Tippell Named to Head Taylor Woodrow USA
Taylor Woodrow Homes, a London-based residential builder with substantial operations in the United States, said Monday that it has promoted longtime executive Gordon Tippell to serve as chairman of a new subsidiary, Taylor Woodrow Homes USA.
Tippell, 53, had been president of two other units, Taylor Woodrow Homes California and Taylor Woodrow Homes Nevada.
He said Taylor Woodrow Homes USA has been established to serve as the administrative overseer of those two firms and the company’s third U.S. home-building unit, Taylor Woodrow Homes Florida.
The three regional companies currently are building and selling homes and condominiums in Orange County and the San Diego County community of Temecula in California, Las Vegas and Reno in Nevada, and Sarasota, Jacksonville and Tampa in Florida, Tippell said.
The various projects, including several master-planned communities, ultimately will contain more than 8,000 homes--half of them in California.
The company’s major Orange County project, located in Laguna Niguel, has thrust Taylor Woodrow Homes into the news in the wake of a controversy over its acquisition of 96 acres of land once planned for a public park.
The 21-month-old city is suing Taylor Woodrow Homes California for return of the property, part of its 2,300-home, master-planned community called Marina Hills. The company in turn is suing the city, seeking $25 million in damages because of a building moratorium on that property, imposed by city officials earlier this year and overturned in a court action last month.
A separate Taylor Woodrow Holdings subsidiary, Taylor Woodrow Construction California, was hired to build John Wayne Airport’s new Thomas F. Riley Terminal several years ago and still is embroiled in disputes over cost overruns on the project, originally expected to cost less than $44 million and so far topping $65 million. County officials say they hope to recover some of the increased price from Taylor Woodrow, which allegedly was several months late in delivering the building.
Tippell, who stresses that Taylor Woodrow Homes USA is independent of the heavy construction firm, was development manager for Taylor Woodrow Homes in London when he was sent to Orange County in 1977 to launch the U.S. operation.
He said that the three regional home-building units will report to him and that he will report directly to the board of the parent company.
Replacing Tippell as president of the California and Nevada operations is Richard Pope, 43, formerly vice president of planning. Rod Robinson, 41, has been selected president of Taylor Woodrow Homes Florida.
Tippell said Monday that he expects the weak housing market to begin recovering early next year.
“We are positioning ourselves in the U.S. with cautious optimism,” he said. “I have no crystal ball regarding the situation with the Soviet Union (where President Mikhail S. Gorbachev apparently was ousted Monday by opponents of his moves to dismantle the socialist economy), but other than that, I see a definite upturn for 1992.”
When the demand for housing improves, Tippell said, Taylor Woodrow Homes USA will be in a better position than many competitors because of its ready access to foreign financing at a time that financing in the United States for construction and land acquisition is difficult to obtain.
