Building Edge E-News Brief has already doubled it's circulation since going weekly instead of twice a month. We knew when we launched this January 1, that it would be helpful, but had no idea how valued it really would become. There were more hits and readers for the April 16th brief then any other! Thank you for your response!
We were able to cover all 52 homes of the BANCF Spring Parade of Homes. Please see the link below to the Photos we were able to take!
As always, if you would like to support Building Edge and E-news brief through advertising or sponsorship, please email us at: scott@buildingedgemag.com or call us at (352) 372-5854.
If you are in the need for a product or service that our advertisers/sponsors offer, please consider them first, as we would not be able to bring you such high quality sources of information without them. If you know anyone who might want to receive this brief, please email me their contact information.
Don't forget, Tuesday is the Property Tax Rally in Tallahassee. More than 500 industry professionals from around the state will be attending. For more information, please contact your local builder's association for an itinerary. You also can read about it here: Rally in Tally |
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www.BuildingEdgeMagazine.com
It is truly Parade Season. The Parade of Homes™ in Alachua County is now complete. The weather was perfect and early indications are attendance was up. Marion County's Parade of Homes™ launched this weekend and attendance was strong there as well. While I cannot show favoritism, I can say that there are definitely some homes in each market that have the WOW! Factor. I am proud to say that there are some outstanding builders in North Central Florida.
Our June 2007 issue is now in production. Our June Cover Feature is Jim & Pal Bennett with Bennett Construction Services in Ocala. We will have an Edge Spotlight this month on Via Bertolini . Our National feature is on Doors: Interior, Exterior, Patio and Overhead/Garage Doors. This is also our Parade of Homes Wrap Up issue. We anticipate this issue will be delivered the 3rd week of June.
Sales are open for our July 2007 issue. July's cover is Kara Sutton & Sutton Family Homes. Our National Feature is on Baths: Fixtures, faucets, home spas, hardware, tile and countertops.
Our August cover is Adams Homes. The National feature is Curb Appeal: Entry doors, brick and siding, roofing, lighting, landscaping, paving.
Next week, we will feature in the Enews brief the May 2007 issue. The print copy should arrive the 3rd week of May as it is going to be mailed next week. The Cover feature is The Ransome Group. Our Spotlight in this issue is Initial Phase Construction.
On the cover of our current Commercial Building Edge issue is Gainesville's BBI Construction Management, Inc. The National Feature is on Surfaces.
Now open is the Summer 2007 issue of Commercial Building Edge. The Cover feature is on Gray Construction Services. The National Feature is on Green Building. To participate, please email scott@buildingedgemag.com.
New Home Magazine Coming This Fall
Home: Living in the Heart of Florida, a new magazine from Advantage Publishing will unveil its first issue this fall. Taking the experience we have gained from Building Edge and Commercial Building Edge, we are very excited about this new endeavor which will showcase the best of living in our community. Home: Living in the Heart of Florida will be a general circulation publication available to everyone in the community. It will include a wide assortment of features intended to enhance everything that is good about living our area. Sales for this first issue open this week. The website is currently under development. With a distribution of over 30,000 copies, this will be the largest magazine in North Central Florida. For more information, please contact us at (352) 372-5854.
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BANCF Spring Parade of Homes™
It was a big hit, and it closed Sunday. BANCF's Spring Parade of Homes™, one of the larges in the association's history, ended this past weekend. The Parade included 52 homes in 15 subdivisions.
To view photos of the Parade homes,
Click Here >>
MCBA Parade of Homes™
MCBA's Parade of Homes™ started last Saturday and runs to May 13. The Parade includes 60 homes, a record for the MCBA. Models will be open Sundays through Fridays from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.
Click Here >>
We have made it to about half of the homes so far. To view photos of the Parade homes we have seen, Click Here>>
PREIT Offers More at Springhills Site
Concessions by the developers of Springhills just days before a public hearing have drawn positive interest from Alachua County officials, but officials caution that concerns about the cost of roads still remain. The developer of the large community proposed for the area around NW 39th Avenue and Interstate 75, the Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, is now agreeing to pay more for roadwork sought by the county to handle the increased traffic the development would create.
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Two Builders Recognized for Constructing Green Homes
There's a green building boom in Alachua County, but there are different definitions about what green means. The U.S. Department of Energy recognized two area builders last week for green building. In a ceremony at the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce, G.W. Robinson Builders and Tommy Williams Homes were recognized for constructing homes at least 20 percent more energy efficient than code-minimum homes.
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Starke Implements New Impact Fees
Starke's first reading of the ordinances of imposing impact fees on new residential and commercial construction passed a first reading without protest last week. The Starke City Commission has accepted the study-recommended impact fee levels and is in the process of putting them in place. New residential construction will pay 50 percent of the fees, while new commercial developments will pay the full amount. Every April, the commission will review the fees to determine if they are too high or low.
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Gainesville Wants Bigger Slice of Gas Tax Hike
Gainesville city commissioners have called for more concessions from the Alachua County Commission before agreeing to a plan that would distribute revenues from a 5-cent increase to the gas tax now being contemplated by the county. City commissioners offered a strong rebuke, and showed a willingness to compromise, on a plan negotiated by city and county officials and already approved by the County Commission. Without the city's support, the county would be unable to increase the tax, which commissioners have sought to make road improvements.
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New Plant Called Too Expensive
A new factory for E-One was too expensive and too risky, the president of its parent company, Federal Signal, told investors Thursday. In a call to investors and analysts to discuss first quarter earnings, Federal Signal President and CEO Robert Welding talked about why the company elected not to build a new E-One plant even with the city, county and state offering $26.7 million in financial incentives. After careful consideration of the proposals, and in view of all of the other initiatives already underway at E-One, the company's higher-ups have decided to remain in the existing facilities in Ocala. Administrative officials felt the project was too expensive and too risky for us to undertake in view of the other priorities in the business.
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Ocala Questions Water Permit Delays
During a nearly two-hour meeting, City Council members questioned why an application for a 20-year renewal of Ocala's consumptive-use permit for public water supply has not been approved almost two years after its initial submission in August 2005. They voiced frustration with a SJRWMD staff recommendation to cap the city's groundwater withdrawal in 2013. After that, the city will probably have to find alternative water sources - such as surface water from the St. Johns or Ocklawaha rivers - to fill the gap in needs. Rapidly developing communities in Lake and western Orange counties that already are labeled water-supply caution areas may tap into the Ocklawaha River in Marion County for 39.7 million gallons per day. Local leaders are suggesting city growth stipulations that would encourage slowed growth and put less strain on water resources.
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$30 Million Sought for Road Projects
Marion County's transportation planning group is set to ask the state for a combined $30 million to complete road projects that would alleviate traffic on two of the area's most congested roadways. The Ocala/Marion County Transportation Planning Organization is requesting $14 million from the Florida Department of Transportation to complete a four-lane overpass south of the Interstate 75 interchange on State Road 200. The Southwest 42nd Street project would reduce traffic on State Road 200 by as much as 20 percent.
An additional application requests another $16 million from FDOT to complete the Southeast 92nd Loop, which originally was called the Belleview Bypass, that is aimed at alleviating heavy truck traffic from U.S. Highway 441 and moving it east of Belleview to connect with I-75. TPO Director Greg Slay said the two requests are part of the FDOT's Transportation Regional Incentive Program (TRIP), where the state matches local contributions for certain road projects.
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Controversial project receives rare rebukes
The controversial condominium-marina-hotel project St. Petersburg surgeon J. Crayton Pruitt Sr. wants to build in rural Taylor County was dealt a pair of staggering blows by regulators last week when state and federal permitting agencies rejected plans for the Magnolia Bay development and stated they will continue to deny permits unless he makes major changes. The state permitting agency, the Suwannee River Water Management District, criticized virtually every aspect of the project, including the 7-foot-deep channel that Pruitt wants to blast through an aquatic preserve, the 200-foot-wide road he has proposed building through wetlands and the development's failure to deal with the site's high potential to flood during storms.
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Click Here>>
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FHBA Rally Draws More Than 500 Builders
More than 500 Florida builders, contractors and homebuilding professionals journeyed to Tallahassee on April 24 to support fair property tax reform and caps on impact fees. FHBA President John Wiseman called the rally to keep new homes from bearing the brunt of property tax rollbacks. Governor Charlie Christ and House Speaker Marco Rubio assured the crowd that lawmakers would not leave Tallahassee without meaningful property tax reform.
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Lawmakers May Not Make Deadline on Tax Legislation
The lawmaking session where property-tax cuts have been the No. 1 priority could end next week with no property-tax cut at all. After a week of fruitless talks, House Speaker Marco Rubio and Senate Democratic Leader Steve Geller said Friday that legislators may have to head home and gear up for a special legislative session to deal with the issue because they can't agree right now.
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House Clears Bill to Raise Insurance Rates
A bill cleared the Florida House panel that would allow private insurers an easier time getting rate increases along with an effort that will be launched to end competition from the state-created Citizens Property Insurance Corporation. The measure would counteract some of the legislation passed during a January special session that was designed to cut insurance rates that had soared after a series of destructive hurricanes in 2004 to 2005. The bill would also require all local building codes to meet a wind-force debris standard set by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Polk County Impact Fees Revised
Polk County commission have agreed on changes in the county's impact fee ordiance that will offer subsidies to lure new factories and to make it easier for working-class residents to buy new homes. Key revisions include allowing annual indexing of impact fees, changing types of developments that are exempt from the fees and exempting affordable housing. The money loss from the exemptions will be made up from property taxes or other general fund revenues.
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Sarasota County Raises Impact Fees
Developers, builders and buyers of new homes and commercial buildings in Sarasota County will face an increase in impact fees within the next three months. Just as they did last month for county roads, parks and libraries, the Sarasota County Commission voted Wednesday to increase impact fees for fire-rescue facilities, Emergency Medical Services, law enforcement, justice facilities and general government costs.
Click Here >>
Builders Selling Quality
By most accounts, the housing market today is tilted in favor of buyers, who have a plethora of new and existing homes from which to choose. As a result, some builders operating in the Volusia-Flagler market are trying to set themselves apart from their competitors by emphasizing the sturdiness of their homes' construction or touting environmentally-friendly features in them.
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Planned Hamlet Homes have 12th Century Look and Modern Inspiration.
Anyone familiar with Celebration near Orlando or Seaside in the Panhandle knows Florida's a hothouse for traditional neighborhood design, the push to replace suburban sprawl with tight, walkable communities. But while most traditionalists reach back to the early 20th century for their front-porch-and-picket-fence models, Bruce White seeks inspiration in 12th century Germany for a project he envisions called Sky in North Florida. Sprawl isn't exactly a problem in rural Calhoun County, population 13,200, about an hour west of Tallahassee. It's there that White bought a 571-acre former gladiolus farm. He plans to cluster Sky's 600 homes in European-style hamlets and attach garden plots to each. Homeowners would own and maintain 150 to 200 more acres of pasture, crop land and orchards. Click Here >>
KB Home CEO Looks for Opportunity in Struggling Market
KB Home's Florida developments have been experiencing a doubling of visitors to what had been a lackluster sales center, which caught CEO Jeff Mezger's attention. The housing industry as a whole has been struggling with an oversupply of homes, foreclosures and falling prices. The company currently has no plans to expand into new markets. It wants to focus on growing market share in its established regions. Construction crews are working on a new housing project in Saint Augustine, Fla. Just off of Interstate 95.
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Ramps Up!
Volunteers from six Lee Building Industry Association builders joined forces to construct a series of wheelchair ramps at the homes of six different disabled individuals. The event, Ramps Up!, was sponsored by the Lee Building Industry Association's Builders Care program. The recipients included an 81-year-old woman who is an amputee, a husband and father with muscular dystrophy and a quadriplegic.
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May is National Remodeling Month
May is "National Home Remodeling Month," which features the National Association of Home Builders' new marketing ideas and ways to increase remodeling awareness. The NAHB is also releasing a National Remodeling Month Kit, which includes a remodelors fact sheet, an aging-in-place fact sheet and a green remodeling fact sheet. It also includes articles, consumer information and marketing tools.
Click Here >>
New Homes Sales Slightly Up in March
Sales of new single-family homes increased 2.6 percent in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 858,000 units, following sharp declines in January and February according to the US Commerce Department. David Seiders, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders, said that the increase was disappointing considering the good weather conditions in March. Only a small fraction of the January and February loss was gained back.
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NAHB Legislative Conference Set
The National Association of Home Builder's 2007 Legislative Conference is set for June 6 in Washington, D.C. The conference provides a unique opportunity to discuss builder issues on Capitol Hill that will have a dramatic impact on your business and your bottom line. A strong builder turnout will send a powerful message to members of Congress that housing must remain a national priority. Click Here >>
Composite Decks Growing in Popularity
Composite decking, a manufactured product that uses ground wood combined with plastic, is growing in popularity as an easy-care alternative to traditional treated wood, according to people in the deck industry. Especially for second-home owners, part of the appeal is that the deck does not require a regular application of stain to protect it from the elements and to keep it looking good. However, composite decks are more expensive than traditional wooden decks.
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Impact Fees Alternatives
Research from the National Conference of State Legislatures reported that using impact fees to address such problems as aging infrastructure, traffic congestion, overcrowded schools and inadequate water and sewer capacity drives up the cost of housing and has other serious implications. There are effective financing alternatives, including special districts, municipal lease finance, tax increment financing and state infrastructure banks. Few states have taken advantage of these alternatives.
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NAHB Makes Recommendations for Tax Credit Program
The National Association of Home Builders has submitted regulatory comments to the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service to improve operation of the tax credit program for builders who construct energy-efficient homes. NAHB has asked the Treasury to expand the definition of certifiers from the sole rating network of the Residential Energy Services Network. They have recommended that the IRS indentify a process through which any qualified organization could be defined as an equivalent rating network, and it is also pursuing the modification with the Department of Energy and the tax-writing committees of Congress. NAHB has also asked the Treasury to clarify qualifying definitions of the credit to make certain that it applies to homes sold for rental purposes and homes where there is no transfer of ownership after the construction is complete.
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Housing Regulations Divides Builders from Realtors
In recent years in California, some builders have begun to spread out developer-impact fees throughout generations, tacking on a perpetual fee on new homes to be paid in the future by every new buyer of the homes. Now, realtors are saying that the spreading out of those fees is adding costs for homebuyers, and a bill in the state Senate would bar the practice. Builders, environmentalists and housing advocates are against the bill while the state's Realtor association sponsors it. Supporters of the fees are saying that the benefits are enjoyed by the entire community by funding affordable housing projects and new infrastructure projects. Opponents call the fees hush money that muffles environmentalists' objections to new housing developments. A hearing on the bill will occur on May 8.
Click Here >>
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New Campaign to Keep Teen Builders Safe
Minors working in construction run twice the risk of fatal injuries as employees aged 25 to 44, according to a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Report. Along with the National Association of Home Builders, OSHA is working to reduce this statistic with its 2007 Teen Summer Job Safety Campaign, created to help keep teenagers safe and healthy while on the job.
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ABC Calls On Congress for Better Health Care for Small Businesses
The Association of Builders and Contractors has called on Congress to heed the growing call of small business owners nationwide for increased access to affordable, quality health care for their employees and employees' families. Every year, small businesses face rising health care costs, and about 44 million Americans do not even have health insurance. This push is in conjunction with "Cover the Uninsured Week" and "Small Business Week" April 23-27.
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ABC Legislative Conference Planned for Mid-June
The Association of Builders and Contractor's legislative conference is set for June 12 to 14 also in Washington, D.C. This conference will look into how Congress is altering the nation's political agenda and what it means for the construction industry. Participants will also have a chance to meet with members of Congress to discuss important issues affecting their businesses.
Click Here >>
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| Current Issues |
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Residential April 2007
Commercial April 2007
HOME: Living in the Heart of Florida
Coming Soon
Fall 2007
For more information,
Please contact
Scott Costello |
If you are interested in joining the BANCF and taking advantage of these great opportunities,
Please visit
www.bancf.com |
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