Murray Homes' Resolute model in The Lake Club at Lakewood Ranch is featured on the master-planned community's 2015 Tour of Homes. Staff photo / Harold Bubil; 10-19-2015.
Steve Murray of Murray Homes, which is headquartered in a midcentury modern building by architect Victor Lundy in downtown Sarasota, has a serious lean toward modernism in his home designs. It is evident in the Resolute model in Staysail Court, an enclave of nine lots in The Lake Club. Murray Homes bought the entire street from SMR Communities, and is now building the Intrepid model to continue its theme of naming the model houses after sailboats that won the America's Cup.
A gallery of photos can be seen by clicking here
Don’t look for any glued-on manufactured stone. The Resolute has the sleek lines of a yacht, including dark wood accents that bring to mind the rigging. Inside, it is one of the smaller Lake Club models at 3,984 square feet, and is priced at $1.975 million, but it feels much larger, thanks to the long sight lines between spaces. Those were intentional.
“People are receptive to the style and the general direction of the architecture,” Murray said. “People are pretty much over the Tuscan-cum-Mediterranean look and are looking for the next direction. I believe the coastal style, particularly the West Indies, is where people are looking. They are seeing how it translates to how they live.”
The living room of Murray Homes' Resolute model in The Lake Club at Lakewood Ranch. The house is featured on the 2015 Lakewood Ranch Tour of Homes. Staff photo / Harold Bubil; 10-19-2015.
Murray refined the style as his company built about 120 houses on or near the waterfront in recent years, he said.
“We were approached by the developers about coming into the Lakewood Ranch family,” Murray said. “They wanted a slightly higher-end builder bringing some new thoughts and new ways of doing things, but also a custom experience. When you derive your product from a production standpoint, it is entirely different from listening to 16 years of customers who are saying, ‘This is what I want.’
“We took that experience and applied it to what should we do. Where is the market going? In the past 15 houses, what has been hot in kitchens, bathrooms and styles, and house sizes?”
Todd Johnston Homes' Floridia model in The Lake Club at Lakewood Ranch is featured on the master-planned community's 2015 Tour of Homes. Staff photo / Harold Bubil; 10-19-2015.
After surveying its customer database, Murray Homes presented its findings to Lakewood Ranch’s management team. “Here is what our proposed house looks like,” Murray told them. “They turned around and said, ‘It absolutely mirrors what our market research shows, so do what you want to do, because it reflects what we said.’ We did a lot of listening.”
“We wanted to do some segmentation, create an enclave,” said Jimmy Stewart, Lakewood Ranch's director of sales. “Specialty marketing, if you will. We review all the plans, and it has been so heavy, heavy Mediterranean, and now we are seeing a slight change in the market. I have more West Indies-influence under construction right now than we have had.”
“We took our time making sure we did the right thing, making sure the design was right, the thinking was right, the finish was right. As much as everyone wants to rush, rush, rush, we realized that getting it wrong was more costly than getting it right. We took a lot of time to get it right.”
The kitchen's island prep counter does double duty as a breaklfast table in Arthur Rutenberg Homes' Almeria model in The Lake Club at Lakewood Ranch. Staff photo / Harold Bubil; 10-19-2015.
Murray echoes the observation of other Lake Club builders that a lot of home-tour “traffic” — more than 90 visitors on the opening days of the tour last weekend — is coming from people who already live in Lakewood Ranch. “They are seeing our contemporary, coastal style, and they get it.”
Some other Murray clients are looking east and seeing value because of the lower lot costs.
“You can get a lot more for your money in terms of structure” in the eastern subdivisions, Murray said. “You are going to pay $2 million for a waterfront lot and then are controlled as to how much of a structure you can build. Out here, you are going to pay a lot less for the land and can spend the money on how you live. We are seeing those individuals put their thinking behind livability rather than location.”
The Lakewood Ranch Tour of Homes features 32 models by 14 builders, along with a long list of other events each day. Tour books are available at the information centers and in the models. Tour information is online at LakewoodRanch.com/Tour-of-Homes.
