Housing Giants - June 23, 2008 - (Page 11)

Land BEcomEs francHisE oPPortunity for giant Epcon communities is selling franchises to builders looking for a way to move land fast when the market finally turns. When condo franchiser Epcon communities recently unveiled eight new franchisees in six states, it stirred our interest. Who would buy a franchise to build affordable, move-down condos for empty-nesters in today’s depressed housing market? Epcon is certainly no exception to the housing crash. The Ohio-based firm is No. 74 in Professional Builder’s 2008 giant 400 rankings — on 1,734 units closed in 2007 — for $312.1 million in revenue. That’s a big drop from No. 63 a year ago. What we found is that Epcon is selling franchises today to builders with land on their books, not as an immediate solution to the problem, but rather to position their companies to move that land fast when the market turns in 2009 or 2010. “We’re all working twice as hard for half as much,” Epcon principal Phil Fankhauser admits, “but demand for our product has not gone away. It’s just hiding. Boomers are still moving into the move-down niche, they just aren’t sure about selling their big, two-story homes in the suburbs at today’s prices. The business we’re not doing today is not lost business. It’s just delayed.” GearinG Up Fankhauser and partner Ed Bacome are using the lull to position Epcon to grow fast when the market turns. More than a year ago, they began developing a new product line aimed at young professionals and single-again women. “There are now more single women buying homes than married ones,” Fankhauser says. A model home park with seven new designs — including three fully-detached condo homes — will open in Central Ohio later this summer. And last December, the partners hired veteran McDonald’s executive Bob Franke (who led Mickey D’s expansion into Europe and South America) as their new vice president of franchising. Franke confirms that Epcon is now fielding inquiries from land developers and builders all across the country who are trying to find ways to move land. “We’ll find a franchise to go into a new market, or we’ll sell the land owners a franchise so they can do it themselves.” New franchisee John Dunlap of cascade Homes in Bozeman, Mont., is one of those. “My motivation was the active adult demographic,” he says. “I needed to find the right product to serve that niche, and I did a lot of research. We weighed the cost of designing our own product — and developing the business systems and processes to support it — against buying a franchise. “Epcon came out on top because they have a proven product and brand,” Dunlap says. “This franchise should allow us to move multiple locations in a hurry when the market picks up.” Dunlap has a 50-acre site for an active-adult campus in a planned community he’s been building for five years. -- Bill Lurz morE on EPcon communitiEs “franchise Home Builders on the rise” www.Housinggiants.com 6.23.08.Housing giants 11 http://www.epconcommunities.com http://www.epconcommunities.com http://www.housingzone.com/probuilder/index.asp?layout=giants http://www.cascadehome.com http://www.cascadehome.com http://www.housingzone.com/probuilder/article/CA6435054.html http://www.housinggiants.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Housing Giants - June 23, 2008

Housing Giants - June 23, 2008 Contents Viewpoint News and Moves Sell Workforce The Land Dilemma

Housing Giants - June 23, 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.