Cooper Homes Launches New Designs for Prospective Buyers

Dan Cooper says he wasn’t initially thrilled to hear plans from his cousin, John Cooper Jr., for restructuring Cooper Communities Inc.

At the time, Dan Cooper was president of Tellico, Cooper’s Tennessee village, located near the beautiful Smokey Mountains, and he was convinced he had the best job in the world. CEO John Cooper Jr.’s new plans did away with the individual village presidencies, positions that required the holders to be knowledgeable about all aspects of planned community development and operations.

Two years later, Dan Cooper is preparing to lead the subsidiary he now heads, Cooper Homes Inc., down a new path, a move that the company hopes will lead it to new heights. And Cooper says of his cousin, “John was right again.”

Dan Cooper, president of Cooper Homes, says his division brought $47 million into the privately owned Cooper Communities last year, making it the biggest revenue-producing subsidiary in the company. Margins are leaner than in some other divisions, however, so the home-building subsidiary isn’t necessarily the most profitable, he explains.

Cooper, which constructed 380 homes in 1998, consistently leads the state of Arkansas in the number of homes built. It ranks among the largest 300 home-building companies in the nation, Dan Cooper says. But there’s still room for growth, and Cooper believes the company can move up in its national ranking.

“We think we have the opportunity to move up in the next few years,” he notes.

One way the subsidiary hopes to spur that growth is by offering potential home buyers several basic floor plans. The houses will still be customized because customers will have a variety of options — from number of bedrooms to interior design — from which to choose.

“The research we get from the industry is that people want choices but they want the [home-building] process to be simplified,” Dan Cooper says.

That’s exactly what Cooper Home’s new plans are designed to do: Simplify the process while still giving customers numerous options from which to choose.

In drawing up those designs, Cooper sought outside help from several experts. Those outside consultants include The Miller Group of Denver; The Don Evans Group, an Orlando, Fla., architect firm; and Kay Green, an interior designer.

Pricing is still being determined on the various plans, but Dan Cooper says the company hopes to focus on homes priced at $100,000 and higher. Of the 380 houses the company built in 1998, about half were priced at $100,000 or less, he says.

The houses will range in size from 1,500 SF to more than 2,000 SF.

Opportunity inside and out

Cooper Homes may also spur its activity by venturing outside the villages of Cooper Communities, Dan Cooper says, although he notes that plenty of opportunity remains within the villages.

The two Arkansas developments, Bella Vista and Hot Springs Village, are the largest of Cooper’s planned communities at around 30,000 and 25,000 acres respectively. Although the majority of those lots are sold, many haven’t been built on yet.

As of July 31, Cooper Communities reported that 37,697 of its 38,113 Bella Vista lots had been sold while just 416 hadn’t been purchased. About 20 percent — 19.83 percent, to be precise — have homes on them.

Because Cooper Communities has traditionally marketed its planned communities as retirement havens, many purchasers buy their lots several years before retirement. Dan Cooper says a higher percentage of Savannah Lakes property buyers indicated they were interested in building within five years than in the other villages. But Savannah Lakes is considerably smaller than either Bella Vista or Hot Springs Village.

Even without homes on their lots, property owners are entitled to use the village amenities, including golf courses and swimming pools, in exchange for their monthly fee assessment. At Bella Vista, the monthly charge is just $14 while Tellico property owners pay $67 a month. Even the higher charge is less than that of most country clubs, Cooper says, making the communities a bargain for many.

“It’s a tremendous value,” Cooper says. “We intend to capitalize on what we have to offer.”

Cooper Communities has been involved in building almost since the company was founded in 1954, Cooper says. Cooper Homes has about 85 employees but most of the construction work is done by subcontractors, some of whom have been working with Cooper Communities for 20 years, Dan Cooper says.

To show what it can do, Cooper Homes plans to build three “spec homes” for its Model Center. One will be used as office space but the other two will be fully decorated to give potential buyers ideas about what they can select. The houses will be built this summer near the intersection of U.S. Highway 71 and Riordan Road.