Homebuilder pounces on market opportunity

M/I Homes Inc., one of the largest homebuilders in the country, opened a new division in east Manatee County to cover the Sarasota-Bradenton market.

Longtime local homebuilder executive David Hunihan was named area president for the new unit, according to a statement. Hunihan was most recently operations manager for Emerald Homes, a Tampa-based division of D.R. Horton, and right before that he oversaw sales at Lakewood Ranch-based Neal Communities for five years. Hunihan started and ran his own homebuilding company, Fidelity Homes, from 2000-2009. He was president of Lakewood Ranch-based Lee Wetherington Homes before he launched Fidelity.

The new division, M/I Homes of Sarasota LLC, is run out of an office in Lakewood Ranch. M/I Homes has built single-family homes and townhomes in the region for several years, managed from the Tampa office. Now with Hunihan in place the firm hopes to grow its presence in the region, company officials say in the release. Communities M/I Homes already builds in include Brookside Estates, Creekwood Townhomes and Twin Rivers in Manatee County and Muirfield Village in Sarasota. Homes are priced from the low $200,000s to the mid $400,000s.