White Gables and Saussy Burbank (Charleston, Summerville: sales, home builders, neighborhood)

[rexdp10]

Got a note yesterday saying that Saussy Burbank is pulling their Charleston Operations back to Charlottee because they can not support the satellite office due to a huge decrease in home sales....only 20 in 2009 vs > 120 in 2007...Just some FYI incase you didn't know. There will be a meeting at the clubhouse in the near future to discuss issues. As of right now, Saussy still owns all of the property left in the neighborhood and currently has no plans to sell, and hopefully in the future once things pick back up, will return to the area.

[beachme]

Was this in an email? Would love to see the letter if you can post it.

[rexdp10]

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It is no secret that the building industry is struggling nationwide. Newspapers, television, the Internet....articles explaining and informing of this building downturn have been many, and easy to find. The Charleston market has been especially hard hit, with home sales decreasing steadily for the past few years. Currently, there are over 10,000 homes on the market in the Charleston area, which is more than 5,000 over what is considered a "healthy" number. This number has fluctuated very little in the past few years....things have gotten very difficult.
Saussy Burbank has tried to remain viable in this decreasing Charleston market. We have seen our sales decrease dramatically. At the peak of the market, Saussy Burbank sold 144 homes in 2005 (119 homes in White Gables alone)....compare this number to 2009, where as of today we have only sold 20 market wide. At these current numbers, we simply cannot support the daily staffing of a Charleston operational team.
After painstaking consideration, Saussy Burbank has decided to remove itself, at least for the immediate future, from the Charleston market. We will be consolidating our remaining Charleston obligations into our Charlotte office, and hope to have this finalized by the end of 2009. All warranties to our existing Charleston homes will remain in place; they will simply be handled from our Charlotte offices. Most of the homes (post-2003) carry the nationally-known 2-10 warranty, which covers the homes for 1 year on workmanship, 2 years on systems, and 10 years on structural issues. NONE of that will change. Saussy Burbank will continue to honor this warranty the same as we always have.
Saussy Burbank has enjoyed serving this community for the past 8 years. Several years ago, we hired a private company to survey our buyers. In White Gables, 98% of our buyers have stated that they would recommend Saussy Burbank to their friends. That is a number which we are proud of, and we intend to do everything in our power to keep your confidence. We have enjoyed a special relationship with this community, and will continue to wish it nothing but the best as we both move forward.
Charleston will always be a favored market which we will closely monitor. We remain hopeful that when the current challenges have worked through this market there will be future opportunities for Saussy Burbank to build in Charleston. Until then, we have enjoyed being your builder, and hope we have built you a home that you can be proud of."

Joe Kirk, General Manager and Vice President
Saussy Burbank Home Builders

In light of this news, E.D. Davis and Partners, Inc. indicates a meeting for residents will be held in the coming weeks regarding the above issue. (Ed Davis with E.D. Davis & Partners, Inc. states that the group is not the developer but is under contract with the developer to provide certain development and project management services.)

Please Forward this Email to your friends in the neighborhood so that everyone can stay informed!
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From an email I got from the WhiteGablesCommunity.com website that we have.

[beachme]

Thanks so much ! I can use this info for one of my Blogs and clients interested in Summerville.