Pagnozzi Swings Upscale Hammer Building Homes in Region

Tom Pagnozzi spends as much time at the hardware store as he does the baseball park these days.
The former Arkansas Razorbacks and St. Louis Cardinals catcher has formed Pagnozzi Properties LLC and is an equal partner with his brother-in-law, Norm Wilcoxin. They’ve built custom homes in the $600,000 to $2 million range in east Fayetteville.
Even with no advertising, Pagnozzi Properties recently broke ground on its ninth home since incorporating in June 2003.
“We don’t want to get too big,” Pagnozzi said. “We just want to build about four or five homes a year, depending on the size. If you get too many going, you’re spread too thin and the quality drops.
“We want to keep our quality and our niche right where it’s at.”
Pagnozzi still bleeds baseball. He has been active in resurrecting Fayetteville’s youth baseball league at Walker Park and watches most Razorbacks home games from his suite above the third base line.
In between, he focuses on financing, business development and handling any issues with the city for the construction company.
Wilcoxin brings a wealth of experience from building homes in Scottsdale, Ariz. He started as a laborer in 1986 and by the mid-1990s, he was building $500,000 tract homes that ranged from 3,500 SF to 4,800 SF.
At one point, he had as many as 34 homes under construction. That’s one reason Pagnozzi Properties doesn’t want to advertise.
“In custom homes, you are always running into details on the plans,” Wilcoxin said. “When there’s always someone there to make sure things go right, it can be addressed right away and I think you can get a house done quicker.”
In 1998, Wilcoxin joined the custom home division of Phoenix-based Kitchell Corp., and started tackling more lucrative projects. He built two homes in the 10,000-SF range valued between $2.4 and $2.7 million and spent two months working on a 38,000-SF home that included a 1,400-SF walk-in closet.
In Arizona, Wilcoxin’s homes were tabbed “single-family resorts” and that reputation is starting to get around Northwest Arkansas as well.
“We’ve built three spec houses that we customized and two sold without even being put on the market,” Wilcoxin said. “Buyers just walked up while we were building and made offers before we were even finished.”
Highlights of a typical Pagnozzi Properties home are intercom systems, security systems, trash compactors, central vacuum systems, Wolf stoves, oversized garages, tiled bath tubs and side-by-side Sub-Zero Refrigerators. There also are immaculate custom cabinets handmade by Kitchen Distributors Inc. of Fayetteville and lots of things not seen, such as eco-friendly Biobased insulation encapsulating the home.
Of course, everything is approved by the owner first. After spending time in homes of many famous folks during his career, Pagnozzi usually has plenty of other ideas as well. “I’ve seen a lot of different homes and a lot of different things that someone may have never even heard of doing,” Pagnozzi said. “There are amenities some folks have that others don’t even realize are available to them, but they are now.”