Notabilia Magazine | Summer 2011

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WELCOME FROM THE PRESIDENT

When building a home, you need a blueprint. And at London Bay, when we set about the business of creating an incomparable experience for our clients, we borrowed that idea and created our own blueprint for delivering exceptional customer care.

• Look At The Best – We constantly evaluate the customer service practices of industry leaders. Reliability, constant improvement, happy employees and innovative business practices are some of the traits we try to emulate to create “WOW” experiences for our clients.

• Lead By Example – At London Bay, every employee is engaged in providing an unsurpassed level of customer care. I routinely call clients to ensure their satisfaction.

• Listen, Listen, Listen – Building a custom home for some people can be one of life’s stressful experiences. But by practicing good listening skills, we can create a better experience.

• Communicate Non-stop – Construction supervisors meet, call and email clients (they even send photos) to keep them posted on the status of their home.

• Post-Completion Follow-up – We will visit with new homeowners regularly throughout the first year to check on their continued satisfaction.

• Continuous Improvement – A 97% satisfaction rating is good, but we are always working to improve. My team meets regularly to review survey results and identify ways to further improve customer satisfaction.

I hope you’ll give us the chance to show you how these concepts create an enjoyable and memorable home building experience.

Mark Wilson President, London Bay Homes

NEW MODELS S A R A S OTA , F L O R I DA

London Bay has brought a fresh new architectural style to The Founders Club. It includes the always popular Old Florida stylings, and introduces some alluring elements that compose the romantic Mediterranean and soft contemporary approach to home design. The models include elegantly crafted interiors by Romanza that are certain to distinguish these homes in the Sarasota market.

THE LAUREL

THE ISABELLA

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LAUREL Cottage Home

The Laurel is a 2,505 sq. ft.

Cottage Home with three bedrooms, three baths and a den. The new home features a spacious great room design and a large lanai to accommodate outdoor living. Pool and landscape maintenance is provided through the neighborhood association.

SARASOTA, FLORIDA

NEW MODELS: THE LAUREL

NEW MODELS: THE ISABELLA

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ISABELLA F a i rw a y H o m e

The Isabella is a 2,879 sq. ft. Fairway Home with three bedrooms, three baths, den and formal dining room.

It also features a great room floor plan and includes a large master suite that opens onto the home’s outdoor living areas.

SARASOTA, FLORIDA

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TRAVIATA F a i rw a y H o m e

The Traviata is one of the larger Fairway Series homes with more than 4,000 sq. ft. under air and 5,600 sq. ft. of total area. The four-bedroom, four and one-half bath home features large sliding doors that open the family and living rooms to the lanai and summer kitchen.

SARASOTA, FLORIDA

NEW MODELS: THE TRAVIATA

Mediterra, it’s perfect!

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COMMUNITY FOCUS N A P L E S , F L O R I DA

At a gala event held by the Collier County “Building Industry Association,” Mediterra was named Community of the Year with a perfect score for communities with an average home price above $2 million. The Sand Dollar Awards are the local industry’s most celebrated awards for architecture, design and marketing excellence.

The Sand Dollar Award for Community of the Year is evaluated on not only the quality of the lifestyle and amenities available, but also on the community’s marketing and sales success.

And since the London Bay’s acquisition, for the twelve months between Dec. 2009 and Dec. 2010, Mediterra recorded 64 home sales valued at over $97 million.

A prestigious Naples address and

A newly refurbished Beach Club

a club that’s member-owned and

and dozens of annual events to

financially strong

enjoy with family and friends

Two stunning Tom Fazio golf

Exquisite London Bay homes

courses with membership limited

priced from the $800s to more

to 450 for 36-holes

than $2.5 million – plus some

Chef Gregory John, an honors graduate of the Culinary Institute of America with Five-Diamond expertise at Greenbrier

fully furnished homes available for immediate occupancy priced from $1.25 million to more than $4 million.

and Salishan Lodge resorts.

Eight miles of walking and bike paths to start your day off on the right foot, pedal or paw

To schedule a private showing, call (239) 949-8989.

For more information, visit Mediterra’s brand new website at www.MediterraNaples.com

COMMUNITY FOCUS: MEDITERRA

COMMUNITY FOCUS S A R A S O TA , F L O R I D A

FOUNDERS “The Founders Club is an exceptional community that is extremely FOUNDERS CLUB F

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well positioned as the real estate market continues to improve.

The Place To Play

The Place To Play

Its amenities have a style that is unlike anything else in the THE

FOUNDERS CLUB

Sarasota area, and its Robert Trent Jones, Jr. golf course and wide array of clubhouse amenities are ideally suited to the golf The Place To Play

The Place To Play

enthusiast and non-golfing families alike.”

The Place To Play

That’s how Mark Wilson communicated to the local media his purchase of the final 86 home sites in Sarasota’s premier golf community, The Founders Club. London Bay quickly sold new homes within 30 days of opening its new models in mid-March. “The Founders Club has always honored its heritage as a gracious and close-knit golf and social club community and the homeowners and club members have a deep passion for the elegant lifestyle that has been created,” Wilson said.

There are many new floor plans available at The Founders Club in London Bay’s Cottage, Fairway and Executive Home collections.

And all offer tremendous value to the customer with homes (including the home site) beginning in the $500s.

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A prestigious Sarasota address and a club The Place To Play

The Place To Play

that’s member-owned and financially strong FOUNDERS THE

CLUB

Intimate Golf and Social Club Community The Place To Play

The Place To Play

Signature Robert Trent Jones, Jr.-designed 18-hole golf course

The Place To Play

Only 262 elegant residences and 275 Golf Memberships No tee-times Professional caddie program Fine and casual dining Fitness and wellness programs Nearby the world-famous Gulf beaches of Sarasota

To appreciate the experience for yourself, call (941) 378-0900.

For more information, visit the community’s brand new website at www.TheFoundersClub.com

COMMUNITY FOCUS: THE FOUNDERS CLUB

MARKET DYNAMICS Q&A Michael Timmerman is always one of the biggest draws at local business and real estate conferences because of his experience and candor. We thought we’d toss a few questions at Michael to get his perspectives on the Southwest Florida housing market.

MICHAEL TIMMERMAN Senior Associate – Fishkind & Associates

that the real estate market is on its way back….but what’s taking it so long?

A: The residential market is coming back in the best locations that offer the greatest value. Outlying locations will take longer to see positive activity and may take some time to achieve equilibrium.

Q: What’s your opinion about higher-end home values in Naples?

Up or Down?

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The residential market is coming back in the best locations that offer the greatest value.

A: Higher-end homes in Naples have seen a decline, albeit, not as bad as the lower end of the market. I think that many of the buyers who are looking

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Q: We keep hearing

at the higher end of the market are also rebuilding their portfolios. As their confidence increases

so will their appetite for higher-end homes, leading to a nice rebound in this sector. Market values will move up as most of these high-end properties are in “A” location which is the best opportunity for long-term appreciation.

outlook for luxury golf course communities in southwest Florida?

A: As far as luxury

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The main catalyst for sustained growth in Southwest Florida is to diversify the local economy.

golf communities, what you see is what you get.

The prospects for the development of new high-end golf course communities are very slim for the next ten years or more because there are few parcels of land large enough and in superior locations to create this type of property.

We are not going to see high-amenitiy country club communities being built in the near to medium future. Therefore,

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Q: What’s the

those who are here and established are going to become valuable and in high demand.

Q: What do you see as the catalyst for a sustained growth in real estate values in Southwest Florida?

A: The main catalyst

will be the diversification of the local economy.

Southwest Florida is a beautiful place to live, work and play and will be for a long time. The economic engine for the past 30 years has been limited to real estate, tourism and agriculture.

As the market grows and matures, the economic drivers need to follow suit. The industries which are being targeted are bio-medical and green technologies. The market is at a crossroads of a rebirth, one which can be implemented faster than many other competing areas in Florida and the Southeast US.

BUY NOW? HOW ABOUT BUILD NOW! For quite some time now the real estate mantra in Southwest Florida has been Buy Now…and with good reason.

Prices are down as much as 20-35% from their peak, depending upon location, in the upper ends of the market. But savvy real estate watchers know it’s also a great time to build. ccording to Ed Nolan, London Bay’s A Director of Purchasing, construction costs are now 30-35% lower than they were in the 2005-2006 period. The 30-year construction veteran estimates that:

Labor costs have dropped as much as 60% for some trades.

Fill dirt is down 60-65%.

Trim carpentry work and drywall cost have declined by almost half.

The cost of windows, doors and fixtures are “slightly lower” than their peak.

Another reason for lower building costs according to Director

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Project Manager Kevin Waldron, who’s been working in the construction industry for 20+ years, said the downturn has also flushed less experienced tradespeople out of the area. “The contractors who have survived are the most experienced and most dependable people in the market.

Declines in material & product cost, as well as labor, have created a buyer’s market for builders.

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Construction costs for building the “shell” of a home are down 20-30%.

of Construction Alain Filiault is industry consolidation. “When the market was hot, we may have been supervising four or five different contractors just to build the shell of the home,” he said. “Today, we can hire one contractor to do the floor, block, framing and trusses.”

“It all adds up to a win-win-win scenario for everyone involved,” says Nolan. But in the next breath, he mentions that price increases could be coming soon. “We’re starting to see some increases in material costs like copper and steel,” he notes.

“And as the pace of construction increases, I expect to see labor costs start to rise as well.”

LUXURY FURNISHED & MOVE-IN READY

BACARA

T H E E S T U A RY AT GREY OAKS Original Price $3,875,000 Currently $3,575,000 The foyer is accented by an oval stone stairway while the Jerusalem gold limestone and hand scraped wild pecan wood floors add another dimension of character to the home.

4,998 Sq. Ft. of living area 7,010 Sq. Ft. total area GREY OAKS, NAPLES

EMILIA

I N M AT E R A AT T H E LAKE CLUB Original Price $1,519,949 Currently $1,369,949 This home’s outdoor living courtyard with pool, spa and lake view is accessible from both a spacious central living area and the relaxing master suite.

2,967 Sq. Ft. of living area 4,002 Sq. Ft. total area LAKEWOOD RANCH, SARASOTA

You can visit londonbay.com for more details on these homes and the entire Showcase Home collection.

AVENA

I N C O R T I L E AT MEDITERRA Original Price $4,995,000 Currently $4,025,000 The feel of luxury abounds throughout this home with its wine bar with dual coolers, second-floor entertainment area and pool room, and comforting master suite with its own patio and fireplace.

5,682 Sq. Ft. of living area 8,398 Sq. Ft. total area MEDITERRA, NAPLES

COMMUNITIES S O U T H W E S T F L O R I DA

Whether it’s on the beach, downtown, on the golf course or surrounded by nature, London Bay can help bring your aspirations to life in almost any luxury location along Southwest Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Visit us online for more information on where we build in Southwest Florida.

OL D N A P L E S Royal Harbor d Mooring d Port Royal www.LondonBayHomes.com

London Bay Homes is proud to announce the launch of two new community web sites for Mediterra in Naples, Florida and The Founders Club in Sarasota, Florida.

www.MediterraNaples.com

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THE www.TheFoundersClub.com

FOUNDERS CLUB

The Place To Play

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FOUNDERS CLUB

The Place To Play