There's one thing you should know right now about a Watts Group housing development: if you see a Watts sign on a new subdivision and you think maybe you'd like to live there, don't dally. Even in flat markets, Watts projects tend to sell out fast.
Take Roselans, a cluster of 23 one-acre lots that Watts carved out of the oak and cottonwoods at 6200 S. 2300 East. At an average price of $150,000 you'd think it would take some time to move those beauties, right? Not exactly. At this writing there was one lot remaining and the project's community tennis court and swimming pool aren't even finished.Or how about Oak Lane, a choice parcel of 28 lots on land once part of William Neff's Mt. Olympus nursery at 1825 East 6400 South. Buyers drove through the grove of mature oak trees sheltering the lots and said "Where do I sign?"
Compared to Roselans - named for the Rosen-blatt family that had owned the property for decades - the Oak Lane lots were practically a bargain at $70,000 to $85,000. Oak Lane sold out in nine months and the first half-dozen of the $300,000 range homes that will occupy the lots have been completed or are in various stages of construction.
If Watts' latest projects, Surrey Lane, 45 quarter-acre lots at 1550 E. Spring Lane, and Pheasant Hills, 58 half-acre lots in Draper that are now pre-selling in the $35,000 to $45,000 range, follow the trend, there will be a hundred new property owners in the Salt Lake Valley before the new decade is 2 years old.
So who are these Watts people who seem to have real estate's version of the Midas touch? Watts Group is a family affair. The patriarch is Kevin Watts who heads up the Watts Architects & Planners division of the 20-year-old firm.
Russ Watts, Kevin's son, is president of Watts Group, the umbrella firm that provides construction services for commercial, industrial, medical, retail and residential building projects all over the Mountain West.
Greg Watts, also Kevin's son, is president of Watts Properties, the division that handles marketing, finance, development and managing of apartment complexes, condominiums and commercial projects.
Other key players on the Watts team are Bob Whitney, real estate broker for the company; Melanie Christensen, marketing coordinator; and the aforementioned Bill Neff, a landscape architect Kevin terms a "landscaping genius" and who the family credits with creating some of their most beautiful projects, such as the Tall Oaks planned unit development at 6250 S. 1850 East.
The Watts Group, explains Kevin, arose from a variety of problems that confront architects, many of whom approach their work as artists but not as businessmen.
The need to understand and deal with competitive market forces, a desire to provide a "total concept" for people building their own homes, the need to control costs, and the ultra-high-quality construction standards he sought for his high-end buyers all combined in the creation of the Watts Group, Kevin said.
"Building your own house is one of the great experiences in life . . . if it's done right," he said. "If it's done wrong, it can be one of the most horrifying."
To make sure a Watts designed and built home is the former, not the latter, Kevin and the Watts team spend time getting to know the family personally - their needs, their dreams, the personal things that will help the team create a house that is uniquely that family's own.
This attention to detail comes at a price, of course. Buyers should figure on spending a minimum of $200,000 for their house, not including the lot, and the top . . . well, "there is no top," says Russ.
There is a popular belief that the high end of the real estate market that the Watts Group occupies is "recession proof," the thinking being that the wealthy go about their business in good times and bad.
This is not entirely accurate, says Kevin, but he allows that "it's almost true. Our downs are not very down and our ups are not as up."
So, is that all there is to it? Not quite. Watts projects usually manage to convey a sense of community and of neighborhood, even though the homes are all new. They also create excitement. Bob Whitney says clients tell him they just like the Watts style. "They say there is just an overall feeling that they like."
But there's nothing mystical about it, says Russ. That "overall feeling" doesn't happen by accident. It's a product of intense market research of what people want, followed by the acquisition of small but highly desirable parcels of land (easier said than done.)
Then, through the use of dramatic entries, winding roads and top-quality amenities and landscaping that take maximum advantage of each site's characteristics, the Watts Group creates projects that usually turn "lookers" into buyers.
In addition to a large number of Watts-designed and built single-family homes, other Watts projects not mentioned above include The View condominium project at Snowbird, La Mirage condo development in St. George, Royal Farms and Covewood apartment complexes in Salt Lake City and other projects both in and outside Utah.
Russ says that while the Watts Group is licensed in 14 states, "We don't ever want to be a major corporation. To be successful in this business you have to stay flexible, lean and mean, and that means staying fairly small."