Start with the land, or what’s left of it.
“We’re into the redevelopment of Cape Cod, not the building of Cape Cod,” said Christine Duren, executive officer of the Home Builders & Remodelers Association of Cape Cod. “There’s still land,” she said, “but it’s rare.”
Vacant buildable land, in large supply on Cape just a few decades ago when some of the current generation of home builders were young, has indeed become rare. Yet the building industry, one of the pillars of the Cape’s economy, seems to be doing well.
Christine Duren: “There’s still land, but it’s rare.”
“We have 275 member companies representing about 4,000 jobs,” said Duren. “Just about every one of our builders are looking for help and can’t find it.” She added, “I know everyone is busy.”
What has changed is what they are doing.
“Our company does 80 percent new construction,” said Matt Teague, president of REEF of Dennis. “Ninety percent of that is a teardown of an existing structure.”
“Ninety percent of what we do is takedown and rebuild versus new.” — Mike Duffany
According to Duren, the association, which had been called the “Homebuilders Association of Cape Cod,” recently added the word “Remodelers” to their title to be more accurate.
And Mike Duffany, president of of M. Duffany Builders of Falmouth, said “Ninety percent of what we do is takedown and rebuild versus new… Our wheelhouse is big renovations.”
It seems to be a common wheelhouse. Almost always, what is built is much bigger than what was torn down. The reasons are varied, but the changes are keeping the building industry on Cape Cod busy.
Matt Teague: “We might be building ourselves into a bunch of houses that don’t allow normal people to live here.”
“It’s going to be interesting to see what this place looks like in 20 years from now,” said Teague. “I think we’ll continue to see a lot of demand for the premium location.”
This means that pockets of the Cape are slowly remaking themselves into high-end housing.
As Teague said, “We might be building ourselves into a bunch of houses that don’t allow normal people to live here.”
Yet other things are possible as well.
“Density and height. That’s the next frontier,” said Paul Niedzwiecki, Executive Director of the Cape Cod Commission.
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