Builder- March 2009 - (Page 31) SUCCESSSTORIES INNOVATIVE IDEAS WITH PROVEN RESULTS ■ EDITED BY JENNY SULLIVA N PRETTY SMART: Realtor events such as gift shows and spa days have generated buzz about Claremont. Some homes have been staged with works by local artists. SMALL DETAILS Personality Contest A distinct sense of style adds up for one Carolina builder. B Rick Ricozzi ack in December 2008, most home builders were feeling grim, at best, as home prices in free fall were joined by the collapse on Wall Street. Zinn Design Build, however, was sitting pretty, having placed nine homes under contract in the previous 11 weeks. Not bad for a family-owned business in Chapel Hill, N.C., that builds just 17 to 25 houses annually. Also not bad considering sales of other nearby homes in the same price range ($519,000 to $1.3 million) were collectively down 40 percent from the previous year. Owner Carol Ann Zinn attributes her company’s buoyancy, at least in part, to a couple of fortuitous moves. One was relieving her existing salesforce and starting over with a more experienced team. But of course the new salespeople needed something good to sell—and that’s where it matters that Zinn has always treated building as part art, part business. A former artisan potter, Zinn began dabbling in Carolina real estate development in 1976 when her sons were small. It wasn’t long before the creative energy she’d been pouring into ceramics was redirected into single-family homes with a boutique sensibility. That approach has served her well over the years—even now. Although most of her firm’s homes are based on a portfolio of in-house plans (all designed by Zinn herself), no two are alike. One might offer clapboard siding, clean-lined (see page 32) LOCATION: ■ ■ CHAPEL HILL, N.C. Community: Claremont Total acreage: 27 in phase I, followed by 38 in phase 2 ■ Date opened for sale: December 2007 ■ Product: Single-family and townhomes from 2,200 to 3,700 square feet ■ Price range: $375,000 to $1 million ■ Total number of units at buildout: 176 (phases I and II) ■ Sales to date: 17 ■ Builder/Developer/Designer: Zinn Design Build, Chapel Hill, N.C. W W W.BUILDERONLINE.COM m a rc h 2 0 0 9 BUILDER ■ 31 http://WWW.BUILDERONLINE.COM
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