Mattamy Homes Plans for Growth

The Canada-based builder is adding 13 new communities in the first half of 2011.

In the three-plus years since Steven Parker became president of Canada-based Mattamy Homes’ U.S. Group, he has been trying to grow its U.S. business and grab market share.

Things didn’t happen quite as quickly as he expected. Like most builders, the prolonged building recession caught him by surprise, and land buying was delayed.

“We are already the largest builder in Canada,” Parker said. “And we would like to grow in the U.S. But since I have been with them it’s been rough trying to grow the business,” Parker said during a recent interview. “Most builders have gone backwards but we have at least stayed flat for the last three years,” selling roughly 600 homes each year in the U.S. market.

“But we’ve gained market share,” said Parker. And the company is now poised to gain even more. It has announced plans to open 13 new communities in the first half of 2011, and 10 of those will open with models in the first quarter. Together, the 13 communities include 988 lots, 758 single-family lots, and 230 town homes. The lots are being bought from options from developers.

“They are all what I feel are very solid locations, whether you call them A's ,or B's or B-pluses,” Parker said.

While the company is growing its community count, it isn’t moving into new markets. Mattamy has chosen to stick with the same markets it has farmed for three years or more.

Mattamy moved into the U.S. market in late 2003, buying operations and land in Minneapolis, Jacksonville, Fla., and Charlotte, N.C. In 2006 it opened a community in Phoenix, but by then the market was beginning to slow.

Parker, who had run the U.S. operations for U.K.-based Morrison homes until it merged with Taylor Wimpey in 2007, went to work for Mattamy late that year and the company’s U.S. headquarters was moved to Winter Park, near Orlando, Fla., where Mattamy bought into a few neighborhoods.

Here’s a list of Mattamy’s new projects scheduled to start selling this year.

In Charlotte,433 single-family lots starting in the high $100s in various locations: Hubbard Falls, Mt. Laurel, Skybrook, Waterlynn, and Southpoint.
In Jacksonville,224 single-family lots starting in the high $100s in four communities: Colony, Nocatee, Old Sebastian, and Cedar Bay.
In Phoenix,101 single family lots starting in the $140s in two communities: Marley Park and Canyon Trails in the Surprise, Ariz., sub market.
In Minneapolis,90 townhome lots starting in the high $180s at Stonemill Farms, located in a Newland Community masterplan called Stonemill Farms.
In Orlando,140 townhome lots with homes starting in the $150s in Lake Nona Preserve.