Page 20 - Green Builder May-June 2020 Issue

BY MATT POWER, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF,
WITH INTERVIEW CONTENT FROM RON JONES,
SARA GUTTERMAN, ALAN NADITZ AND CATI O’KEEFE
ADDITIONAL CONTENT FROM EEBA WEBINAR PANEL DISCUSSIONS

O HEAR SOME OF THE NATION’S most-progressive and sophisticated builders
talk about the COVID-19 economic meltdown is to take heart. The party’s not
over, as far as they’re concerned—not even close.
Are they right? Do they know something their less successful peers do not?
Yes, in all likelihood, they do.
That’s because top tier builders are used to fighting for their economic lives.
They’ve ridden out recessions, housing bubbles, market adjustments, housing
moratoriums, code changes and more. They’re not your run-of-the-mill small
contractor, with a company lifespan of three years.
Our talks so far with the industry find that high-performance firms been
proactive since the COVID-19 crisis first appeared. They didn’t dawdle, the way
government officials did.
“We immediately harkened back to prior crises,” Gene Myers of Thrive Homes
in Denver said while speaking to building pros during an EEBA webinar on
April 7. “I remember navigating through 9/11. We immediately started focusing
on cash preservation. For a small builder, that is the No. 1 strategy. We started
right away looking at across-the-board pay cuts, deferring land deals.”

14 GREEN BUILDER May/June 2020 www.greenbuildermedia.com

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