Parades of Homes
They've got rooms to grow
[Times photo: Dirk Shadd]
A courtyard is the view from the kitchen and breakfast table area in the Brighton villa model at the Timberly subdivision in Parrish.
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By JUDY STARK, Times Homes Editor
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 15, 2003
SARASOTA-MANATEE: Model examples of why Pinellas home buyers are looking south.
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Home buyers from Pinellas who are traveling the highways and byways of Manatee County will see lots of cars with license tags similar to their own. Forty percent of traffic at model homes is from Pinellas, sales staff at half a dozen models said on a recent Saturday.
The reasons buyers look south of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge:
They want new construction, which is increasingly hard to find in built-out Pinellas.
They want the easy commute on unchoked expressways.
They like the lifestyle of more space, beaches to the west of Interstate 75, green space to the east.
They like the new schools near their future homes.
They've begun to view Manatee County as the southernmost part of the greater Tampa Bay area, rather than the northernmost part of greater Sarasota. (Builders say buyers from Sarasota who turned up their noses at the notion of moving to once-rural Manatee are now coming to see how much more their dollars will buy there.)
Contractor Larry Kemick, who builds and lives in northern Manatee, says when he and his wife want to socialize, they occasionally go to Sarasota or the islands off the coast. But most of the time, he says, they head north. They drive over the Skyway to the restaurants and movies at BayWalk or elsewhere in St. Petersburg or take in a game at Tropicana Field. Or they take I-75 to Tampa or Brandon for restaurants or shopping.
"We're the center of the hub," Kemick said. "When friends fly into Tampa airport, it's no longer a big deal to go pick them up. It's 30 or 40 minutes."
The Parade of Homes sponsored by the Home Builders Association of Sarasota and Manatee counties, featuring 129 models, opens today.
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It's still possible to see bobcats and otters on the onetime dairy pastureland and citrus groves that are rapidly becoming residential building lots in Manatee County. It's hard to miss the road improvement projects (like those recently completed on U.S. 301 in Ellenton) and the new shopping plazas that meet the demands of the thousands of residents pouring into the county. The county's population is expected to rise from 267,933 in 2001 to 287,637 by 2006, according to Claritas, a compiler of consumer marketing information. The number of households will increase from 113,236 to 121,261.
A recent Saturday tour turned up some refreshing new models, new building techniques and new subdivisions.
Tucked behind that popular destination, the Prime Outlet mall at Exit 224 off I-75, is Oak Creek, a development of 40 homes whose major "wow" factor is the towering old live oaks that provide welcome shade and make the houses feel as if they've always been there. The homes are built in a European country-manor style. The model by Petz Custom Homes, with four bedrooms, three baths, a study, custom kitchen, pool and spa, is $416,540.
Just down Mendoza Road from Oak Creek, three builders are active in the 700-homesite Covered Bridge Estates: Lennar, Windward and Custom Homes. (Petz salesman Denny King said a lot of visitors who see the Covered Bridge ads come to explore his model while they're in the neighborhood.)
Custom Homes is showing its Willamette model with a guest suite. This unusual floor plan allows visitors to step from the front entry either into the family home or into the guest suite: living room, full bath, kitchenette and a big bedroom that overlooks the pool at the back. (A design that put the kitchenette at a little less than full view would be welcome, and in the bath, it's easy to miss the vanity, which is hidden behind a door. The execution may not be perfect, but the idea is terrific.) This home, unfurnished -- 2,800 square feet, with an upgraded homesite and pool -- is $299,900.
Lennar is showing its two-story Boca Grande model, with a big, spacious den off the master bedroom that would be a great place for reading or TV watching. The house has a huge combination family room, breakfast area and kitchen. It has four bedrooms and 31/2 baths in 2,868 square feet. Depending on the homesite, the house is priced between about $245,000 and $250,000.
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A few miles away at Timberly, a 68-homesite development on Old Tampa Road behind the new Albertsons plaza on U.S. 301, Petz Custom Homes is building luxury villas -- two single-story units with a common wall -- that offer some of the most innovative and exciting floor plans you'll see around the Tampa Bay area. (The Evans Group in Orlando designed them.) The Brighton is a courtyard model with a separate casita wrapped around a swimming pool. In 1,637 square feet of living space there are three bedrooms, three full baths, a "grand room," a dining room and a kitchen, and it feels as spacious and stylish as a home with twice its space at twice its price ($188,500; the model, with lots of upgrades and options, is $281,360).
Its next-door neighbor, the Ashton, has three bedrooms, two baths, a dining room, a grand room, a cafe and a kitchen in 1,828 square feet (base price is $188,500). One of the bedrooms could be a guest suite or office, and the dining room is set off by columns. Two other models, slightly smaller, are priced at $169,500 and $179,500. For lots of buyers -- singles, couples, empty-nesters -- this is all the house they need.
On the other side of U.S. 301, down Erie Road, four builders are working at a new 220-homesite development called Ancient Oaks: Pinellas-based Nohl Crest, Whitehall, Eslinger Homes and Kemick Construction.
For years, Kemick, the contractor who lives in northern Manatee, has been carving out a market niche: He builds energy-efficient homes. The Majestic I includes a long list of standard features that save energy and money: a high-efficiency air-conditioning system with a SEER (energy) rating of 12; air returns in all bedrooms for improved air circulation; mastic connections on the duct work; programmable digital thermostat; compact fluorescent lights in the ceiling can fixtures that use less energy and generate less heat than their incandescent counterparts; 2-foot roof overhangs that offer more attic ventilation and shade; tinted windows; and rigid foil-faced board insulation on block walls.
Kemick estimates these energy-saving devices increase the cost of the home by $5,000, which adds $30 a month to the cost of the mortgage. "But you'll save $80 to $100 a month on utility bills," he said. "You can build a better home for less money every single month, or you can build a home that doesn't meet those standards and pay more for it."
The house displays three extras that offer even more savings: an on-demand recirculating hot water loop that provides instant hot water (cost: $1,400) so you're not letting water run down the drain while you wait for hot water; a solar collector on the roof (cost: $3,500), which in summer heats 40 gallons of water to 165 degrees (a typical hot-water heater keeps the water at 115 degrees); and radiant barrier plywood (cost: $2,000-$2,200) as roof sheathing that keeps the attic 30 degrees cooler in summer.
Kemick estimates he includes the solar collector and radiant barrier on 80 percent of the homes he builds. Together, he said, they make a home 50 percent more efficient than codes require.
"The majority of homeowners are paying electric bills higher than they have to be," Kemick said. "They've become conditioned to it, but that doesn't have to be the case."
Sarasota-Manatee Parade
WHAT: Sarasota-Manatee Parade of Homes, showcase of 129 new models, sponsored by the Home Builders Associations of Sarasota and Manatee counties.
WHEN: Today through March 2. Models are open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, noon-5 p.m. Sunday.
WHERE: At sites around the two counties. For maps, lists of builders and communities, price ranges and other information, visit the Web site at www.paradeofhomesinfo.com. Copies of a magazine with maps and descriptions are available at some models and in an outdoor rack at the Manatee Home Builders Association at 239 301 Blvd. E, Suite B, Sarasota.
INFORMATION: During weekday business hours, Manatee HBA, (941) 749-7035; Sarasota HBA, (941) 379-3306.
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