Public Address
Civic-mindedness raises Elite Homes’ profile in Louisville, Ky.
Over the past several years, Elite Homes is one of few builders that made money. Just barely, though, in 2009, when Elite’s profit was 0.78 percent of revenue. But this isn’t the first economic storm that Elite has weathered during its 34 years. By cutting operations to their core, and executing a business strategy that revolves around construction diversity, its design center, and website, Elite’s profit in 2010 rose to $438,000, or 2.47 percent of $17.7 million in sales that were up 27 percent. Elite’s 40 closings in those 12 months were 54 percent ahead of the previous year’s numbers.
Elite’s 59-year-old owner Joe Pusateri also maintains a full commitment to community service that includes serving on nine boards. The Louisville chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals named him its 2010 Philanthropist of the Year. “I start early and work late,” says Pusateri about his hectic schedule. “And I have a good staff that can cover for me.”
Design Center Is Central
Pusateri also relies on Elite’s 3,500-square-foot design center to generate traffic.
Elite encourages Realtors—who accounted for 42 percent of Elite’s sales in 2010—to use its center for client meetings. And the company offers design center incentives to employees of local businesses such as Yum Brands and Brown-Forman. Pusateri says the design center helps control costs for both the company and its buyers. “We encourage customers to take zero allowances at the start of a job, to fix prices, and give them a bigger comfort level.”
During the recession, Elite expanded what projects it would accept. It has bid on tenant finish work and built homes for nonprofits. It also got into remodeling again, with fertile results. In 2009, the $3.9 million it generated from renovation projects landed Elite Homes at 68th on Builder’s sister publication Remodeling magazine’s top 550 ranking.
Whether it’s remodeling or building new homes, Elite’s rigorous operating procedures—including weekly meetings with, respectively, its senior-level management, its superintendents, and all of its employees—help it to meet its goal to deliver at least 80 percent of its projects 100 percent complete. Raymond Dauenhauer, the retired owner of Dauenhauer Plumbing, Louisville’s largest plumbing contractor, praises the builder, whom he’s known for 30 years, for Elite’s jobsite management. “Elite is straightforward and gives you schedules ahead of time. If Joe has a problem he’s the first to call you, and if you need him he’s always there.”
Corporate Citizen
Dauenhauer and others also point to Pusateri’s civic-mindedness. “I’ve always thought of Joe as a leader of his company, of the HBA, and the [Louisville] Orchestra, which is a little different for a builder,” says Richard Vance, an attorney with the firm Stites & Harbison, whose clientele includes Louisville’s Habitat for Humanity chapter, for which Elite has helped to build houses.
Pusateri has served on the mayor’s Housing Policy Task Force and has been involved with the American Heart Association. Hearthstone awarded him its lifetime Public Service award in 2005. This year and next, he will chair the fundraising campaign for the city’s Fund for the Arts. While serving as president of the Louisville Orchestra from 2005 to 2008, Pusateri negotiated a five-year collective bargaining agreement with the musicians union that kept the orchestra from going bankrupt.
Pusateri claims his public service has been an “enormous” benefit to his company. “After we saved the orchestra, I had people coming up to me for months. You get involved because you want to help, and the business will chase you.”
Pusateri sees Elite Homes eventually becoming an ESOP or a division of another builder. That would give him more time to pursue public speaking engagements and publishing, maybe some consulting, and possibly a run for elected office.
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