Real LI

While home building on Long Island is taking a rest during the mortgage crisis, commercial building seems to be alive and well.

“It’s hard to explain that, except there are certain businesses that are doing well,” said David Scro, president of Melville-based Country View Properties, a residential builder.

The advice for stock investors to diversify seems to work for local home builders also as office space leasing rates remain stable and businesses try to start up here to support family lifestyles.

Scro, a second-generation builder, has been immersed in constructing business space to put food on his table.

“I wish I started it a while ago,” he said.

Once, Scro put up 50 to 60 homes a year, but this year, he’s barely dabbled in the residential field.

He’s been tied to an 8-acre plot he bought four years ago in Nesconset. Scro recently finished developing 60,000 square feet of business space -- a 39,000-sq-foot New York Sports Club, a swimming safety school and a developmental disabilities training center. He expects to get permission to build 30,000 square feet more for a child daycare center and medical offices.

The commercial project has cost him about $9 million so far and probably won’t be as lucrative as raising dozens of homes.

But at least it’s a job until the housing market recovers, Scro said: “It will give us an income stream so we’ll survive the downturn.”

As U.S. Commerce Department data show, construction starts for one-family homes are at a 17-year low, Newsday reported this week.

The next Hamptons Cottages and Gardens Idea House will be green, thanks to Peter Sabbeth. He and wife, decorator Melissa Green, own Sag Harbor-based Modern Green Home, which they started almost two years ago, according to an article in the East Hampton Star. The Sagaponack farmhouse was built in 1860, and is being completely renovated with “a very, very modern addition onto the back of it.” The house was once owned by author James Jones, who wrote “From Here to Eternity.” “It’s going to be the first ecologically friendly designer showhouse in the Northeast,” Sabbeth said. When done, the house will be 6,300 square feet, with a 2,700-square-foot finished basement.

The East Hampton Star photo by Carissa Katz

Here it is -- the New American Home 2008. "The sprawling, two-story plantation-style residence in a prestigious Lake Nona, Fla., subdivision has a $4.8-million price tag and, as a featured attraction of the International Builders' Show in Orlando, Fla., pulled in thousands of visitors last week," writes Gary Dymski. The house may be nearly 7,000 square feet (with an additional 2,950 square feet of covered outdoor living space), but it is also totally green. Read all about it here.

Many of the industry pros visiting the IBS event in Orlando believe that the NAHB's new Green Building Program will put added pressure on builders and contractors to perform.

In the past, most new home buyers seemed more concerned with ammenities, such as countertops and flooring, than energy efficiency.

But it's been slowing turning, says John Barrows of J. Barrows Inc., an East Hampton remodeler builder. Barrows, a green-building instructor in Orlando, says more and more new home-buyers are concerned with the energy performance of their home. He says it's about consumers being more educated.

Most contractors seem to believe that as green building becomes the norm, it will be up to them to bear more responsibility. "Our competition is the resale home," says Tony Panza of Turtle Pond Builders, a Southampton custom-home builder. "To beat the competition, we have to offer green and energy efficiency."

Builders who turn out green products will have a distinct advantage, he says. Prospective home buyers will expect new structures to be more eco-friendly, use less energy and be better insulated. Those old standbys, wood floors, vaulted ceilings and custom kitchens, will be secondary

Officials from the National Association of Home Builders, sponsors of the International Builders Show in Orlando, Fla., last week, predicted about a 10 percent drop in attendance from the 2007 event. Apparently, they were pretty accurate. Attendance for the 2007 show was about 104,000; the figure for 2008 dipped to 92,000, a drop of about 12 percent, according to the NAHB.

Continue reading "Attendance down at Orlando builders show" »

This is the fourth consecutive year that Orlando's Orange County Convention Center has played host to the International Builders Show. In those four years, the housing market has been sinking, sinking, sinking.

There is an end in sight. At least David Seiders, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders sees one. The market will continue its slump for most of 2008, Seiders said this week, before starting to emerge in 2009. Long Island builders and remodelers seemed to think along the same lines a few weeks ago, when I spoke to many of them about this year's show and their thoughts on the upcoming year.

There are a couple of bright spots, however. Long Island builders and suppliers say the market for high-end homes, those costing $3 million or more, is steady. One supplier seemed to think high-end homes was keeping the industry going. It seems the wealthy have enough in reserve to be sufficiently shielded from the plunge in the housing market.

Nationally, there have been slight increases in consumer demand for multi-family homes. perhaps for close-knit families, a number of factors play into the statistics. One reason for the upswing, I suspect, is that more young families can't afford a home of their own. So, grandma and grandpa, looking to downsize, simply move in with one of the kids.

They must figure now is a good time to purchase a home and live comfortably together for the next few years. Maybe in that time frame the market will turn for the better or they'll be better able to afford single-family residences.

Either way, some people are building and buying. That's a good sign.

The National Association of Home Builders, sponsors of the annual International Builders Show, arrange several daily press conferences, and the biggest turnout so far was a few minutes ago to announce the launch of the National Green Building Program.

No big deal. Everyone knows today is Green Day at the show in Orlando (where it's sunny but cool).

The talk among industry pros down here is all about the dip in the industry. There are stories of foreclosures and bankruptcy, and it can be a bit depressing. No state has been hit harder recently by the sluggish ecomony than Michigan, which also is suffering because of a hard-hit auto industry.

But, thank heaven, for some gallows humor. Bob Jones, a Bloomfield Hills, Mich., builder, opened the green building press conference with what has become his standard greeting while attending the show: "I tell people, 'Hi, I'm from Michigan and I'm here to make you feel better."

First to step up with a helping hand were the Long Island Builders Institute, many of its members, and several local electrical contractors and unions. Now, Long Island Cares, Inc. The Harry Chapin Food Bank is delivering more than 30,000 pounds of food to the Miraculous Medal Church in Wyandanch.

After a recent fire destroyed the church's outreach center, which provides food and clothing to needy families and individuals, LIBI and several local businesses, contractors and unions helped install a temporary storage facility and upgraded the center's electrical service. But the fire also destroyed the substantial food supply the church had gathered.

Since the church supplies nearly 1,000 families each month with food and clothing, Long Island Cares executive director Lynn Needelman said the need for another group to step up was obvious. "We immediately offered our support as soon as they were ready to receive donations again,” Needeleman said. "We have worked with the church’s outreach program for over 20 years and are very happy that things are moving quickly back to normal."

Deliveries are scheduled for Saturday morning, according to Long Island Cares. Pallets of juice, pancake mix, rice, canned meats and fish and canned vegetables are on the menu. The food delivery means the church's Gerald Ryan Outreach Center should be up and running some time next week.

Long Island Cares, Inc., The Harry Chapin Food Bank was founded by the late singer activist in 1980 and is Long Island’s only food bank, distributing almost five million pounds of food to over 600 emergency food programs across Long Island. For more information call (631) 582-FOOD or visit www.licares.org.

Newsday reports that New Cassel residents "have been assured by North Hempstead and Nassau County officials that the hamlet's $60-million downtown revitalization will be completed without delays despite the recent grand larceny arrest of one of the project's key developers." Dix Hills builder Ranjan Batheja, who was recently arrested, "likely will result in Nassau County keeping title to one of his three projects and seeking reimbursements of thousands of dollars in real estate tax breaks doled out to him." Read the full story here.

The Long Island-New York City chapter of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry stages its annual trade show Jan. 28 at the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City. Featuring more than 100 exhibitors, NARI's 2008 Contractor Trade Show will offer a series of educational seminars, displays of new products and live demonstrations. Previous shows have attracted more than 800 contractors and hundreds of other industry professionals.
The show runs from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. and is open to remodeling industry professionals.
For more information, visit nari-ny.org or call 631-673-6274.
-- GARY DYMSKI