Pardee Homes
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Pardee Homes is a residential real-estate developer originally 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 $1.00 down. Together they pioneered the "planned community" concept in Las Vegas[dubious ][citation needed].
Pardee became a wholly owned subsidiary of Weyerhaeuser Corporation in 1969, 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.
[edit] Awards and Recognition
They have amassed a collection of industry awards including the sample below.[citation needed]
2006 Energy Star Partner of the Year for Sustained Excellence - United States Environmental Protection Agency.
2006 Outstanding Philanthropy by a Homebuilding Company - Hearthstone
2003 America’s Best Builder – Builder Magazine
[edit] Business Practices
Pardee is successful and respected[dubious ] 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 goals[citation needed]. 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 health[citation needed].
Pardee has an 80-history of charitable giving[citation needed] 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 projects[citation needed]. HomeAid America, which provides transitional housing to foster children, and families in need, and 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 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. By donating large amounts of money and resources to produce various episodes, a national audience was introduced to a happy and helpful Pardee Homes[citation needed].
The 2005 "Livermore Trails" project was their most visible failure to date[citation needed]. It would have been located on rangeland north of Livermore. Weyerhaeuser acquired the land in an options transaction with Shea Homes which itself, had not been able to develop the parcels 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 president[dubious ], 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 do[dubious ], Weyerhaeuser was determined to build on less expensive land that they already owned[citation needed]. It was too far away from Livermore, and the automobile traffic would have worsened the existing horrible freeway congestion[citation needed]. Complicating matters more, it was outside Livermore's UGB which forced a citywide vote in order to build.
The community fought their proposal to an embarrassing defeat, 28% to 72%. Pardee closed their Livermore office the next day and never returned[citation needed].
