Builders

SACRAMENTO -- To attract shoppers to new developments, some builders traditionally have given away hot dogs, soft drinks and balloons. And many have turned to more expensive enticements.Not since the last major housing recession of a decade ago, in fact, have builders cooked up a more munificent smorgasbord of freebies.Perhaps the most popular offering, according to promotions in recent weeks, has been the loan "buy-down." Builders reduce the cost of a buyer's mortgage by pre-paying -- in a lump sum -- a portion of the monthly interest, typically for one to three years.

Wings stood off to one side. The propeller lay in a carton. But the main part of Carl Kesselring's pet project was clearly recognizable as an airplane in progress. "I don't have fear of getting in an airplane," he said, standing in a hangar in Suburban Airport in Laurel surrounded by tools, parts and the remains of a bird's nest that fell through a hole in the roof. "I have confidence in my ability to make it work properly. " Kesselring's daring hobby is increasingly shared by other enthusiasts as the number of amateur-built airplanes grows every year, according to the Experimental Aircraft Association.

It is a time-honored tactic used by the powerless -- marshaling support to speak out against a proposal before a county council.But the protesters planning to make their case before the Baltimore County Council this week are not from some outraged community group battling the government. They are county homebuilders -- seen by many as the ultimate insiders, with an access to elected officials eased by years of generous campaign donations.The source of their ire is a school-related county building moratorium.

The pitch bores in low and skitters under Ian Anderson's mitt. As he chugs to retrieve the baseball, another enemy runner dashes across home plate, putting the Carver Bears more hopelessly behind. Shoulders slump around this West Baltimore diamond, lumpy and pocked with dandelions after weeks of no mowing. Harvey White, pitching his first game ever for Carver, can't find his control. And Anderson, filling in for a suspended teammate, looks like the novice he is behind the plate. But from the bench comes an animated voice, cutting through the dejection: "Good job, Ian!

Low interest rates and strong consumer demand boosted the National Association of Home Builders' Housing Market Index to its highest reading of the year, the trade group said Thursday. "With demand for housing on the upswing, and many builders grappling with a shortage of labor and building lots, home prices across much of the nation are rising," said Bruce Smith, president of the NAHB. "Homebuyers are taking note, preferring to invest in housing rather than in the declining stock market."

A restored "kit house" in Oella that originally sold for $848 and now would sell for about $160,000 was named "Project of the Year" in the Third Annual Remodeling Award of Excellence competition sponsored by the Home Builders Association of Maryland.The Oella Company, a private firm that acquired the former Dickey Mill property in western Baltimore County nearly a decade ago and has been redeveloping it for new residents, restored the kit house, called Reservoir Hill Cottage. Its owner and designer is Lisa Jensen, a project manager for the Oella Co.Made by the Aladdin Co. of Bay City, Mich.

ATLANTA -- Homebuilders have been hoping that lower interest rates and a resurgence of consumer confidence would pull their business out of the doldrums later this year.But with America at war and the economic outlook up for grabs, builders are resigned to another year of decline in 1991."The oil that drives our engine is consumer confidence," said Martin Perlman, a Houston builder who is president of the National Association of Home Builders. "There was a lack of consumer confidence before the war. If this war ends quickly, I think consumer confidence will come back very quickly."

Chateau Builders of Columbia has received an award for its sensitivity to the environment in developing The Woodlands, a townhouse and condominium community in Ellicott City.The company received a statewide Project of the Year Award in the large town house development category. The Land Development Council of the Home Builders Association of Maryland issued the award, one of nine given by the council under its Award of Excellence Program.The council announced the winners Monday at Turf Valley Country Club in Ellicott City.

In December, the registering of homebuilders and home inspectors was expected to become a reality as the General Assembly prepared for its 1999 session. Instead, the roof collapsed on bills targeting those two key consumer concerns in the real estate industry."The good news is that we will have this summer to join with the committee members, the authors of the original bill to draft a new one that we can agree on and get through next year's session," said Martin P. Azola, president of the Home Builders Association of Maryland.

Thomas P. Harkins, chairman of the board of Harkins Builders Inc. in Silver Spring and founder of the Harkins Group, composed of commercial and residential contracting companies in Silver Spring, died Tuesday of leukemia at his home in Bethesda.Mr. Harkins, 63, started his business in 1965 after a decade with Carl M. Freeman Associates, a construction and real estate firm of which he was president.He was an officer in many groups associated with the building business. He was president of the Suburban Maryland Home Builders Association and a board member of the boards of the National Association of Home Builders, Victory Housing and the Montgomery County Development Advisory Board.

Haron "Hal" Dahan, a successful self-made immigrant home builder whose philanthropic interests included educational institutions in Baltimore and Israel, died Monday from heart failure at Sinai Hospital. He was 87. "Haron was a giant. He was not just a philanthropist but he was also a decent man and friend. He was the most decent man I've ever met and the nicest guy in the world. He's major league," said Rabbi Mitchell Wohlberg of Beth Tfiloh Congregation, a longtime friend. "I never heard one bad word about him from either his personal or business life," he said.

I read with interest your article about Catonsville developer Steve Whalen Jr., who pleaded guilty to five counts of election-law violations for illegally funneling money to a Baltimore County councilman's reelection campaign ("Builder admits illegal gifts," Jan. 4). Prosecutors said Mr. Whalen exceeded the $10,000 limit on total contributions over a four-year election cycle, all in an apparent attempt to help certain politicians get elected. Yet Las Vegas billionaire Sheldon Adelson reportedly gave over $100 million to Super PACs working to defeat President Obama and get the Republican candidate elected.

J. Dennis Carper, a Baltimore County marina owner and yacht builder who was a decorated World War II veteran, died of stroke and dementia complications Dec. 25 at his Essex home. He was 91. Born near New Castle, Va., he worked on the family farm at Meadow Creek outside Roanoke. While at a church function, he met Gertrude Esther Hanks, a girl from nearby Covington who was a minister's daughter. They married in 1942. The couple lived in Virginia while he attended a school for aircraft mechanics.

The beige-plastic Wilkins-Rogers Mill is unmistakable, as are the red B&O Freight House and the purple Obladi hotel. Rendered in toy building blocks, the replicas of historic Ellicott City landmarks lend an air of authenticity to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum's newest train garden, a 360-degree, custom-built feature that is proving to be a major attraction on Main Street. "This is definitely something unique," Tom Hane, site manager at the Ellicott City Station, said of the display by the Washington Metropolitan Area Lego Train Club.

The contemporary home overlooking Weems Creek in Annapolis was packed with custom touches, thanks to its former owner, a builder. The two-acre property, at 12 Weems Creek Drive, belonged to a now-retired luxury home builder, who designed and built the four-bedroom, 41/2 -bath house in 1996. The home went on the market in January for $4.9 million and sold in October for $4.4 million. The seller had torn down the original structure, once the summer home of a Baltimore physician and his family.

A jury on Monday evening said that a national homebuilder owes $5.6 million to an Anne Arundel County condo association because their condominium complex was poorly constructed, according to the association's attorney. Following a five week trial and testimony from more than two dozen residents of the Eden Brook Condominiums in Odenton, a jury determined that Virginia-based NVR Inc., which does business as Ryan Homes, NVHomes and Fox Ridge Homes, should pay homeowners for defective construction and misrepresentations about the quality of the complex's construction, said attorney T. Allen Mott, of the Baltimore law firm Cowie & Mott.

Although builders are not fighting the extension of school impact fees, they spoke out Monday night against everything they feel is wrong with the fee system.The fees, designed to pay for school space for children of new home buyers, place too heavy a burden on developers, "stifle" their ability to provide affordable housing, and are not matched fairly by the county, said Joseph M. Perry, of the local chapter of the Home Builders Association of Maryland, to the County Council.The council appears set to approve County Executive Robert R. Neall's proposal to make builders pay school impact fees in Glen Burnie and Linthicum, Annapolis and the surrounding area, and South County.

Builders have a variety of reasons for optimism this year.Despite a bump up in recent weeks, mortgage rates still hover near their lowest levels in nearly two decades; President Bush has proposed a tax credit for first-time buyers to stimulate sales; and 1991, builders figure, was probably as bad as it could get. It was the worst year for housing starts since the end of World War II.Thus, perhaps, it isn't surprising that most of the builders who participated in...

Goodier Baker, a homebuilder based in Lutherville, has acquired six lots in Ellicott City for the construction of single-family homes that will start in the mid- to upper-$500,000s, the company announced Tuesday. The homesites, near Rogers Avenue along High Ridge Road, are each about one-half acre. Buyers there will be able to choose from three new floor plans that the company is developing. The plans range from 2,700 to 3,300 square feet, according to the company's statement. Goodier Baker plans to begin developing the sites in the next few months and expects homes can be complete by the spring of 2013.

— In a challenge to the Obama administration's efforts to jump-start the lagging restoration of the Chesapeake Bay, lawyers for farmers and homebuilders argued in federal court here Thursday that the Environmental Protection Agency overstepped its legal authority and relied on a flawed computer model in setting a pollution "diet" for the ailing estuary. Lawyers for the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Association of Home Builders, poultry and pork producers, and other farming groups argued that states in the Chesapeake watershed, not the federal government, should be in charge of deciding how and where to reduce pollution fouling the bay. They also complained that the far-reaching "diet" was rushed into place despite gaps and errors and without giving the public enough time to review and comment on it. "It will affect urban growth; it affects how agriculture land will be used," said Richard E. Schwartz, one of the industry groups' lawyers.