cover story

The Best of Everything
ARBC’s newest model home features eye-catching architectural style and hurricane protection.

By Howard Shingle
Photography by Jim Robinette

In February, a new model home is scheduled to open in The Brooks community in Bonita Springs, FL. Under normal circumstances that might not be such big news, but this home is different. It is a model of safety, built to the rigorous standards of the Fortified Home program created by the Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) and in compliance with the state’s new uniform building code for a high-wind zone. And yet, contrary to the picture that might come to mind, this home doesn’t look anything at all like a bunker or bomb shelter.

In fact, the St. Lucia model features the stunning architectural style of its builder, ARBC Corp., Naples, FL, an Arthur Rutenberg franchise homebuilder known for its upscale designs focusing on great views for contemporary Florida lifestyles. The home also is a showcase for impact-resistant window technology from PGTIndustries, Venice, FL.

Todd Strausbaugh, ARBC vice president of construction, says the home is a joint effort between ARBC, PGT and IBHS, the latter wanting to make a presence in that part of the state. “We’re building a model home in one of the premier communities in southwest Florida,” Strausbaugh says, “PGT is going to showcase all of its windows in this home—impact resistance throughout the home. It’s a great opportunity to learn something about the Fortified program as well.”

The point that will be made clear to those who visit the model is that homes can be designed and built to resist the wind, water and flying debris from a hurricane without sacrificing design or style. Strausbaugh says the hurricane protection in this model will be invisible once the home is completed because it’s incorporated during construction, although he adds the IBHS program required some extra steps.

“We had to do some different things that we normally don’t do under our current [building] code that the Fortified program does recommend as part of its program, which we found rather educational,” Strausbaugh says. For instance, he says the nail spacing on the roof is a little bit tighter under the Fortified program. It’s also more specific on how the roof is sealed. “Before, we would dry-in our roof with 30-pound felt paper. Under the Fortified program, the first procedure would be to take a peel-and-stick tape, which is an adhesive membrane, that we lay over all the seams in the plywood on the roof. Then we can apply our dry-in paper on top of that. So basically, it’s just another step to provide water protection to that home. It has been a fun project.” (For more on IBHS’s “Fortified . . . for safer living,” see Hurricane Protection, Winter 2003, page 20.)

ARCHITECTURAL INTEGRITY

ARBC Corp. is one of southwest Florida’s sought-after homebuilders. It is an independently owned and operated Arthur Rutenberg Homes franchise owned by John Globetti since 1994. Before that, Globetti was a superintendent with Arthur Rutenberg Homes where he learned the homebuilding business from the ground up. ARBC was honored as the Arthur Rutenberg Homes Builder of the Year in 1999 and earned the Gold Cup award as the building company with the highest customer satisfaction rating. ARBC’s homebuilding team delivered a record 83 homes in 2001 valued at over $38 million.

Today, ARBC’s market primarily is move-up buyers purchasing their second homes in the $400,000 to million-dollar range. “Usually they are at the point in their lives where the kids have gone to college or left college; they are empty-nesters and are planning for retirement or are just entering retirement,” Strausbaugh explains.

Arthur Rutenberg is an innovator in home designs and floor plans that have become synonymous with Florida lifestyles. Coming originally from Minnesota, it’s something Strausbaugh picked up on immediately. “Homes in Florida really differ so much from up north,” he says. “The one thing that I found initially when I first moved to Florida was the split floor plan, which I saw here before I saw it anywhere else. It has been around for quite some time in Florida.

“The homes in Florida are primarily designed to wrap around the pool area. The master suite, the living room, the leisure room, the morning room or breakfast area, and sometimes the kitchen all envelop that pool area so you have a sense of opening to that space. The homes are much more open, lots more glass than the traditional home. We do a lot more volume ceilings—12- to 14-foot ceilings that are very detailed.”

These are the types of homes ARBC has been known for in Collier and Lee counties and maintaining that architectural integrity was paramount when the state’s new building code took effect in March. Given the option of providing opening protection or designing to withstand the internal pressure changes that occur during a hurricane, ARBC decided the internal pressure option was not for them. “Frankly, we have not elected to go that route, just by virtue of that by designing to internal pressures your design is compromised. The architectural integrity is compromised because of the window sizes. All the theories that go into designing to internal pressures certainly limit what you can do with windows and doors, and we didn’t want to limit ourselves from a design standpoint,” says Strausbaugh.

ADDING MARKETABLE VALUE

Florida homebuilders were very aware of the code changes as they were being proposed and implemented, and many were concerned about the effects they would have on sales. “When the new code came about, we initially thought we really would be building bomb shelters in a sense,” Strausbaugh confides. “From a builder’s standpoint, obviously, you think of increasing your costs and sales are going to go down as you start to eliminate people from your market. That has been the case to some degree.”

What’s more, Strausbaugh says, the effects of the new code reach beyond the construction stage. “Before, in Collier County we did not, from a residential standpoint, have to have our plans stamped and sealed by an engineer. Now every set of plans for any residential home has to be stamped and sealed by an engineer or architect. That, obviously, has changed the speed of which we can permit a home. We’ve pretty much doubled our permitting process—or what we call or pre-start process—timeframe. That’s really lengthened.”

And for builders, there is no getting around the issue of increased costs. “Of course, adding the cost of the professional stamp or seal on the plans adds to it, and there’s the construction issue. We now have to provide opening protection throughout the entire home whether it be a door or a window, and that has been probably the biggest, substantial change that the consumer will notice. We are using a combination of impact-resistant glass with storm panels and steel doors—in many cases in lieu of a door that had decorative glass inserts. If we do want to go the decorative route, then we have to provide a door that’s either certified for impact resistance or it has to be storm paneled.”

The development of impact-resistant windows gave ARBC the ability to maintain its home designs, which was crucial. “PGT was one of the first ones on the market with impact-resistance glass, and they’ve been able to keep up with the architectural values of our homes so we haven’t had to degrade the look. From that standpoint, nothing has changed. We still offer the same look of the home that we offered prior to the code change. That has been a big plus.”

Building homes with the same look and design as before, and offering options for window and door protection, has relieved many of the sales concerns for ARBC, which has maintained the same sales volume this year as last year. “We definitely knew that we were going to see an increased cost difference and, like anything else, it depended on to what extreme we were going,” Strausbaugh says.

“The impact resistant glass is certainly an expensive option, but it affords you to maintain architectural integrity. If the home is a beautiful home, you’re not going to hinder your sale. We’ve elected to pay more for the impact resistant glass for the front of our homes as standard and on the sides and the rear of the homes optionally and use storm panels typically on those applications to control the cost. The storm panels themselves are not inexpensive, either. It’s a happy mix of both to try to keep the price point at an acceptable level.

“Of course, this is just one facet of the hurricane protection—probably the most obvious one of all the facets, but we’ve had to do things structurally in the home different as well: to the foundation and roof and the truss design system, wind loads increased from 120 mph to 130 mph and that changed the uplift and we’ve had to change nail pattern spacing and things like that.

“A lot of little things have really added up. To say what the actual percentage increase has been—we haven’t done a specific study on that—we’ve just been implementing it over the last year or so.

“When you’re in the market range that we are—that $400,000 to million-dollar market—let’s just say you add five percent to the price of that home through that additional cost. Take that five percent on a $400,000 home, is that going to be the point in which those people usually cannot afford it? Not usually.”

Are homebuyers aware of the need for hurricane protection? “If somebody has lived in the area, they’re certainly aware of that. If somebody has just come down to the area, just retired and have come down to do some house hunting, they may or may not be aware of that. As they shop around with different builders usually the builders educate them on the components of the home and how it’s constructed and what are the options for protection on that home.”

Strausbaugh adds, “The hurricane protection that we provide for our openings is an added plus. It’s definitely something that benefits the consumer.” Does that mean hurricane protection is a marketable added value to new homes?

“Yes, I think it is, especially for people who are moving into the area who traditionally were not in a hurricane-prone area. If people were moving from the Midwest, or Tornado Alley, that’s about the worse it gets. But a hurricane can be a combination of things. It can include tornadoes, you can have high winds in excess of 150 mph; you can have storm surges. So you have a number of issues rather than just a tornado. So from that standpoint, it gives people a sense of protection—they’re not going have objects flying through the windows—and that sense of security is definitely a bonus.”