National builder considers leaving Rosedale Links

EAST COUNTY — For most of the community’s 20 years, Rosedale Golf & Country Club’s developer, the Hunt Group — constructing homes as Rosedale Construction — built the homes there itself, ensuring consistency in style and substance.

In 2005, the Hunt Group closed on 237 acres north of Malachite Drive and south of the 44th Avenue extension, for a planned expansion of the community that would become known as Rosedale Links.

Forced to delay construction there until last year because of a bad economy, the Hunt Group for the first time brought in outside builders to do some of the work and speed up the process.

This year, one of those builders, Ohio-based M/I Homes, is considering pulling out of the community, citing unsatisfactory sales after it completed 26 homes in Rosedale Links.

Of its completed homes, 15 are occupied.

M/I Homes is trying to sell another 56 lots in Rosedale Links that it owns.

“Sales have been OK, but not great,” said Marshall Gray, area president of M/I Homes Tampa/Sarasota. “My job is to make sure our assets are deployed in the right area. We have other opportunities in Manatee and Sarasota counties that might fit us a bit better.”

Gray said M/I Homes had the option to buy another 93 lots in Rosedale Links, but decided not to pursue those.

“If we had sold the majority of our completed homes, we would have added those lots,” Gray said.

The potential departure of the national building giant highlights the delicate balance that occurs when multiple builders — each with its own styles and methods — work in a community, especially one that already has an established identity.

“By opening it up to other builders, we thought we could service the whole parcel at once, which gave us economies of scale,” said Pat Hogan, vice president of the Hunt Group, who said he learned in December that M/I Homes would be leaving. “I don’t think (M/I Homes) leaving is unique. We all make mistakes. But I am surprised.

“They were not building the right product, which is part of the reason they were not selling,” he said. “They are not stupid. They’re huge. They know what they are doing. This is a good thing for us that they are out.”
Hogan said that another builder, whom he would not name, will close June 30 on the 93 lots that M/I Homes did not purchase.

Hogan, who added that Ashton Woods Homes and John Cannon Homes, along with Rosedale Construction, would continue to build in Rosedale Links, said he told the outside builders upfront about the unique characteristics of the community — and what type of home might fit well there.

“I told them what I thought the market in Rosedale was, which is different than Central Park and Esplanade,” Hogan said. “M/I is used to building for the younger market, so they go with these bonus rooms. But Rosedale is not a kids’ community. It is an empty nester community. I’m not sure they read the market correctly.”

For its part, M/I Homes, which is also building town homes in Muirfield Village at Honore, said its homes with bonus rooms in Rosedale Links have been well received.

Gray speculated that broader factors might be contributing to slow sales of its homes.

“You have multiple builders in there. People who live there have to be a part of the golf community and we know the retiree market does not make decisions very quickly,” he said. “Rosedale Links will be successful, but we have to look at if it’s exactly where we want to be.”

Gray said M/I Homes has plans to build in three other communities in Manatee and Sarasota counties, including a future town home community in East County.

“We’re committed to Manatee and Sarasota,” said Mark Spada, division president of M/I Homes of Tampa. “We’ve been in Tampa since 1981-82. We’re not going anywhere.”

On May 2, M/I Homes’ on-site sales staff manned its information center and model homes inside Rosedale Links.

When M/I sells its 26 completed homes, M/I Homes will likely leave, and another builder will enter.

Gray said M/I Homes is considering multiple contracts for the remaining 56 lots it owns in Rosedale Links.
Hogan does not regret opening up Rosedale Links for business.

“I wish they (M/I Homes) had been successful, but they were not,” Hogan said. “It will be fine. I think the majority of people won’t notice they left. There will still be four builders doing work. There will just be another name in there.”

Contact Josh Siegel at [email protected].