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"Pave paradise and put up a parking lot" just doesn't cut it with today's homebuyers.
Increasingly, builders are stepping in to bridge the gap between construction site and community with special events designed to bring new neighbours together. When builders host these events, they build more than houses: They cultivate a sense of neighbourhood, establish relationships and friendships and create a place people can call home.
Take, for example, Geranium Homes' recent Neighbourhoods in Bloom event at its Cardinal Point development in Stouffville, Ont. The builder invited homeowners to the local park and gave them $150 in "Geranium Dollars" with which to purchase their choice of annuals, perennials, shrubs and hanging baskets. They paired that with on-site advice and expertise from local garden centre staff and followed up with an afternoon barbecue. An early morning rainstorm did nothing to dampen homeowners' enthusiasm; they turned out with wheelbarrows and wagons and proceeded to plant up a storm.
"It's a great way to pull people together. Everyone around you, they're all your neighbours," homeowner Ken Mineault says.
Empire Communities, a noted builder of sustainable communities, put their own green spin on a similar affair.
Heathwood Homes gave homeowner Sara Afonso and her family their first taste of community events before they even moved into the Traditions development in Milton: at AutumnFest, a barbecue and family day at the local park.
"That's where we actually met a lot of our neighbours," Afonso says.