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JUDY STARKThe developer of the metal-sided Urban Lofts Townhomes, a hit in other cities, targets a new market: St. Petersburg.
HOUSTON - The tin man wants to sell you a house.
Vividly painted, three-story, metal-sided townhouses march down a side street in one of Houston's older neighborhoods like banners at a parade. Soon they may come to St. Petersburg.
The target market: "We're not looking at families," said architect and developer Larry S. Davis of Urban Lofts Townhomes. Twenty-five percent of his buyers are single women; 25 percent are couples (young professionals and empty-nesters); 50 percent are single men. Typical buyers are 22 to 45 years old.
The price: $170,000 to $240,000 for 1,800 to 2,000 square feet in a loft with two bedrooms and two baths. The main living area is on the second floor, with 17-foot ceilings and a wide-open floor plan illuminated by big windows and skylights.
The homes have stained-concrete floors on the ground level and pine floors on the second and third. Now, about that metal siding: It's a product called Galvalume, steel coated with zinc, aluminum and silicone. It has long been used in industrial buildings because of its durability and resistance to rust. It doesn't retain heat, keeping interiors 5 to 8 degrees cooler than the outside temperature, Davis said.
When he first sought permits in Houston, "It was people at City Hall who said, "Hey, we can afford these!' " Davis recalled.
The bright colors have taken some getting used to, Davis acknowledges, but when he entered the Atlanta market, "They wanted them even funkier there," and he obliged. He has sold about 900 units in Houston, Atlanta, Phoenix, Las Vegas and Dallas. About 50 of his buyers have been fellow architects, he said.
Davis is eager to enter the St. Petersburg market, which he visited recently, and is seeking land near downtown.
St. Petersburg was "a shoo-in, a beautiful town," said Frank Robertson, the company's vice president of operations. "We loved the layout, the way the streets work, 300-some activities every year, the stuff that goes on at night. It felt like the right place for what we do: an urban town that's also a vacation spot with a lot happening."
He said city officials rolled out the red carpet and were "very proactive in developing in the way that's best."
"We talked about a number of areas where their model would be appropriate," said Bob Jeffrey, the city's manager of urban design and historic preservation. "Here we've got someone with national experience. Obviously their models have an industrial look, which is not appropriate in every section of town, but would be a great solution in some areas butting up against industrial areas."
Jeffrey had viewed the units only on the company's Web site (www.urbanlofts.com) and said, "What's nice about what they're doing is that they are what they are." He explained: The townhomes are not pretending to be Mediterranean Revival or some other style; they're using their industrial materials honestly.
"I think we're going to become a hotter market, with people from elsewhere coming in to do projects," he said. "Everything so far has been pretty much local, and we've reinvented the product as we go. We're starting to get people with national models coming in. There's something to be said for that variety. That broader perspective would be good."