Builder, Martha Stewart bringing it home
Martha Stewart may not be able to pull Southern California out of its housing slump, but the persnickety tastemaker snapped Catalina and Ernie Tamayo out of theirs.
The couple, parents of two, had visited several new subdivisions in south Riverside County, but no house had enticed them to make a move.
After less than an hour touring four models in a far-flung stretch of Perris on Saturday, the couple put down a $4,000 deposit for a yet-to-be built, stone-covered, two-story house with plenty of windows and old-fashioned touches. There will be wainscoting in the living room and glass-fronted cabinets in the kitchen.
That’s because the house, constructed by building giant KB Home, was inspired by Stewart’s own home on the coast of Maine. The development, dubbed Olive Grove, is Stewart’s latest brand extension and an effort by Los Angeles-based KB Home to leverage her popularity as a hedge against a slowing market.
“I really enjoy her,” said Catalina Tamayo, a high school teacher and enthusiastic fan of the lifestyle entrepreneur. “This house is very different from others we’ve seen -- it’s very interesting and very East Coast.”
And the price, at just under $400,000 for 2,900 square feet, was, as Stewart might say, a good thing.
“It’s an excellent price for a house like this,” Ernie Tamayo said, leaning against an ebony-stained banister with decorative spindles inside a replica of his prospective home. The median new-home price in Perris in the most recent quarter was $423,900, local analysts said.
The Tamayos were among a steady stream of looky-loos who braved chilly temperatures over the weekend to step inside production homes carrying the domestic doyenne’s stamp of approval. Hundreds padded through the meticulously laid out models, which are promoting an eventual 125-home subdivision.
Olive Grove’s three models are patterned after Stewart’s own homes in New York, Connecticut and Maine.
Despite the proliferation of branded products and her prison term for conspiracy, obstruction and lying to investigators, Stewart remains a powerful marketing draw.
By teaming with the home-making celebrity, “KB is effectively leveraging her brand image to stand out among the crowd of builders,” said Patrick Duffy, a managing director with industry consultant Hanley Wood Market Intelligence. “I’m sure they planned this well in advance of the slump, so it’s a stroke of luck that it’s working out so well.
“It’s a smart way to increase traffic,” he added, “and could ultimately increase their sales.”
Kristi Lewis knew she was in the right place when she was handed a brochure Saturday illustrating the interior design potential of the KB-Martha Stewart homes. On the cover was a photo of the same East Hampton Windsor dining set Lewis bought from Stewart’s company three years ago for her new kitchen in Ladera Ranch.
“Because it’s Martha Stewart, I knew she would deviate from the typical Southern California peach-stucco look,” said Lewis, who is considering a move.
Two other KB communities that opened last year in Cary, N.C., and Atlanta, which featured the same designs, have been selling like Stewart’s toasted pecan pancakes, according to KB and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. Additional subdivisions have been announced for both those cities, and a community is slated to open in Houston this spring.
Neither company breaks out sales figures for the co-branded homes.
What’s more, buyers of these homes are spending more on appliance upgrades and decorator options to ensure their living spaces match Stewart’s vision of picture-perfect domesticity, down to the deep farm-style kitchen sink and Hunter Douglas Provenance woven wooden shades, KB Home Chief Executive Jeffrey T. Mezger said in a recent interview.
Mezger replaced longtime KB leader Bruce Karatz, who resigned in the fall amid a stock-option scandal.
“If I could have a Martha Stewart community everywhere, I would,” Mezger said.
KB is planning additional six to eight Martha Stewart communities around the U.S. in the coming year and hopes to open a community in every market it operates, Mezger said.
There is also a plan in the works to offer all KB buyers the option of purchasing fixtures and other amenities recommended by Stewart.
Few builders have aligned themselves with celebrities or well-known retailers to promote their new-home communities. Among the best-known examples, Arnold Palmer and Robert Trent Jones lent their names and expertise to high-end, custom-designed golf course communities.
In the early 1990s, skating star Dorothy Hamill was the celebrity name behind a master-planned community in Palm Desert that was later hit hard by the housing downturn, and mass-market artist Thomas Kinkade has offered design ideas based on his popular “Paintings of Light” to developers of six custom homes under construction in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
In some ways, KB’s alliance with Stewart follows a trend begun by another industry selling mass-produced merchandise, analysts said.
“What we’re finding today is that the housing industry is looking over the fence at the auto industry,” said Steve Johnson, Southern California regional director of consulting firm Metrostudy. He cited Lincoln pairing with Bill Blass and Ford teaming with Eddie Bauer in producing “limited edition” models featuring the designers’ unique styles.
But the KB-Martha Stewart association takes co-branding “to a whole new level,” Johnson said, because both parties are seen as authorities on the same subject: the home.
Over the weekend in Perris, KB said it took deposits on several homes, though executives were not specific. Those were in addition to 10 deposits logged since Jan. 1. New-home communities have booked an average of about one sale a week in the region over the last year, analysts said.
At that rate of sales, KB may be able to raise prices as it continues to sell the Olive Grove lots, Johnson said.
Not everyone was taken with the Stewart-inspired homes.
Victoria Hernandez took issue with Stewart’s interior color pairings, objecting to the beehive-yellow comforter against a black bed frame.
“I would have chosen a darker color,” Hernandez said.
Jennie Mencia was taken aback when she came upon the exterior of the Lily Pond model, patterned after Stewart’s beach cottage on the eastern shore of Long Island. The dark-taupe, faux-Shaker siding with sea-foam-green trim gave her pause.
“I think she lost her taste in prison,” Mencia said.
