Southern Springboard
Frontier Homes sees its purchase of Turner-Dunn's land assets as a stepping stone for expansion into other states.
When Ontario, Calif.–based Frontier Homes finalized its $29 million purchase of the real estate assets of bankrupt builder Turner-Dunn in February, it not only established its first beachhead in Arizona, but possibly set the stage for further growth in the Southwestern U.S.
Mike Dwight, Frontier's senior vice president, confirms that his company is looking in New Mexico and Texas for land opportunities similar to the 430 home sites in five subdivisions in Pinal County, Ariz., it picked up at auction. Turner-Dunn abandoned those sites—including a few nearly completed houses and 144 units in various stages of construction—after it filed for bankruptcy protection in August 2006.
It might seem odd that any builder would choose to enter a Phoenix market that crashed last year, but Dwight says the deal is less risky than coming into the market as a startup. Plus, Frontier's senior managers built homes in Arizona when they worked for Forecast Homes (now part of Hovnanian Enterprises), and Frontier's Southern California divisional president, Doug Stewart, has lived in Gilbert, Ariz., for two decades.
Frontier is estimating that it will take them about 18 months to complete this project. Its homes in Phoenix will range from 1,300 to 3,000-plus square feet within nine floor plans. With prices starting at around $170,000, Frontier is targeting entry-level and first-time move-up buyers. Dwight says that because Frontier acquired this land in bulk, it has enough margin leverage to sell homes at below-market-rate prices. (For example, a 2,097-square-foot home is priced at $218,000.) - John Caulfield
Frontier has two sales offices in Casa Grande and Maricopa, and prospects have included a smattering of previous buyers whom Turner-Dunn stiffed. Frontier isn't asking those buyers to put down another deposit.
Measured by the Foot
A new study debunks some (but not all) caveats for walkability.
Pedestrianism by design has become a mandate for most urban planners, but certain assumptions about what makes a neighborhood walkable haven't been empirically challenged—until now. A recent study by the RAND Corp. confirmed that pedestrian activity increases in areas featuring grid street patterns with four-way stops and in mixed-use zones with a diversity of businesses. But researchers found no evidence that shorter blocks (of less than 600 feet) encourage walking, as is the conventional wisdom among New Urbanists.
IN THE ZONE: Walking activity increases in neighborhoods with at least four different types of businesses, the RAND study found.
The study, which examined several criteria in the New Urbanism Smart Scorecard (a set of guidelines developed by the Congress for New Urbanism in partnership with the EPA) also found mixed correlations between walkability and density. Significant increases in pedestrianism were noted in neighborhoods with a housing density of greater than 14 units per acre. However, walking activity was lower in areas with a density of 11 to 14 units per acre than in areas built out at seven to 11 units per acre.
Data for the study were crunched from the 1995 National Personal Transportation Survey, which included interviews of 42,033 households nationwide. But researchers say there is still room to drill down further. “We will need to examine whether these [criteria] have to be done in concert in order to have a big impact on walking,” says Rob Boer, the study's lead author. “We also need to explore ... whether people who are interested in walking may seek out certain types of neighborhoods.” - Jenny Sullivan