SUN CITY – Pulte Group’s slow-moving build-out efforts are becoming a very big deal to a lot of people at Sun City, and a lot of it has nothing to do with selling home sites.
Home sale activities, very quiet in recent months as the economy slogs along in low gear, suddenly got revved up a bit last week. Pulte Group officials announced they will vacate the sales office in Prairie Lodge in December and relocate it to a nearby model home. The reasons? Reduce expenses and to achieve a more efficient economy of scale in sales operations. The move will clear the way for renovation of the center for use by Sun City charter clubs.
“We plan to finish the move by December 10, weather permitting,” said Karen Palmer, sales associate. “But it may take until the first of January.”
“This will permit our sales staff to work more efficiently and reduce our costs somewhat,” said Lauren Deane, marketing manager for Pulte Group. “By the end of December, we plan to complete the relocation into a Buckingham model in the model park, behind Prairie Lodge. It can be accessed from Brookside Court off Farm Hill Drive.”
The announcement undoubtedly perked up the ears of many charter groups, which have been planning for several years to use the renovated space in the center for storage and activities. Preliminary architectural plans are in place, and the groups have been waiting anxiously for Pulte to sell off the remaining lots and turn over the sales space to the Sun City Community Association Management (CAM) board. “We’ll have to get busy soon,” one charter club official said this week, referring to the need to speed-up the renovation project.
“Believe me, we are anxious to sell out the remaining homes,” said Deane. “As of October 31, we had 49 sites available, a few with foundations on them, but most vacant. We have scaled down our sales staff to three people: Christine Kemper, Karen Palmer, and John Hudson. We are marketing our sites in area newspapers, online, and publishing public-relations stories about the lifestyle in Huntley, promoting upcoming events in the lodges, and using TV and radio advertising. Local realtors are also made aware of the location and details of our available sites.”
“The economy has definitely slowed our sales and delayed our build-out completion,” she said. “We still see a lot of interest in Sun City by potential buyers, but the problem now is that many of them do not choose to or cannot make a decision to buy here until they sell their existing homes. And that is taking them more and more time these days. Interest in Del Webb and in the Sun City lifestyle remains strong.”
The Pulte build-out was originally scheduled to be completed in 2007 or 2008.
Availability of the sales staff has not been scaled back, she added. “The center is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week.” And sales staffers are enthusiastic. Their voicemails say, “Welcome to fabulous Sun City,” or “Sun City, the greatest place to live in the Midwest.”
“Most of the remaining homes are in Neighborhood 35, which contains manor homes,” Deane said. “This is great because they are ‘view’ sites and are located close to both lodges. We have only three left in Neighborhood 33 (classic homes) on the east side of Sun City Blvd., and one left in Neighborhood 41 on the far western edge of the subdivision.”
When the build-out is complete, Sun City, the first four-season retirement community by Del Webb in the nation, will have about 5,500 dwelling units, ranging from condos and townhomes to single-family detached homes.
