America’s Best Builders 2007: Focus On Flexibility

The Only Game In Town

In a region known for tough controls on building, Green has fashioned ecology-minded developments of upscale attached homes for empty-nesters.

Some builders view clustered housing as a way to keep prices down. The Green Co., building on Cape Cod and in the Boston suburbs for more than 50 years, sees it as the best way to create environmentally conscious communities that can lure people from the detached homes they love.

That strategy, coupled with fresh design, smart construction planning, and unrelenting customer service, has led to solid sales success in some 20 developments over the years. Along the way, Green has garnered a slew of industry awards and pioneered attached housing in communities that once said “no” to such development.

“The Green Co. understands, better than any developer I know, what the local community will accept in the way of design and density,” says Jon Witten, a Boston College law professor who represents area communities.

Time and again, the company has sought to be “the only game in town,” as it tried new approaches that the market never saw before. It was among the first builders on Cape Cod in the early 1960s to offer single-family homes on the waterfront with an amenity package of swimming pool, clubhouse, and ball fields.

Then, in 1973 it introduced attached housing to the Cape, with the 210-unit Falmouthport condo community, built on the site of an old sand pit. But wasn’t that a risky move, especially at a time when the OPEC Oil Embargo dampened the market for second homes? “Risky?” echoes Alan Green, the 79-year-old company chairman. “We had the challenge of putting land parcels together, and, of course, the lenders weren’t used to this type of housing. Our market research was what we read about in House and Home.”

Still, the company learned a lot from Falmouthport—most notably the value of sensitive land use and the discovery of a burgeoning empty-nester market looking for a new lifestyle. Those lessons gave the company the confidence to push ahead with a whole series of cluster-home communities, including many in Boston’s choicest suburbs. Says Green president David Caligaris: “Attached housing gives you the flexibility to work with the land in ways that make the most sense.”

CREATORS OF ENVIRONMENTS
Enter a Green Co. community, and you quickly appreciate the meaning of the company’s mantra that everything starts with the land and the goal of preserving the natural environment. That’s certainly the case at The Pinehills, a large master planned golf community eight miles south of historic Plymouth, Mass. One of the first builders to start work in the community, Green is now developing Winslowe’s View, a development that will total 550 attached homes—of which 380 have already been sold—by the end of 2008.

As you drive through the community, you get the feeling of being in a private world where meticulous care for the natural environment is paramount. Mature trees, shrubs, flowers, walking paths, winding roads, and rolling topography that positions homes at varied levels all work together to create a sense of place. In Winslowe’s View, Green strategically places clusters of two or three attached homes so that owners can enjoy rear views of woods, fields, or parts of the Jack Nicklaus and Rees Jones golf courses, which weave through the property.

“When they plan a community, many developers start with the road and move toward where they want to put the houses,” explains Alan Green. “We start with the rear of the home and come forward. We also try to build only on one side of the road, so you aren’t facing other homes, and we like to site homes around the perimeter but away from main roads, leaving open space in the middle.”

Adds vice president Daniel Green, “When we are buying a parcel of land, we will walk it five, six, seven times in order to identify and preserve the environmentally sensitive areas.”

One good example is a 1,552-square-foot, single-story model, in which the master bedroom and living room offer a golf-course view and open up onto a spacious mahogany deck running the entire 29-foot width of the home. Offset siting and privacy fencing keep homeowners from seeing adjoining houses on either side. Starting price: high $300s. Overall, the average price of Winslowe’s View condominiums—at about $530,000—has been running about $200,000 higher than that of most condos on Boston’s South Shore.

By staggering or turning the positions of street-facing garages, Green also creates a private courtyard leading to the front entrance of each home. Homeowners can personalize that space with landscaping of their choosing.

All of these efforts blend to create attached-home living that feels like a single-family environment—and that’s a key advantage if your objective is to lure empty-nesters from detached homes that they’ve babied, sometimes for decades.

Green knows that many in this target audience would like to take the plunge, but getting them to do it is a carefully orchestrated effort. “These are people who have watched their communities change and have seen their neighbors move away,” says Dominique Sampson, vice president of sales and marketing. “And they are getting increasingly tired of the money and energy that they have to put into maintaining a big home and yard.”

But since they are dealing with homeowners who typically are under no great urgency to buy, the Green approach is clearly “soft sell.” Most buyers will return to the models four, five, or six times before buying, says Sampson.

Once they’ve decided to buy, a home coordinator begins working with customers almost immediately. This includes assisting them with their choices at a design center adjacent to the models.

Green has set up an elaborate “45 points of contact” system, designed to maintain continuous communication with buyers from the time they first visit a model through three separate post–move-in walkthroughs. At the very outset, all new buyers get individual phone calls from Alan Green, welcoming them to the community.

A SENSE OF COMMUNITY
To further distinguish itself from the other nine builders in The Pinehills, Green also works hard to bring its residents together. In addition to tennis courts and two pools, Winslowe’s View features an expansive village commons where it has located a colonial-style meeting house, complete with full kitchen and gathering room, where homeowners come together for parties, exercise classes, and other events. Next door is another structure, designed in the manner of an old-fashioned New England general store, where homeowners pick up their mail or linger to enjoy coffee, ice cream, or penny candy—all on the honor system. There’s even a modest lending library and wireless Internet service.

Talks with homeowners confirm that the Green strategy works. “It feels like I’ve had a weight lifted from my shoulders,” says teacher John Stempelski, who moved into Winslowe’s View in January 2006. He and his wife, Ann, a school principal, plan to take early retirement in the next couple years and left a custom home in a community only a couple of miles away. Another buyer, Michelle Meister, notes that she and her husband, Brien, decided on Winslowe’s View when their son went off to college and Brien’s parents moved into the Green community. “We didn’t want to move into a retirement community,” says Michelle. “Here, people are active, intelligent, and interesting. They’re all in the same boat—coming from somewhere else.”

Independent surveys by the NRS Corp., a housing research firm, show that 97 percent of Green customers would recommend the company to their friends—and nearly 90 percent have done so. The firm is the 2006 NRS Diamond Award winner for highest customer satisfaction in the country.

Green routinely uses its current residents as “ambassadors” at public events, such as breakfasts in the meeting house, a spring antique show on the village commons, or the fall art exhibit in the model complex. “It’s much more credible when our homeowners say good things about our communities,” says Sampson.

BUILDING FOR THE LONG HAUL
With a record of success that extends over more than five decades and some 2,400 closings, The Green Co. seems well positioned to survive this latest 20 percent to 25 percent market decline in the Massachusetts housing market. It keeps careful controls on construction with an evenflow system that now averages out annually to starting 1.5 homes every Monday and closing the same number on Thursday. Even in the boom years of 2004 and 2005, that number never got much beyond three starts and three closings per week. However, the company has shifted to building a greater percentage of “designer” models—spec homes that incorporate popular features and are available for fast move-in.

“What we want is steady, smart growth that doesn’t force you into making bad deals,” says Caligaris. That tack sits well with Green’s trade-partners council of key subs and suppliers, which meets regularly with the builder. The growth plan also makes it easier to adhere to the company’s quality standards.

Green intends to keep its focus on the empty-nester and plans to start another community of 125 attached homes at The Pinehills. Still, there’s been a flurry of over-55 developments in the greater Boston areas, as towns seek to boost the tax base without additional burdens on school budgets. To differentiate itself once again, Green plans to start 25 clustered detached homes at The Pinehills. These luxury homes, with about 3,500 square feet and selling for $1 million or more, will seek to “bring the inside out” by creating more livable space outside the home, such as an outdoor dining area and fireplace.

This willingness to be flexible and responsive to customers, Green’s managers say, is an essential part of creating the blend of features that they believe will continue to make Green “the only game in town” for its target audience.