Building up

Company: DSLD Homes
Headquarters: Denham Springs
Employees: 65
Markets served: Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Gulfport-Biloxi and New Orleans, among others
Homes delivered: 51, 2008; 238, 2009; ?363, 2010; 534, as of Oct. 17, 2011
Revenue: $8.1 million, 2008; $38.7 million, ?2009; $58.8 million, 2010; $93.5 million, as of Oct. 27, 2011
Communities: 46

Saun Sullivan (right) says he was shocked when he recently got a call from Professional Builder, informing him that DSLD, the Denham Springs company in which he's a partner, had been named the magazine's 2011 Builder of the Year. “Frankly, we were all very surprised,” Sullivan says. “As a relatively young company, it's a real honor to have them look past the newness of our company and see the work we're doing here.”

Though DSLD has only been around for a little more than three years, the experience of Sullivan and his four business partners—one of whom is the well-known Livingston Parish entrepreneur-turned-developer Allen Thomason—dates back much, much further. “Between the partners there's probably 100 years' worth of construction experience,” Sullivan says.

DSLD Homes has roughly 65 employees. The company will build approximately 700 homes along the Gulf Coast this year, from Lafayette to Gulfport and Biloxi, Miss. Sullivan says the fact that a midsize company like DSLD Homes is getting a national award from a prominent trade magazine says a lot about just how damaged the homebuilding industry has been over the past few years.

And though the Louisiana economy has fared better than the nation at large, Sullivan says, it's still taken a hit.

“We used to be able to build about 500 homes a year without leaving Livingston Parish. Now we do about 700 homes, but that's across 10 parishes or more,” he says. “So we are successful, but we're having to stretch ourselves out much further than ever before.”