Excerpt from Cottage Industry Article – Builder Magazine

November 2008 Written by: Jenny Sullivan 

 

Magic numbers: SRG Homes owns more than 150 scattered lots in historic Springfield. Its next infill move: bungalow enclaves. Credit: Chris Donovan/Exit Realty 

Little Feat

The setting: Urban historic district 

When times were good, SRG Homes was building mostly two-story infill residences amidst the venerable colonial revival, stick style, and Mediterranean homes of Jacksonville, Fla.’s historic Springfield neighborhood.

But when the market shifted, CEO Mack Bissette found himself dusting off a smaller, single-story bungalow plan in his portfolio and giving it a facelift. He kept the charming clapboard exterior and 1,200-square-foot envelope, but knocked out non-structural walls to open up the interiors (a move that not only reduced construction costs, but also improved cross ventilation and natural lighting), allocated more square footage to bathrooms, and added a few choice goodies such as landscaped patios and dual-head showers.

“We [saw] a lot of people selling their larger historic homes and moving into cool loft spaces around town that were anywhere from 900 to 2,000 square feet,” says Realtor Chris Donovan, who handles sales and marketing for SRG Homes and bought one of the first bungalows for himself in July.

 

Quaint and yet contemporary, the little houses are now vying to grab a piece of that market by offering perks that lofts don’t such as larger closets, private outdoor space, and freedom from shared walls—bundled with the traditional details you’d expect to find in a historic district such as crown molding and brick porch columns. And starting at $205,000, they’re affordable.

Of course every historic district has its idiosyncrasies, and approvals for the diminutive bungalows have come with a twist. Whereas most infill projects must adhere to strict height limitations (established to prevent new houses from dwarfing older homes), the opposite rules of scale applied here. ­Permits for the first few bungalows were granted only on lots with sight lines extending to other single-story homes in the ­neighborhood to ensure the new kids on the block wouldn’t look too puny in comparison with some of the two-story residences built between 1890 and 1920.