American homebuilders have a long history of bulldozing farms to make way for new housing. Now developers are starting farms to sell homes.
Harvest, a $1 billion "urban agrarian" community by billionaire Ross Perot Jr.'s Hillwood Development Co., teamed with a farmer to grow fruits, vegetables and grains alongside 3,200 planned houses northwest of Dallas. Willowsford, a 2,130-home development in Virginia's Loudoun County, set aside 2,000 acres for green space, including 300 acres for produce, chickens and goats. And DMB Inc. integrated produce fields and edible gardens into projects in Arizona, California and Hawaii.
As the housing industry continues its recovery from the last recession, "agrihoods" are attracting buyers, including retired baby boomers with a yen for fresh ingredients and parents wanting to raise their children on organic food, said Ed McMahon, a senior resident fellow at the Urban Land Institute in Washington.
"The foodie generation has come of age," he said. "The mainstream development community has come to think of these as a pretty good way to build a low-cost amenity that people seem to like and that also adds authenticity to a development. It ties into trends that are emerging in U.S. culture, which is basically interest in food and health."
Smaller-scale agricultural neighborhoods, such as the 359-home Prairie Crossing outside of Chicago, began cropping up in the 1980s. Serenbe, in the Chattahoochee Hills southwest of Atlanta, has sold 200 homes since the 2004 opening of the farm-centered community, which has space for 1,200 residences. What's changed is the size of the projects and the entry of corporate developers, who are tapping into the same foodie lifestyle that's supporting neighborhood farmers markets, Food Network cooking shows and the Whole Foods Market Inc. chain, McMahon said.
At Harvest, a restored 19th-century farmhouse and 5-acre commercial and community farm set the project apart from others on the prairie about 35 miles northwest of Dallas, said Tom Woliver, Hillwood's director of planning and development.
"In these big communities, you need to attract some interest," he said. "Food brings everyone together."
It's too soon to say how much of a premium developers can charge for farm-to-table amenities, Woliver said. Harvest's first 100 homes are occupied, with 50 others under contract and still being built, he said. D.R. Horton Inc., the largest U.S. homebuilder by revenue, this year is opening a new Harvest subdivision, including houses with large front porches "reminiscent of farm-style living," said Jessica Hansen, vice president of investor relations at the Fort Worth-based builder. Prices will start at $250,000, she said.
"We're selling to the common folk," Woliver said. "We're taking it mainstream, taking it to the masses."
PulteGroup Inc.'s Del Webb division sold out of its two-bedroom homes less than two years after opening a subdivision in Sendero, a 941-residence community that includes 286 homes for people 55 and older in the Rancho Mission Viejo development south of Los Angeles. Prices in the first phase range from $300,000 for townhouses to more than $1 million for five-bedroom, detached homes.
Ellen Swallow, who moved into a three-bedroom Shea Homes bungalow in Sendero in November, pays $100 for a six-month membership to work at the community garden and share the bounty of red peppers, Swiss chard and purple cauliflower.
"There are a number of us who signed up," Swallow, 76, said recently as she and Gloria Broming, the community's staff farmer, transplanted bunching onions. "I think as people see how it flourishes, there'll be more interest in it."
An outdoor stand selling community-farm berries, asparagus and carrots is a neighborhood gathering place at the Willowsford development, about 30 miles west of Washington, said Susan Mitchell, 33, who bought a four-bedroom Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. house in 2013 with her husband. She walks to the stand with her two sons, stopping along the way to pick flowers, pet goats and chat with the resident farmer.
"It's having a little more nature in your backyard than the normal community," Mitchell said.
More than 500 of 2,130 planned homes have sold since Willowsford opened in 2011. Two community centers have demonstration kitchens, wine tastings and culinary classes.
"We're very focused on having the economics of it work and having a real farm experience," said Brian Cullen, head of Willowsford's development team. "I think you're in the early stages of people proving that."
Business on 02/26/2015