Province debuts new models to meet sales goals

Province has space for 700 more homes. The developer would like to have it completed in seven years.

As a means of accomplishing that, Meritage Homes has a goal of selling at least 100 homes a year, according to Jeffrey Grobstein, president of the Tucson division.

Province, a gated, active-adult (55+) community, has seen a lot of construction activity on its north side as Meritage placed model homes. The company invited Province residents to tour the new designs April 29.

“What we did was try to create some new footages and new room counts,” Grobstein said. “They do have new features. The earlier models we designed are over 5 years old. Over time, some of the energy-efficiency elements are a little bit different.”

He said the new designs are trying to accommodate a demographic that is more mixed because of changes in the workplace. Some residents are fully retired, some still go to work and some do consulting work out of their homes. Some of the new models have defined office space while others don’t.

Mike Kirk, who has lived in Province since 2006, said he and his wife were looking for larger master bedrooms and a large laundry room, “and none of them have that.”

But he added the plans looked nice and workable. The visual accessibility of the living room or entertainment area from the kitchen and dining room present in most models was a plus for the Kirks.

“With these floorplans we’re seeing a pretty good mix of interest,” Grobstein said. “We’ve created some great floor layouts on the larger size, but then we have some smaller ones that live really well.”

Feedback helps developers learn what potential homebuyers of a certain generation want and need.

“We have a whole different type of buyer. We have people that are from out-of-state who are coming out of 2,000 to 3,000-square-foot homes. They’ll gravitate toward our largest models,” Grobstein said.

To limit custom changes, plans have built in “optionality.” For instance, some have second doors in master bedroom closets that lead into the laundry room. The models for The Residences at Province subtly cater to baby boomers with names of musicians from the 1960s and ‘70s, like the Dylan, the Joplin and the Zeppelin.

While that was a bit of whimsy, retirees and almost-retireds also looked for solid evidence of their future lifestyle needs.

“We’ve lived in other communities, and one of them caters to the retirement population with wider doors and having air registers down on the ground so you can change out the filters,” Kirk said.

“We have a goal to sell over 100 a year,” Grobstein said. “That’s the real reason we came in with new model product and newer floor plan.”

Meritage Open House - Province

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