The owner of a Brunswick-based construction company sees strength in the Mid-coast housing market.
Speaking during a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Mallett Woods subdivision Tuesday, Wally Staples said his annual sales have doubled.
“So we’re booming. Projects are getting bigger, new houses are coming back,” and the company has new homes under contract.
Staples’ company will build some of the stick-built homes at Mallett Woods, the 47-lot subdivision being developed by Dan Catlin near Park Drive in Topsham.
Staples said he wanted to work with a developer who has a track-record of success and plans to start with a couple houses and work with Catlin throughout the project.
He’s hired new carpenters and said, “I’m optimistic.”
“I think a lot of people want to see the Brunswick and Topsham area as an attractive place to live,” which is why he thinks Mallett Woods has already received a lot of attention, Staples said.
He runs four crews, with 13 employees working in the field and three who work in the office, and just hired an in-house designer, because he sees a demand for the position given the level of improvement in the market.
Also at the ribbon cutting Tuesday was Vicki Huston, the business development manager for New England for Pro-Fab Homes, based in Quebec.
Huston said business is picking up again and in Maine, particularly in the southern and central parts of the state.
Pro-Fab is looking to build craftsman and bungalow style homes, single- and two-story, for the Mallett Woods project.
“We’re extremely excited about how close (Mallett Woods) is to everything,” Huston said. “Being able to walk to everything, even the day care or the dentist, or going for a walk to get an icecream, that is just very, very attractive to us and that quite frankly is why we came to the area.”
Staples and Huston joined town officials, bankers, investors, builders, potential buyers and business leaders at the future housing site Tuesday.
The four-phase, 47-lot subdivision received approvals May 7 from the Topsham Planning Board. Construction of the road and utilities has been under way to ready the site for the construction of 12 lots as part of the first phase of the project that when complete, will access both Park and Mallett drives.
Sue Spann, a Topsham real estate agent with ReMax who is representing Catlin in marketing Mallett Woods, said it’s the first time in about seven years there has been a new subdivision in the Topsham- Brunswick area.
“This just has so much positive energy emanating from it everywhere,” Spann said.
Catlin said Mallett Woods was mothballed for about 10 years, after the market for the property — initially slated for 94 condo units — tanked.
On Tuesday, he thanked Androscoggin Bank and engineer Chris Belanger for helping get the project moving.
dmoore@timesrecord.com
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