Texas builder breaks ground on first Florida home in Brooksville
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: May 22, 2024

Texas homebuilder Perry Homes will break ground on its first Florida property on Wednesday.

Houston-based Perry Homes’ first Florida home is in Southern Hills, a Pete Dye golf course-anchored residential community in Brooksville. Jacksonville-based GreenPointe Holdings LLC is the developer of Southern Hills, which has 1,400 single-family home sites and 300 multifamily units. Perry Homes’ Florida expansion is its first outside of Texas in its 57-year history.

In February, Perry Homes said it would have a presence in Southern Hills as well as Berry Bay in Wimauma and communities in Orlando, Jacksonville and Southwest Florida. On Wednesday, the builder revealed it would also enter its first Orlando-area community: Waterlin, with Wheelock Communities and Gentry Land, as well as Parrish Lakes in Manatee County and Glynlea in Port St. Lucie.

Chris Little, president of Perry Homes, told the Tampa Bay Business Journal that the builder targets move-up buyers and prefers to buy finished lots for developers rather than purchase raw land.

“The market in Florida is strong and extremely competitive, and we knew that coming in,” Little said. We’re really excited about some of the partnerships we’re creating with developers. We’re certainly not competing with developers for land; we’d rather see them get ahold of it and put a master-planned community there.”

The developers Perry Homes has partnered with so far — GreenPointe, and Tampa-based Metro Development Group and Eisenhower Property Group — all have a statewide footprint, and Little said the builder hopes to leverage those relationships as it expands across Florida.

“We appreciate our relationship with Perry Homes, and we are thrilled to see their expansion in Florida begin at Southern Hills,” Grady Miars, president and chief operating officer of GreenPointe Holdings, said in a statement. “Perry Homes is a perfect choice to join our premier builder team that offers beautifully crafted home designs to meet the needs and lifestyles of all families. Southern Hills is the area’s leading club community, and we are confident that their homebuyers will enjoy our one-of-a-kind lifestyle.”