Editorial
Front Page - Friday, October 23, 2009
Local builder says quality isn’t just job one; it’s the only job
David Laprad
Barry Payne of Truth North Development couldn’t believe his luck when Volkswagen announced it was going to set up operations less than one mile from where he was building a new neighborhood.
Called The Arbors, the fledgling community was suddenly in one of the hottest residential areas in the city. Not only that, Payne had geared the project toward first-time home buyers and buyers who were looking to step up a notch from their starter homes, meaning the average price of his houses was precisely what would attract people new to the area.
“I’d like to claim I was wise in doing that,” Payne says, smiling, “but I was just fortunate.”
Payne might have been lucky when it came to The Arbors, which a number of families are already calling home, but he achieved his success as a builder, developer and Realtor the old-fashioned way: through years of hard work and determination.
There’s also a whiff of destiny in Payne’s success, as developing land, building homes and then selling them is in his blood.
“My father, Jim, was a builder and my mother is a Realtor, so I grew up learning the business from the bottom up,” he says. “When I was a kid, I cleaned houses, framed and set windows, did all the basics. And my mother taught me about sales and marketing.”
Payne also earned an economics degree from The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and credits his dad with teaching him the nuts and bolts of running a business.
Then, a few years ago, Payne lost his father. “It was a pleasure to work with him for so long,” he says. “When he died, I lost my dad, my best friend, my mentor and my business partner. That was tough.”
Payne’s father had long before taught him to stand and walk on his own, though, so he pressed on, ready for the challenge that lie ahead.
Today, Payne and his new business partner, Jimmy Bettis, are working on three major projects, each of which is at a different stage of completion. In addition to The Arbors, Payne is building a high-end neighborhood in Ooltewah called Hidden Lakes. He’s also drawn up plans for a third community that will include town houses, single family units, estate homes, retail outlets and office space. Currently, it’s a big patch of empty land waiting for the economy to rebound.
While the monetary downturn has been a source of concern for Payne, he’s refused to compromise the quality of his product line, saying he doesn’t want to damage the reputation he has for building superior homes. This has compelled him to build smaller houses that are closer to what people can afford during the fiscal crunch.
“We’ll never change the materials associated with our homes, like the roofing, the flooring, the windows,” says Payne. “If we do something to get by in the short run, we’ll damage ourselves in the long run.
“If large homes aren’t selling because they cost too much, instead of using cheaper materials, we’ll build smaller houses and sell them for less. Maybe we’ll build an outdoor kitchen rather than another amenity package. But there are some things we’ll never cut.”
Payne says the trademark of True North is quality, and while many buyers don’t immediately notice or appreciate many of the things on which he refuses to bend, he knows what lies beneath the surface of each home he builds, and that helps him sleep better at night.
“If I go to a restaurant or I’m at the movies, and I see someone who bought one of my houses five years ago, I want to be able to walk up to him and shake his hand, not feel like I need to slink out the back door,” Payne says.
A comparison of the similarities and differences between the homes in Hidden Lakes and The Arbors illustrates what Payne is saying. The beautiful and spacious homes of the former cost a pretty penny to build and own; the houses in the latter are no less attractive or concrete, but they are smaller.
(They appear to be no less livable, however. A tour of one of Payne’s offerings in The Arbors not only reveals the elegant design and solid craftsmanship of his homes but also the smart use of space.)
Payne’s background in construction and real estate gives him a unique understanding of the housing market in Southeast Tennessee, but to him, building homes is about more than making money; it’s about being true to who he is.
“I love building homes,” he says. “It allows me to express different aspects of my personality. I get to be creative and productive.”
Payne says he likes taking a piece of raw land, on which there’s nothing but dirt and rock, and six months later, seeing a home there and someone living in it.
“I have fun thinking about how people are going to interact in their house and use the rooms.”
Payne is certainly no stranger to planning ahead. When Volkswagen announced it would be building a plant in Chattanooga, he and Bettis traveled to several cities with automotive manufacturing plants and met with each one’s Chamber of Commerce, industrial development board, university, homebuilders and Realtors, just to understand what was going to happen at home.
In each case, the people with whom Payne and Bettis spoke said the impact would be dramatic. Payne returned to his hometown looking forward to the days ahead and more determined than ever to uphold the tradition of quality that began with his father.
“We’re so blessed to be in Chattanooga,” he says. “We’re excited about where we are and what the future holds.”
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