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Pat Neal hasn't built homes outside of the Manatee-Sarasota region since the early 1980s. Back then, his firm worked on a development project in Panama City.
But the veteran builder, one of the most prolific on the Gulf Coast over the last five years, is now ready to grow geographically in a more concrete way. The move will be to Lee and Collier counties, which, like the Manatee-Sarasota region, was battered by the housing bust.
“Most times after a challenge are times of enormous opportunity,” says Neal, president of Lakewood Ranch-based Neal Communities. “This is one of those times.”
With that as the creed, the firm will go south in a big way. The firm plans to have land positions in four or five prominent Lee-Collier markets by March, including Estero Bay, Vanderbilt Beach and North Naples.
Neal, furthermore, tells the Business Review the company has property under contract in Naples to start building by August. Homes will start in the mid-$200s, and run through the mid-$500s. Sizes will range from 1,431 square feet to 2,700 square feet. Neal Communities currently builds homes ranging in price from $111,000 to $1.9 million.
Past market timing, Neal says the opportunity to expand along the Gulf Coast stems from both internal and external reasons. Internally, Neal says even though he doesn't intend to slow down, he wants to have a larger business when his two sons and a nephew take on more leadership roles. Plus, says Neal, the company has a strong capital position from two solid recovery years in 2010 and 2011.
Outside the firm, Neal says the recession created a vacuum that sucked out many formidable competitors. “The local builders have ceased to be competitive,” he says, “and the national (builders) can't do all that we can do.”
The Lee-Collier office will be run out of Neal Communities' Manatee County headquarters for at least the next few months. But Neal expects to have local executives, offices and subcontractors in place by the summer. “There will be a learning curve,” says Neal, “but I think a year from now we well be halfway through it and two years from now we will be all the way there.”
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