Impresa Homes recently signed an agreement to be an approved homebuilder in Savannah Lakes Village in McCormick County, and SLV Chief Operating Officer Kirk Smith said the modular homebuilder will add to the “architectural diversity” of the community while improving the village’s ability to attract an array of buyers.
“SLV has a mix of architectural styles within the community across our 1,400 existing homes,” Smith said. “Architectural diversity is important to our community as an alternative to the similar-styled track homes of other large-scale communities.”
Smith said the marketplace is increasingly demanding turnkey land/home packages.
“These plans will be a great addition to our portfolio of other high-quality home plans being offered by our existing homebuilders,” Smith said.
The home plans will be scattered across the remaining 3,500-plus homesites but will focus on areas where the topography allows for Impresa’s system for walkout basements.
“These are some of our most beautiful homesites and areas of the community, but have historically been the most difficult areas/home sites to build,” Smith said.
This agreement with Impresa calls for construction of 100-plus homes per year for the foreseeable future.
“There is tremendous demand for SLV right now,” Smith said. “We cannot build enough homes to meet current demand.”
Out of nearly 1,400 homes in the village, SLV has had fewer than 10 pre-existing homes on the market at any given time for the past year, and demand is expected to continue with an even greater marketing investment heading into 2022, Smith said.
Impresa recently announced the launch of its flagship modular-production facility in Greenwood. The facility will serve the SLV community and others across the Southeast.
“We are thrilled to have our new manufacturing facility so close to Savannah Lakes Village,” Impresa Homes President Ken Semler said. “We look forward to partnering with the developer and community to bring the next level of homebuilding technology to such a wonderful, established community.”
Savannah Lakes Village is a recreation-inspired lakefront community located at the confluence of the Freshwater Coast region and 71,000-acre Lake Thurmond. SLV is a 5,000-lot master-planned community with two championship golf courses, restaurants, a 23,000-square-foot recreation center with tennis, pickleball, indoor and outdoor pools, a bowling alley, a fitness center and more. SLV has more than 3,000 developed lots available for home construction.
With home components built offsite in an indoor facility, there is an expectation that there will be reduced reliance and construction delays because of the limited subcontractor workforce in the Lakelands region — and it is expected to reduce the number of active construction days onsite and reduce the amount of construction time from site preparation to occupancy.
“We are thankful to be partnering with Impresa in this development to bring much-needed product to market,” said Jim Walsh, CEO of SLV Windfall Group. “I am a firm believer in Impresa’s quality products and processes and couldn’t be more thrilled to have their factory just down the road in Greenwood to support our partnership.”
Smith said the homes meet standards for approval by SLV’s Architectural Control Committee.
“SLV has high architectural rules and regulation standards,” Smith said. “The home plans that Impresa Homes have submitted for review and approval all meet and exceed existing architectural rules. No changes have been made to accommodate the builder.”
Smith said the response from the community has been “very positive and welcoming.” He said offsite construction will bring benefits in less disruption to neighboring properties and a shorter start-to-finish timeline. The growth also brings new revenues to support capital funding for improvements and future expansions to SLV amenities, Smith said.
“We are targeting active adults from their late 30s to late 60s who enjoy our mix of golf, lake, social and wellness amenities, many of whom are now able to work from home and enjoy the benefits of our fiber-optic network,” Smith said. “Geographically, SLV’s traditional markets of the Northeast, Midwest, West Coast and Florida continue to be the main sources of origin; however, the community is being effectively marketed on a national level.”
Smith said the new home plans, which are specifically designed for the current market, “provide another option for new buyers to begin enjoying the healthy and socially engaging lifestyle that SLV is designed to deliver.”