Diversification is Key for Pepper Viner Homes
Tucson Builder Opens Remodeling, Renovation and Restoration Division
by Patricia Dunham
Being nimble and flexible is playing a big role in how homebuilders can endure or, even, prosper in today’s housing market. Pepper Viner Homes, a three-time Southern Arizona Home Builder of the Year, is using diversification as the key to making changes that will keep them profitable in both the short and long term. Most recently, they have announced the opening of a remodeling, renovation and restoration division. “The current climate for new home construction has been an impetus for many homebuilders, including Pepper Viner Homes, to move in different directions,” says Bill Viner, CEO. “While our industry has taken a tremendous hit, we all may emerge as stronger and more multifaceted companies.”
Pepper Viner Homes sought an existing remodeling company with a strong reputation and customer referral base to partner with in creating a remodeling division. Native Tucson Builders had been active in the Southern Arizona market for seven years before becoming a division of Pepper Viner Homes. The new partnership increases the services both companies can offer to their individual clients and creates a strong, new face for remodeling work throughout Southern Arizona.
Pepper Viner Homes is also currently working on two other projects outside of their own new home communities. “In addition to adding our new remodeling division, Pepper Viner Homes has sought other business partners,” Viner says. “We are currently working with local Tucson nonprofit agencies on a contract to build sustainable, green, low-income housing and we are also building single-family homes on the campus of one of Southern Arizona’s best known retirement campuses: La Posada in Green Valley. The Green Valley project is a first for both of us. It’s the first time the retirement community has offered single-family homes on a long-term lease as part of their continuum of care, and it marked our first venture in building a community other than our own.”
The partnership with Native Tucson Builders is a win-win situation for both companies. “Over the years, we have had many requests to undertake remodeling and renovation for our home buyers,” says Viner, “With our new partnership, we will be able to fulfill those requests and offer the highest standards of remodeling, renovation and restoration construction to every homeowner, whether or not they live in a Pepper Viner home. The excellent reputation of Native Tucson Builders and their strong client network gives us an outstanding foundation for this new venture.” The new partnership will retain the Native Tucson Builders’ name, and owner Grant Lovallo will head this new Pepper Viner Division.
Native Tucson Builders has offered complete remodeling, renovation and restoration services for the past seven years. “This company is an excellent fit for us,” Viner says. “They ascribe to the same high standards as Pepper Viner Homes. In fact, their company roots come from Grant’s grandfather, who was a master carpenter.”
Pepper Viner Homes is one of 1.5 percent of builders nationwide to meet the exacting standards of the Builder’s Challenge, building production homes that offer energy savings of 50 percent or more over homes built to standard code. “We are very excited to offer our clients the possibilities to include high performance, energy-saving features in their construction,” says Lovallo. “Pepper Viner is a leader in green building and brings a wealth of knowledge regarding building science and energy conservation to the table. By pooling our strengths, we will be able to offer our clients more options as they undertake remodeling their homes.”
Viner feels that the remodeling division is opening at an optimum time. “Homeowners are realizing that it’s a good time to invest in their homes. Interest rates and construction costs are both at historic lows,” he says. “Currently, selling a home often means taking a loss, but remodeling builds for the future. It gives the home buyer the home they want now, and when the market turns around – and it will — they will have created additional equity in their homes.”
Source: https://www.hbresource.com/stories/view.php?story_id=47
Homebuilders accept work as remodelers during slump
By Dale Quinn
With residential construction having slowed to a crawl, no job is too small for Tucson homebuilders nowadays.
One local builder, for instance, Pepper Viner Homes, recently partnered with Native Tucson Builders, a company that specializes in renovating and upgrading existing homes. The financial terms of the partnership weren’t disclosed.
While Pepper Viner has seen its primary business decrease, Grant Lovallo of Native Tucson Builders said his company needed additional resources.
As homeowners realize it could take years for property values to begin increasing, they start thinking about making their home a place they’d want to stay for the long haul, Lovallo said.
“People are looking at their homes and saying, ‘I’ll invest my money here,’ ” he said.
Lovallo said he started looking for a company to partner with, and Pepper Viner provided a good fit. “I was faced with either having to staff myself up or find a partner,” Lovallo said.
Pepper Viner is expanding its business into remodeling as new-home construction founders.
This year it’s likely that no more than 1,700 permits for new-home construction will be issued in the Tucson area, experts who track the residential market say. By contrast, in 2005, when homebuilding peaked, builders took out more than 11,000 such permits.
Pepper Viner has seen a similar drop-off.
When the housing market was booming, the company had nearly 80 employees building about 280 homes per year, said Chief Executive Officer Bill Viner. Now the company is down to about 20 employees and will likely only build between 60 and 70 homes this year.
Pepper Viner isn’t the only company that’s seen its business model change as the real estate market crashed.
“It’s certainly a sign of the times when homebuilders are looking for continuing opportunities” outside their core business, said David Godlewski, president of the Southern Arizona Home Builders Association.
SAHBA doesn’t track exactly what types of new work homebuilders have taken on, but it’s clear that construction companies aren’t necessarily in a position to turn business away.
John Wesley Miller, a local pioneer in energy-efficient homebuilding, has launched a marketing campaign that proclaims there’s “no job too small” for his company.
Miller said people might not otherwise realize that his company will do just about any type of renovation or add-on.
With construction on custom homes “dead,” Miller said, his company would take pretty much any job, such as turning a carport into a garage, or adding an enclosed patio, or Arizona room, to a house.
Another local homebuilder, Miramonte Homes, has turned to a different side business – building luxury rental homes with attached garages. The company is building those rentals with a specific renter in mind – former homeowners who walked away from their homes and “strategically” defaulted, even though they could afford their mortgages, because their homes were worth less than what they owed on them.
For Becklin Construction, custom-home construction made up the bulk of business during the boom, said Richard Fink, a managing member of the company.
While Becklin always did renovations – usually on homes the company built – that wasn’t the primary source of work.
But with new-home construction at a standstill, Becklin now also does light commercial improvements to retail properties and apartment complexes.
Becklin’s website still features its custom-home building. But Fink said the company – which subcontracts out most of its work – hasn’t actually built a home in about a year. “We’ve gotten more into the remodeling business in the current marketplace.”
Contact reporter Dale Quinn at dquinn@azstarnet.com or 573-4197.
Read more: http://azstarnet.com/business/local/article_50be2e5c-699d-5183-b04a-7a2479e2329b.html#ixzz1WX7vQD2i