M/I Homes plans Tega Cay-area subdivision

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Updated at 5:34 p.m. February 5, 2013

TEGA CAY — After seeing a proposed new subdivision voted down last month in Huntersville, M/I Homes has turned its new self-development push south and west to unincorporated York County near Tega Cay, an official with the Columbus, Ohio-based homebuilding giant said Tuesday.

The announcement of the new Hawk’s Creek development, where the Charlotte division of M/I will subdivide 71 acres into 159 lots, marks the first time the production homebuilder has taken on a new role as developer, part of a broader strategy to deal with an increasing shortage of already-developed lots in desirable areas.

In a side note, Tamara Lynch, M/I Charlotte vice president of sales and marketing, said her company would also expand into the existing subdivision of Huntington Forest in southwest Charlotte. Huntington Forest, like the city of Tega Cay, is in a popular residential area near Lake Wylie.

In the Hawk’s Creek move, M/I is transitioning from builder-only to developer-builder, a move that is expected by observers to be followed by other big builders.

“They’re going to be self-developing for the next 18 to 24 months,” said Bill Miley, Charlotte director of Metrostudy, a Houston-based housing-analytics firm. “They’re hiring people to find land.”

That’s because, Miley said, “Class A” developed lots — lots in subdivisions with a strong sales history — are beyond being in demand; they’re on the endangered species list.

That’s especially true in Mecklenburg County, which is fast approaching being completely built out. The most desirable lots in the county are down to a 22-month supply, said Miley, adding that a 28- to 32-month supply is considered “equilibrium.”

So not only will big builders like M/I — which built more homes in the county than any other last year — be getting into the development business, it’ll be doing it largely in areas just outside Mecklenburg County, or in the few parts of the county still undeveloped, such as south Huntersville and the unincorporated areas of northeast Meck.

“Hawk’s Creek is the first one we’re self-developing,” Lynch said Tuesday, implying more will be revealed later in the year.

But Hawk’s Creek is not the first attempt by M/I to develop a subdivision in the Charlotte area.

In January, after a months-long struggle to please neighbors protesting a slight, proposed increase in density over the surround housing developments, M/I lost a battle to win approval for the Avery Park subdivision from the Huntersville Board of Commissioners. Because of the protests, M/I needed a 5-1 supermajority and achieved only a 3-3 tie.

And M/I was thwarted last year in an attempt to develop its own subdivision in the Union County town of Stallings after another drawn-out and, in that case, recrimination-filled skirmish with neighbors and local government entities.

M/I will celebrate Hawk’s Creek, which has been approved by York County, by unveiling a new line of homes there that are still on the drawing boards at the company’s Columbus headquarters, Lynch said.

One of the “villages” of the subdivision will be ranch or “ranch-plus” homes specifically designed for older, but not necessarily retired, adults without children, though “we think they’ll also appeal to families,” Lynch said. Ranch-plus means homes that have living and kitchen areas and bedrooms on the first floor and bonus space, such as a game room or a guest room, on the second level.

The Hawk’s Creek homes will be from two M/I style “collections.” In general, they will have three to five bedrooms, two to four baths and 2,000 to 3,000 square feet of heated space. A price range was not included in M/I’s announcement. Amenities include a pool with a cabana.

Also Tuesday, M/I said it has bought 59 acres still under development in the Huntington Forest community, where Monroe-based True Homes has constructed residences.

M/I bought out an entire phase of the development, which was started in the early 2000s during the housing boom and abandoned by McCar Homes, which went out of business during the bust — though the other phases were built out, Lynch said.

M/I’s Huntington Forest homes will run from 2,300 to 4,000 square feet and have three to six bedrooms and two to 2.5 bathrooms.

Prices in both subdivisions have not been set.

Tony Brown can be reached at [email protected], (704) 247-2912 or on Twitter at @tonymecktimes.