Centex Homes, one of the largest homebuilding companies in the United States, has established a new point of contact on the eastern shore — in downtown Dagsboro.
Special to the Coastal Point • SAM HARVEY:
Marketing manager Angela Urban, left, and division manager Karin Silver in the Dagsboro office.
They’re in temporary, if tastefully furnished, quarters at present, just south of Clayton Street, between Mediacom and Royal Farms.
Centex employees have taken up residence in a triple modular office, but only until Mike Cummings (Ocean View-based MIKEN Builders) and partners can construct the new professional plaza slated for that site.
Once the project is complete they’ll have a 20,000-square-foot facility, complete with a 4,000-square-foot design center, according to Marketing Manager Angela Urban.
In the six years since Centex first arrived on the eastern shore, Division Manager Karin Silver said they’d built up a staff of nearly 50 employees. There are already 17 people working at the Dagsboro location, and as Urban pointed out, they’re already looking to hire additional staff.
Understandably — Centex has a fair few irons in the fire, between Berlin and Ocean City (Md.) and Rehoboth Beach.
• Ellis Point (north of Clarksville) — on the Indian River Bay, from the $700s.
• Decatur Farm (Berlin) – single-families in the $300s, townhouses in the $200s.
• GlenRiddle (Berlin) — gated golf course community, prices range from the $400s for condos to the $600s for single-families.
• Seaside Village (Ocean City) — townhouses with views of the city across the bay, $500s to $700s.
• The Parke at Ocean Pines (Berlin) — an Active Adult Community, from the upper $300s, (very few still unsold).
And they’ll open sales at another four locations in 2006, including Seagrass Plantation (north of Clarksville, single family homes) and Barrington Park (south side of Millville, single-families and townhouses).
Urban said she loved the area, and indicated many others seemed to feel the same way. She said Centex sold a lot of homes to people who’d vacationed in the area as kids.
In addition, there were the retiring Baby Boomers, and for the higher-end developments, people who were buying second homes with the intention of retiring some day, but using their places as a beach retreats for the time being.
They’re doing a brisk business, serving all those demographics. Urban said she’d been the company’s first employee on the eastern shore, six years ago, and they’d sold nearly 500 homes at the community near Ocean Pines since then, with strong activity at the other four as well.
Silver agreed they were big. “But that can be good,” she said. “The company’s financial strength means better job stability for the employees.
“For the homes we’re building — they’ll all need furniture, they’ll need televisions and appliances, the people who move into them are going to be shopping at local stores and going out to dinner at local restaurants,” she pointed out.
As Urban added, the company’s size also creates an opportunity for “one-stop” home building, from mortgage financing through accent design. Centex encompasses CTX Mortgage and Commerce Title Company as part of its homebuilding operations.
Silver said the design center could provide an option to riding the countryside, visiting different materials contractors, and she expected they’d be hiring additional employees as that part of the business grew.
For information about career opportunities with Centex Homes, visit www.centexhomes.com. There are links to additional information about all the local Centex communities on that site as well, or visit www.centexontheshore.com, or call toll-free, (877) 682-3700.