together to create livable communities of lasting value using intelligent green practices.
Why open a company now?
“If we wait to buy land to be in this business when it’s great, we’ll miss the opportunity for the long-term success,” said Smith. “The terms are one of the most friendly they’ve ever been today. The land is well below replacement value today. If you are patient and believe in market cycles, buying land today for future homebuilding there’s never been a better time to do it.
“But, you have to have a realistic expectation of what you are actually going to get out of the market in relation to absorptions. We firmly believe that the bets we placed today will pay us back as the next cycle comes back and it will come back.”
With the current economy, opening a company now seems a little out of reach to some but GreenPointe Holdings doesn’t seem to have any problem finding capital to fund their venture.
“The good news is that we are very well capitalized and can act and participate in the market,” said Smith. “Obviously, with buying 7,000 homesites, we can sit at the adult table when it comes to buying land. It actually gives us an advantage over the national homebuilders. We will go in and buy 7,000 lots. I challenge you to find a national homebuilder who has done that in the last 12 months.”
So, where does GreenPointe Holdings get its capital?
“We’ve developed some strategic partnerships with other organizations such as Paulson & Co. John Paulson is the founder and president of Paulson & Co., a New York-based hedge fund,” said Smith. “Paulson has allocated a certain amount of money to Florida and we are lucky and fortunate that we are the trusted group that he goes to in leading his investment charge into Florida.”
They’ve also done business with another investment group, Mountain Funding LLC, a company that invests in real estate and homebuilding.
“They bring additional equity to the table to allow us to be far reaching in our ability to go after significant and sizable assets that exist today,” said Smith. “Banks aren’t lending, so you have to go find funding on the open market. Once you’ve generated enough internally, then you become somewhat self-funded or you can continue to use leverage for better returns. Starting up, it is the best way to go because you have shared risk and shared return.”
The company closed on its first piece of land in Cedar Bay, a Northside community with 155 homesites, in May 2010. Cedar Bay is a fully completed with infrastructure, pad ready community.
“After we closed we went full steam ahead into bringing that community back to life,” said Smith. “We did focus groups in regards to the customer, designing plans, going through permitting and went under construction there late last summer. We had our model open for business at Cedar Bay in December.”
They sold half of the homesites to Mattamy Homes, their building partner in that community.
GreenPointe Homes has built three homes and sold one so far. Price ranges for the homes in Cedar Bay are $160,000 to the low $200,000s.
They do not profess to be a “green” building company. GreenPointe Homes use the term “intelligent green,” which is an energy-efficient, environmentally sensible and well-built home.
“We profess to do things that are responsible and sensible for our homebuyers that allow them the benefit of having an energy efficient home,” said Smith. “It’s about saving them money in their home on the day-to-day operation of the home.”
Some examples of GreenPointe Homes’ intelligent green construction include installing Radiant Barrier Sheathing in the attic to lower attic temperatures and reduce strain on the air conditioning equipment, Low-E windows built to keep heat in during the winter and cool in during the summer and a programmable thermostat, which saves energy by allowing multiple time and temperature settings.
“We panelize construction, which reduces waste,” said Wyatt. “We panelize the walls. We work with a company that builds panels inside a factory-type environment and then comes out and erects the panels. That greatly reduces waste. Our siding is an OSB (oriented strand board) product. They get the wood for that from young growth trees instead of cutting down existing trees.”
Bratvold said customers expressing interest in Cedar Bay have been very pleased with the green type features available in the homes.
“When we are able to get this information out into the press, people come from all over Jacksonville to our homes,” said Bratvold. “They are looking for an opportunity to reduce costs in homeownership and operating and maintaining the home. When we can talk about that and show them how the homes are built and the features, they are very impressed and desire our homes.”
She said buyer expectations have changed with the market. They don’t necessarily need a large inefficient home. They want efficient homes that cost less to own and save them money in the long run.
“We’ve seen the trend where people are saying that smaller is better,” said Smith. “More efficient, lower cost of ownership is better. You get that way through some of our intelligent green building components.”
In the months prior to announcing GreenPointe Homes, land acquisition had already started. In all, seven master-planned communities were purchased by GreenPointe Holdings, though not all will be built on by GreenPointe Homes.
The communities that were purchased are Cedar Bay, Heron’s Walk in Jacksonville, Southern Hills Plantation in Brooksville, River Hall in Fort Myers, Belmont and Triple Creek in Tampa, and, most recently, Amelia Walk in Fernandina Beach.
GreenPointe Homes will build in Cedar Bay, Southern Hills Plantation and Amelia Walk. Triple Creek is still on the drawing board and the company hasn’t decided if it will build there yet.
They have sold lots to builders in the other communities for development.
“We could never absorb over 7,000 homesites as one builder,” said Smith. “There is enough market share for multiple builders to co-exist and each sell their proportionate share of what the market will bear. For us as a developer, we bought the land at the right price and the better business decision for us is to lower our risk, improve our return and to allow other builders to build there.”
Environmentally responsible infrastructure improvements to the communities may be in the future for some of the communities.
Smith said Bussells, of GreenPointe Pathways, is constantly evaluating the latest energy and liquid utility opportunities as they move forward.
“We are talking to various groups about better and more efficient ways to soften the footprint as we move forward,” said Smith. “We can’t change things that are done. We aren’t going to rip out existing infrastructure. But, given the opportunity on a blank slate, we feel the responsible thing to do is to look at any opportunity we might have to create advantages in our development through improving it in ways that are intelligent and environmentally responsible.”
GreenPointe Holdings is also affiliated with Hampton Golf & Lifestyles, a golf course and residential community amenities management firm. Hampton was part of LandMar when Burr ran that company.
The teams under GreenPointe Holdings have raised and invested more than $800 million to develop 100,000 acres of land, build 80,000 homesites and construct 30,000 plus homes.