Taylor Woodrow Goes For The Green

Tampa Bay Business Journal - 9:39 AM EDT Wednesday, March 28, 2007 Taylor Woodrow has plans to develop communities and build homes that meet or exceed Florida Green Building Coalition standards in all new Sarasota County communities.

The pilot program for this initiative will be launched in Pacifico, a neighborhood planned near the mouth of Siesta Key, in Sarasota. Using green guidelines to develop the community will place fewer burdens on the environment, the company said in a release.

The goals of green building are to conserve energy by providing ways to consume less water and reuse storm water while improving air quality.

Pacifico will be a 78-acre community with 302 single-family and multifamily homes, priced from the $600s, including home site. Taylor Woodrow will preserve natural, indigenous habitats and wetland buffers, while requiring all new landscaping in common areas and around homes to feature native, drought-resistant landscape materials, it said. It will also provide energy-saving features in each home.

Taylor Woodrow, a large international homebuilder, works in North America, the United Kingdom and Spain. Its U.S. headquarters is in Bradenton. It is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange (AFX). It posted strong numbers with profits increased 11 percent to $433.3 million. Home completions rose 14 percent to 4,492 and despite the challenging market conditions, the operating margin increased to 18.5 percent from 17.5 percent, according to a Hemscott report.