SAHBA celebrates 50 years

Nov. 2002

By STEVE DELGADO
Inside Tucson Business

A high-profile Arizona trade association has survived 50 years of cooperative and uncooperative governmental entities, endangered owl sightings and land use plans.

The Southern Arizona Home Builders' Association is one of the oldest groups of the area’s oldest and most prolific industries: homebuilders and their associated businesses.
Current association president Bob Storie, president of ContraVest Properties, said of today's association membership, which is 650 companies, 120 are actual builders and the balance are associate members.

"It's not just a builders' association," Storie said. "The membership includes associate members related to the business such as subcontractors, and anyone involved in the business, from the banks, to the title companies, to the utilities, to the subs and building designers," he said.

The association represents builders from the larger companies to small and medium sized custom home builders. Storie himself is an eight-year member.

"This industry is unlike the majority of industries," Storie said. "The building industry is very psychological. People buying houses are making the largest investments of their lives." Storie said such outside influences as where the house is located, where the kids are going to go to school, and how far the owners have to go to work, are all factors that are just as important in the selection of a house as is the size and what kind of floor plan it has.

"It becomes a personal perception product, and not just the sticks and bricks," he said.

Thus, it is Storie's duty as current association president to assist in setting association policy and making the industry's views known to outside entities, whether they are politically based or, more importantly, consumers of the industry.

The organization started in 1952 by Charlie Wilson, who wanted to charter a Tucson chapter of the Home Builders Association but needed 15 builders to do it.

In short order the companies assembled and met at the old El Conquistador Hotel on Broadway, now the site of the El Con Mall. The issues of the day were the introduction of framed houses, which the builders considered slipshod product because all homes at the time were masonry and plaster; the presence of unions in the industry, with some workers union and others not, leading to debates over which should work a project; and the cooperation of builders and the governmental entities of the young Tucson.

"The changes that have taken place in the building business have just been so enormous, both in the business and its slot in the community," said David Garber, owner of Garber Realty and one of the group's first associate members, getting involved with the association in the mid-1950s.

One thing local builders did back then, Garber said, is cooperative street and sewer extension arrangements with Pima County. Then called the "$1,000-a-mile" deal, builders collected money from business and landowners on each side of East 22nd Street, from Wilmot to Kolb roads, collecting approximately $500 from each side of the street.

They gave this money to the county, which would put in "double-shot penetration paving," a temporary road finishing which would keep the dust down and ease development of the surrounding property. Later the county would lay permanent paving, along with parks and sidewalks, Garber said. The deal worked so well in getting a mile of 22nd Street drivable, the same thing was done on East Golf Links Road, also between Wilmot and Kolb.

"Builders would build thousands of houses with minimal paving, no street lights and no sidewalks," Garber said. "The houses would sell for $8,950, and then it would be years later when the city or county would come in with an improvement district, where they'd put in streetlights and sewers and permanent paving. In the meantime, people got wonderful houses at wonderful prices," he said.

It was a good arrangement at the time, Garber said, and what it did was build the nucleus of the town, which people loved. "That kind of cooperation and willingness to work together we just don't see in government nowadays," he said.

Today the seventy-three-year-old Garber is a land broker, developing areas with improvements to sell to builders. He said his business has become more difficult because of governmental constraints like pygmy owls issues, which he said hinders the industry from producing modern, entry-level lots for builders to build good housing for citizens.

Storie said one of the association's ongoing goals is getting members involved in the industry that has much to do with the economic success of the Tucson area.

New residences in the Tucson area are hovering around the 7,000 homes a year, a new industry high. "The industry has changed dramatically in its dimensions … There are a lot more people in the industry now, all the employees that work for businesses in the association adds up to 35,000. That's a sizeable percentage of the working population."

Trying to get those 35,000 people to realize they have a common affinity is one of the current challenges. "Their livelihood and well being depend on a robust industry," Storie said. Members devoting more time to be proactively involved in the process, on a day-to-day basis, would help everyone in the industry.

"The homebuilding industry is the No. 1 economic contributor to Tucson," said John Strobeck, owner of Bright Future Business Consultants and associate member. "Over a billion dollars go into the local economy from homebuilders each year." Strobeck said if this infusion is compared to such entities like Davis Monthan Air Force Base, which contributes $325 million, it demonstrates the effect of homebuilding has on the economy of Tucson. "It's huge," he exclaimed.


He said the source of the steady housing growth in Tucson is simple: people like to come here. Additionally, he said the retiree market makes up about 30 percent of the new construction market. "They are going to come here, so homebuilding will be viable for the next 8-to-10 years here in Tucson, depending upon the availability of land."

"The more you set land aside, the more scarce it gets, and that will run the price of land up," Strobeck said.

Storie agreed that future land availability is one of the biggest concerns of today's home builders industry.

"In the last few years, battles have gone on concerning developments in the northwest, including the pygmy owl situation there, and a lot of the population suggesting the builders should go onto other areas of town," Storie said.

He said the biggest problem builders have is with comprehensive land-use plans like the county just passed. One of the few areas it sets aside as "developmental reserve," most people would not prefer to live there, he said. Other such areas include areas around Tucson International Airport and land between it and the Irvington power plant.

"If you started your village, you'd probably want to live where the mesquite and palo verde trees are, where there's a mountain view," he said. "Not where there are 747s going over your head."

Storie said like most businesses, home builders and their associates cater to customer needs and desires. "We're not prone to committing suicide by setting up large communities in areas that people have traditionally indicated they do not want to live," Storie said.

The monthly general membership meeting of the Southern Arizona Home Builders Association Nov. 12 will pay tribute to the 50th anniversary by introducing those association members of the past and the players of the present, many who were influential in building Tucson but have never met. The meeting, held at the Westin La Paloma, promises to cover 50 years of history in just one night.


Steve Delgado may be contacted at sdelgado@azbiz.com or (520) 294-1200, ext. 123.


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Fifty years of history at a glance

The Southern Arizona Home Builders Association is a non-profit trade association that includes home builders, developers, suppliers, trades, real estate agents, mortgage and financial services and other related products. It celebrates its 50th anniversary this month, and it has a long, illustrious history as "the voice of the industry."