Charter Homes—Perfecting the Great Neighborhood
Charter Homes of Lancaster, Pa., which currently is building at a pace of approximately 275 homes per year, has delivered 4,200 homes in its first 25 years. The company focuses primarily in central Pennsylvania, but it has built more recently around Pittsburgh as well.
Like EYA, Charter is a devotee of new urbanist design, albeit in a very different environment: the suburbs. Still, the communities look like they belong where they are, partly because they are planned to fit the land upon which they sit but also because they are designed as communities. And Charter does have a trademarked phrase of its own that clearly depicts that: The Great American Neighborhood.
“Before you go and drive the company for perfection, you have to make sure you have alignment.” – Robert Bowman, president, Charter Homes
Charter, like EYA and DSLD, has a system to ensure excellence is achieved. “But before you go and drive the company for perfection, you have to make sure you have alignment,” notes company president Robert Bowman. He uses the example of a crew skull, which, if the rowers are not aligned properly, won’t get very far, but if they are aligned, the crew sets out with a “purpose and a shared passion.” At Charter, he says, “we all share a common belief. We always need to be improving.”
That belief is codified in the company’s best practices, which prescribe the following: “a clear picture of current reality; a team-based performance compensation plan based on the milestone achievements of a single business (financial) outcome that is the difference between a baseline and a target; a series of consecutive, rapid-cycle projects, targeting measurable results, singularly focused on a pressing opportunity; a savvy, mutually accountable, motivated team pursuing a system-wide goal; and a process that fosters an internal capability and capacity for implementing continuous improvement, innovation, and learning.”
To those ends, the company holds what it calls “huddles” daily, which help deliver that clear picture of current reality and is where the staff creates weekly schedules for performance; establishes those quarterly “rocks” (like at EYA, the actionable goals that support the overall strategic plan); and sets annual goals within the framework of the strategic plan. Charter Homes also maintains an ongoing process improvement project in which “everyone at the table is focused on what needs to be done,” Bowman says.
Coupled with the core building and design principles of “life within walking distance” (Bowman uses these words even though EYA has a trademark on them), a better footprint, healthy living, and respect for the land, Charter “builds neighborhoods in the suburbs like no others.”
Blu Homes—Platform Excellence
Blu Homes in Vallejo, Calif., provides a glimpse into what could be the future of home building. Blu’s center of excellence is its platform, which is, as its location near Silicon Valley might suggest, information technology. The company builds what it calls “prefab” homes made of heavy timber, steel, and glass in a state-of-the-art factory in Vallejo. It offers seven models ranging from the low $200,000s to more than $500,000.
Blu avoids the use of the word “modular” owing to quality perception problems among consumers in some areas of the country. Also, unlike modular construction, which requires expensive transportation on oversized vehicles and setting equipment that cannot reach some sites, Blu Homes are first manufactured, then assembled, then broken down “like pieces of origami,” says Maura McCarthy, co-founder and vice president of market development for Blu, and can travel anywhere by garden-variety 18-wheelers.
“The technology that is all around us is virtually unused in home building,” McCarthy explains. She notes that Blu “is more Tesla than Toll,” referring to the car maker that made electric cars cool and desirable instead of squat and utilitarian, and Toll Brothers, the high-end public home building company that ranked No. 10 on this year’s BUILDER 100 list. “We decided to embrace prefab just like Tesla embraced the electric car,” she says.
“We decided to embrace prefab just like Tesla embraced the electric car.” – Maura McCarthy, co-founder and president, Blu Homes
The technology drives the entire enterprise. Home buyers choose and customize their home on the company’s website; the specs are then immediately available to the factory. As such, the progress of each home can be tracked in real time, with the management team able to access data anytime from anywhere.
Blu has design centers in Vallejo, Los Angeles, and New York City and is a licensed general contractor in California, Connecticut, Idaho, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Washington state. Clients work with dedicated company representatives who manage all aspects of design, engineering, factory construction, project management, shipping, setting, and finishing. Blu also has a network of Realtors and developers to help clients find land. It does not itself buy lots.
McCarthy, noting that the company is privately held, would not disclose the number of homes the company sold last year but said the company logged more than $100 million in net bookings during the previous 12 months dating from early May 2015, and the company’s website reports it has sold more than 200 home products for 125 clients since its founding in 2008. The company currently has 285 employees, she said.
On the other hand, at Blu, they do still drive pickup trucks. And they are not electric—yet.
