SOMETIME SOON, THE EXECUTIVE TEAM running Colorado Springs, Colo.–based Classic Homes hopes to buy or start up a bank, through which Classic would expand its mortgage and title businesses.
MENARDS, THE THIRD-LARGEST HOME improvement retailer in the United States, is more than 75 percent through the build-out of 164 single-family homes in a subdivision it is developing in Yorktown, Ill. The Eau Claire, Wis.–based dealer has received approval for phase two of this development, which will have 260 townhouses.
Last year, Paul and Amy Deuble bought land in Shreve, Ohio, on which they intended to have assembled a 2,107-square-foot modular home with a similar-sized basement. Those plans stalled in November when owners of a local bed and breakfast objected to the construction, and a Common Pleas Court judge in Wayne County issued a restraining order on Dec. 12, 2006.
In November, the crew at Lennar's Central Park West high-rise development in Irvine, Calif., uncovered the remains of a 30,000-year-old giant ground sloth. The animal would have been 6 feet tall and weighed 3,500 pounds when it roamed the earth during the Ice Age.
The recent dismissal of charges against five Fischer Homes' supervisors accused of allowing illegal immigrants to work on their jobsites leaves unresolved questions about why federal investigators singled out the Crestview Hills, Ky.–based builder—and what other builders' responsibilities are for checking the resident status of subcontractors.
