Alvarez Construction is expanding its footprint outside the Capital Region with a new subdivision in St. Tammany Parish called Deer Trail.
The 51-lot development will be located within Bedico Creek, a residential community in Madisonville. It will be Alvarez’s second residential project in the Northshore community. Earlier this year, the firm completed the last of its 67 homes in the Deer Park development, which also is located in Bedico Creek.
Lots in Deer Trail measure 50-by-135 feet and homes range in price from $250,000 to $275,000. Alvarez says there is considerable demand for homes in that price range in western St. Tammany Parish, though competition among builders is fierce.
“The market out there is very, positive, very strong,” he says. “There is competition from New Orleans builders and DSLD and DR Horton, but there is a market and all the big players have decided to try to create their own niche.”
Alvarez says his firm’s niche is smaller homes measuring between 1,700 and 2,000 square feet that are slightly more expensive than those of his competitions, but with more amenities—such as 12-foot ceilings in the living room, tiled showers in the master bathrooms and seven-inch-wide wooden floor boards.
In addition to the Bedico Creek subdivisions, Alvarez is negotiating a deal for a 150-lot development elsewhere in Madisonville and is also eyeing the Covington area.
“Tangipahoa Parish is not that strong,” he says. “But there is a lot of opportunity in St. Tammany.”
Closer to home, Alvarez Construction recently broke ground on the third and fourth phases of Lexington Park, a single-family residential development on Nicholson Drive just south of the Bluebonnet Boulevard Extension. The first two phases of the development are nearing completion and are almost sold out. Alvarez says pre-sales in the third and fourth phase are also very brisk.
—Stephanie Riegel
