< back to News Articles |
News Articles">
Olympia builder takes green to Washington shores
Published 4/16/2007
Kamilla K. McClelland
Business Examiner
Casey Roloff swore to himself after going through the arduous task of building his own home that he would never do that again.
Now, the 34-year-old Roloff finds himself undergoing the development of a 1,200-unit coastal community called Seabrook located north of Ocean Shores near Moclips.
What changed for the Vancouver native who now lives in Olympia? A realization that as long as you follow your passion, you can make almost any business work.
“I’ve learned that, if you dig a little deeper than the next guy, you will find opportunities others didn’t see,” said the founder and head of Seabrook Land Co., the Pacific Beach company that is building Seabrook as another example of urbanism in a rural area.
Roloff, like a few other developers who have built communities around the country, found his inspiration in Seaside, Fla., the first major example of an urbanism movement by founder Robert Davis.
Tired of urban sprawl and its reliance on cars, Davis founded his new town on 81 acres that led the way for similar developments across the country. These developments were based on the idea of the five-minute walk, where people should be able to find what they need to live a stroll around their residence.
Although Seaside was founded decades ago, Roloff sees even more of a need for similar developments in today’s housing market.
“We’re not only facing an energy crisis,” he said of the rising energy costs that encourage the use of less gasoline. “It’s a lifestyle choice.”
Roloff wasn’t always interested in urbanism. As a University of Puget Sound student a decade ago, his concern used to be just trying to make ends meet. That didn’t change when he worked as a residential painter and then as a real estate broker for a Windermere office in Tacoma.
“I really enjoyed meeting first-time home buyers,” he recalled. “People didn’t believe they could buy houses. It was a real revelation for me.”
In 1996, he moved with his wife Laura to Lincoln City, Ore., where he fell in love with the older homes built in the early 1900s style.
“There’s a comforting feeling people get when they see this type of architecture,” Roloff said. “People are refreshed by nostalgia.”
He built his first home in a Northwest vernacular style, a three-bedroom, 1,600-square-foot home in Lincoln City. But at the time, his focus was on making money buying and re-selling land, while continuing to paint houses.
“I doubled my money on three opportunities,” he said of his land investments.
Roloff’s first deal was taking out a $500 option to buy a piece of land that had been on the market for 10 years.
“At the time, I didn’t have $500,” he said. “My friend and I each put up $250. The people that owned it were about to give it away to the Shriners and I gave them full price of $90,000 for 12 acres.”
But when he looked into getting the property surveyed, it carried a price of $15,000.
“We decided we were out of that game,” he recalled.
So, the couple placed calls to 150 of 180 land developers in their phone book and faxed them an ad noting the property was for sale. The advertisement asked $200,000 for the property, which could accommodate up to 54 single-family residences. It took them a whole day to get the information out. Then they waited.
“It was real quiet for awhile,” he said. “Then, all of a sudden we got a fax back that said we were trying to call you, but your phone number on the fax was wrong.”
Soon, Roloff learned he had three offers, with buyers scrambling to buy at the offered price. Although successful with that and several subsequent real estate deals, the land market softened soon thereafter. Roloff decided he needed to build homes on properties in order to sell them. Between 1998 and 2000, he built 25 custom homes.
“I didn’t make a penny on the homes,” he said. “Where I made money was on the land. I got super happy customers for a super low price.”
Having fallen in love with urbanism as a concept, Roloff’s next development was Bella Beach, a 9
< back to News Articles |
