ROCHESTER — People looking to build a new house in Rochester have a new option as one the largest U.S. home construction companies —
Lennar
— enters the market.
Florida-based Lennar, which has been the top home builder in Minnesota for the past 18 years, recently announced that it is marketing new home in three established Rochester housing developments — 65 sites in
The Ponds of Highland Hills,
66 sites in
Hadley Hills
and 21 in Essex Estates. All three housing developments are near north Rochester golf courses.
Home buyers can choose two-story homes with a variety of layouts with four to six bedrooms, two to five baths and three-car garages. Pricing starts in the low $500,000 range due to the cost factors of the established home sites.
In addition to building the home of the buyer’s choice, Lennar also offers related mortgage and title services. The company also has “homebuyer concierges” to answer questions, schedule closings and provide weekly updates on the status of the house construction.
Lennar has already started work on a model home in The Ponds area. The builder expects to ramp up construction and open the new housing communities in November.
A national home builder, like Lennar, is a new factor in the Rochester area, which has traditionally been served primarily by local or at least Minnesota-based firms. Lennar, the dominant home builder in Minnesota, is on track to build 2,200 Minnesota homes this year.
While Lennar builds more houses annually in the Twin Cities area than its three top competitors combined, it has never operated in Southeast Minnesota.
After years in Minnesota, what inspired Lennar to start working in the Rochester area?
“We’ve always looked at the Rochester market over the years and, for various reasons, I think builders have held off going down there. What we recognized with the
Mayo Clinic’s ($5 billion “Unbound”) investment,
just how under-built the market seems to be,” said Lennar Minnesota Division President Bill Burgess. “It’s really underserved at a lot of price points. It’s really hard to find new construction below $500,000 there, which is really a rarity. … We think we can come down there and start with buying communities or stepping into communities that have finished home sites to introduce ourselves. Once we get established, we can expand our product line to really get a more affordable price point that may not be met in the Rochester market right now.”
There has long been an outcry for more new affordable single-family houses as well as apartments and condominiums in Rochester.
The question is how will the entrance of a giant like Lennar impact the long-time local builders.
“Interest from national home builders — and there are multiple national builders interested in Rochester and surrounding communities — is a great sign Rochester is a desirable market,” wrote Rochester Area Builders Executive Director
Pat Sexton.
“For years we’ve talked about the need to build more housing. Thanks to RAB members, the Housing Coalition, City Council members and staff, and others, we believe we are moving from talk to action. More wealth-creating units are great for our community and therefore our members.”
Sexton added that his members welcome Lennar entrance into the market.
Looking to the future, Burgess said Lennar plans to follow up this first introduction to the area with more options developed by Lennar from the start.
“We’ve already got another piece of property under contract to develop. We’re looking at other pieces of property that would allow us to offer a greater product offering … a more affordable product offering,” he said.
Those future Lennar projects could happen in the communities surrounding Rochester.
Jeff Kiger writes a daily column, “Heard Around Rochester,” in addition to writing articles about local businesses, Mayo Clinic, IBM, Hormel Foods, Crenlo and others. The opinions of my employer do not necessarily reflect my opinions. He has worked in Rochester for the Post Bulletin since 1999. Send tips to jkiger@postbulletin.com or via Twitter to @whereskiger . You can call him at 507-285-7798.
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Publish date : 2024-09-25 00:58:00
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