Pardee Homes

Pardee Homes is a residential real-estate company founded in 1921 by George Pardee Sr. He was joined by his three sons in the Los Angeles housing boom after World War II. They began building in southern Nevada in 1952, selling affordable homes to veterans for [http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/obits/2004/feb/26/516424018.html $1.00 down] . Together they pioneered the "planned community" concept in Las VegasDubious|date=September 2007Fact|date=September 2007.

Pardee became a wholly owned subsidiary of Weyerhaeuser Corporation in 1969, [http://weyerhaeuser.com/ourbusinesses/realestate/homebuilders one of 5] such Weyerhaeuser divisions. Their headquarters are located in Los Angeles, California. Other offices in California include San Diego, Orange County, Corona, Sacramento, Pleasanton and there is one in Las Vegas, Nevada. There was also a short lived office in Livermore, California that was closed immediately after their Livermore development attempt was abruptly halted. The company is currently developing new housing tracts throughout Southern California and Southern Nevada.

Awards and recognition

Industry awards include:
* 2006 Energy Star Partner of the Year for Sustained Excellence - United States Environmental Protection Agency [ [http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=bldrs_lenders_raters.pt_nh_awards ENERGY STAR Qualified New Homes Award Winners : ENERGY STAR ] ] [ [http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/b1ab9f485b098972852562e7004dc686/325d9e383b8b290d85256fc1005fae5b!OpenDocument Lowes, Pardee Homes, 3M Among 50 to Win Recognition for Energy Efficiency, Greenhouse Gas Reductions | Newsroom | US EPA ] ]
* 2006 Outstanding Philanthropy by a Homebuilding Company -- Hearthstone BUILDER [ [http://builderaward.hearthstone.com/Public/AwardWinners.aspx?Year=2006 Hearthstone BUILDER Humanitarian Awards ] ]
* 2003 America’s Best Builder – "Builder Magazine"

Business practices

Pardee is successful and respectedDubious|date=September 2007 in the development business, and employs a wide variety of techniques to help it succeed in the marketplace. They make excellent use of available resources to achieve their goalsFact|date=September 2007. Such resources can include incentives, monetary donations, savvy marketing, and general upbeat publicity that portrays them as a well meaning home provider. The resulting success rate of projects has made Pardee a positive contributor to Weyerhaeuser's financial healthFact|date=September 2007.

Pardee has an 80-history of charitable givingFact|date=September 2007 woven into its corporate culture dating back to when George Pardee founded the company. In 2005, Pardee donated more than $1.2 million to causes such as homelessness, education, medical research, Little League, and many other community projectsFact|date=September 2007. [http://www.homeaid.org/home.html HomeAid America,] which provides transitional housing to foster children, and families in need, and [http://www.theshadetree.org/ The Shade Tree,] which shelters abused women and children, are examples of charities that Pardee Homes consistently supports.

Perhaps the best example of their adept ability to publicize occurred in 2005. A popular American television show at the time was called . By donating large amounts of money and resources to produce various episodes, a national audience was introduced to a happy and helpful Pardee HomesFact|date=September 2007.

The 2005 [http://www.livermoretrails.org "Livermore Trails"] project was their most visible failure to dateFact|date=September 2007. It would have been located on rangeland [http://www.northlivermore.org north of Livermore] . Weyerhaeuser acquired the land in an [http://www.bizjournals.com/eastbay/stories/2002/07/15/story3.html options transaction] with [http://www.sheahomes.com Shea Homes] which itself, had not been able to develop the parcels [http://friendsoflivermore.org/fol2_history.html after many years] of trying.

With history working against them, Weyerhaeuser chose Pardee to undertake the formidable task of creating a new community where so many developers had already given up. Pardee president Michael McGee sent his best vice presidentDubious|date=September 2007, Carlene Matchniff, to set up and run a new Livermore office.

The chosen area was not ideal for a housing tract for many reasons. Although Pardee could have easily developed on more appropriate parcels in Livermore as other developers doDubious|date=September 2007, Weyerhaeuser was determined to build on less expensive land that they already ownedFact|date=September 2007. It was too far away from Livermore, and the automobile traffic would have worsened the existing horrible freeway congestionFact|date=September 2007. Complicating matters more, it was outside Livermore's UGB which forced a citywide vote in order to build.

The [http://www.friendsoflivermore.org community] fought their proposal to an embarrassing defeat, 28% to 72%. Pardee closed their Livermore office the next day and never returnedFact|date=September 2007.

References

External links

* [http://www.weyerhaeuser.com Weyerhaeuser Corporation website]
* [http://pardeehomes.com Pardee Homes website]