At home after 20 or 30 years, the address book my wife and I use has dozens of cross-outs as friends and family memers have moved. You can tell the rootless ones by the number of entries they have.
But that's nothing compared to the file of contacts I have in the Sacramento home building industry. I'm kind of old-school; I have them typed on standard sized paper. But since starting this beat in April 2006, I've scratched half of them out and written in new ones and then scratched half of them out, too.
Let me explain with some names you industry insiders might know. (I don't mean any of this to be in bad taste or disrespectful; just a count of the many who have left with their institutional memory in this market in a very short time).
Barry Grant, Sac division chief of KB Home. Reportedly just laid off, one of the last of the big division presidents still in town. Brendan O'Neill of Beazer Homes. He used to be president of the area building assocation. Long gone. And a couple of his successors including Alan Newman also gone before I even had a chance to say hello. Judy Bennett, VP of sales for Pulte, then a builder in Oregon and then Placer Ranch, which also fizzled.
Jill Shannon, sales VP, with Dunmore Homes, then Pacific West, then finally to a public relations agency to run some homebuilder accounts. Scott Bolli, VP of sales at Pacific West, also gone. Jeff Panasiti, division president at Lennar. Someone told me he's gone, too. Doug Pautsch is gone at Centex, his VP of sales at Centex, Patrick D'Arcangelo, also gone and running sales and marketing now at Braddock and Logan in Davnville.
Tom Harding, Sacramento division president at Horton. Gone. Sid Dunmore, owner of Dunmore Homes. History. Mike Winn, community design manager at Reynen and Bardis. He's a consultant now in town, and head of the North State BIA. R&B affiiliate Corinthian Homes,is gone, I believe, plus plenty of other divisions since closed or moved to the Bay Area.
How many dozens of other people did I miss?
Photo: affiliate.daytonanetworks.com
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