Florida Home Builder Predated Boom, Struggles in Bust
Like many would-be Florida mortgage applicants, Isie Steinberg retired to Florida with a single mission: to buy a DiVosta home.
The former New Jersey judge heard about DiVosta’s “wonderful reputation,” and he was among 2,500 people vying for 200 homes at a DiVosta community at Tradition in the Port St. Lucie housing market.
Lucky for him, his name was the first drawn in a lottery.
Steinberg’s closing on the house was in 2003, shortly before Hurricanes Frances, Jeanne and Wilma battered the region, but the poured-concrete structure didn’t budge.
“It’s a heck of a house,” Steinberg said last week. “Their reputation is well-earned.”
Steinberg isn’t alone in raving about DiVosta.
The popular home builder’s fans are legion, and DiVosta has ranked No. 1 in customer satisfaction for each of the four years that J.D. Power and Associates has surveyed buyers in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast.
In the past four decades, DiVosta has built about 40,000 homes in Florida, from the quaint houses at the successful Abacoa development in Jupiter to the suburban spreads in West Palm Beach.
Its name, which dates to the days of Burg & DiVosta, is synonymous with Palm Beach County home building. Customers such as Steinberg swear its “BuiltSolid” motto is more than just hype.
Yet in spite of its stellar brand and history, DiVosta is downsizing dramatically in the current South Florida real estate market.
Since December, DiVosta has announced 424 layoffs at its Palm Beach Gardens operations. It also has cut 269 workers in Sarasota.
DiVosta parent Pulte Homes Inc. has moved DiVosta’s headquarters from Palm Beach Gardens to Orlando, and it has decided to sell a five-building complex on Ironwood Road and Riverside Drive in Palm Beach Gardens.
“There is no more DiVosta,” said Steve Inglis, whose Bristol Management Services Inc. manages a number of DiVosta communities for homeowners associations. “It’s a sad thing.”
Officials at Pulte, the nation’s second-largest home builder, insist that DiVosta still exists, although it has refocused its efforts on Orlando and the Southwest Florida housing market.
Pulte blames the wrenching housing slump for its decision to gut DiVosta. The Bloomfield Hills, Michigan company said in May that it would lay off 1,900 workers nationwide, or 16 percent of its workforce.
Pulte continues to use the DiVosta name on developments such as Mallory Creek at Abacoa, but a company that once was the largest home builder in Palm Beach County now is only a minor player here.
“Even being the strongest builder with the best reputation and the best product can’t protect you from a down market,” said David Koon, a Pulte V.P. who ran DiVosta before its reorganization. “There’s nothing that can make you immune from the cyclical nature of the industry.”
Koon said DiVosta also made deep cuts during the housing slump of the early 1990s, and he predicted DiVosta would return to Palm Beach County once the market bounces back.
For now, DiVosta is building in areas with more vacant land than Palm Beach County. It’s doing VillageWalk developments in Orlando and Bonita Springs.
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