The following article appeared in the April 2003 issue of Gainesville Magazine.

Picture a home with a balcony and front porch overlooking tree-lined streets that are pedestrian friendly – almost like something out of the last half of the 19th century. And inside the home there are features so modern it would be hard to duplicate them anywhere else in the area.Finding such a place in Gainesville was impossible – until now. But HillCrest Homes, currently under construction on 13.5 acres on NW 8th Avenue at NW 50th Terrace is that place.

“It took us two years to get this concept through the city planners,” said Dan Whitcraft, owner of Whitcraft Homes, one of the project’s developers. “Now it’s fast becoming the prototype. We were looking for that Mayberry RFD feel with that old charm on the exterior, with cutting edge technology on the inside.”

When it is built out, HillCrest will consist of 61 two-story homes ranging in size from 1,700 to 3,500 square feet. Almost all the plans call for sizeable front porches and balconies. The sidewalk in front of each house will be brick, all but a few homes will have rear-access garages and none will have garage doors on the front of the house. “That’s a very anti-suburban look,” Whitcraft said.

The front porches and terraces will look out on three centrally located parks with gazebos, elaborate landscaping and sidewalks that cater to pedestrian traffic rather than car traffic because all the homeowners can use residential lanes behind the homes.

“We’re especially proud of the landscaping,” said Jeffrey Kropp. “The land had been clear cut. We bought about 240 trees. There’s a tree about every 35 feet.”

The roofs are all metal and come with lifetime guarantees. There will be no need to replace shingles or some other roofing material in 10 years. Each home site is treated for termites using a new perimeter system developed by Dow Chemical. “We no longer poison the soil,” said Whitcraft.

But as breathtaking as the outside areas sound, the unique features inside each home may be even more spectacular.

“These are definitely luxury homes,” said Jeffrey Kropp, a development partner, whose KFS Commercial Realty is selling the lots and Venture Equity & Investments is handling mortgages.

The homes all include hardwood or tile floors, high-end molding and upgraded kitchen cabinets, some with granite and luxury baths. “Some of these things you can find in any quality development,” Kropp said. “But we have three interior features that no one else can claim.”

The first of those is the Environments for Living™ Home Efficiency Program. Using the best quality insulation and design, Environments for Living guarantees utility costs for the first two years. Second, each home is pre-wired with “structured wiring” for networking. This means that the telephone, cable, computer, Internet access is all connected. “Our partner in structured wiring is Safari Audio of Gainesville,” Kropp said.“We are very excited about this concept and believe it will be very attractive to home buyers. We are very pleased in our relationship with Safari Audio, and they are ready to do more for individual homeowners.”

Besides making home offices much easier to operate, structured wiring can allow you to play a DVD in one room and watch it on a TV in another room, send files between all the computers and printers in the home, allow several computers in the home to use the Internet at one time on a single account and allow the homeowner to answer the door, monitor the baby’s room or check out the back yard from any TV in the home.

The third feature deals with Internet speed. “The fastest you can get right now is fiber optic,” said Kropp, “We are the only sub-division in Gainesville that is offering fiber-optic connectivity to all 61 homes in the development. We are working very closely with GRU.com to offer other internet services including security, a neighborhood news letter and the ability to easily communicate with your neighbors. The cost is guaranteed at only $25 a month guaranteed for the first five years with us paying for the first year.”

As if all these amenities weren’t enough the developers of HillCrest want to make the planning and buying experience as simple as possible with the use of its website. By going to www.hillcresthomesonline.com and clicking on the housing calculator and home status page, potential homeowners can pick a site and design plan, and then determine approximately how much it will cost to build a home. The site also offers background about the development, floor plans and features of all the models, a plat map, and even photos of the development being built.

With all this one would assume that HillCrest is priced well above the Gainesville market, but that assumption would be incorrect. “We’re on a par with everyone else,” said Whitcraft.

But the HillCrest developers have taken a unique approach to pricing. The vast majority of things that someone would want in a new home – automatic garage door openers, the kitchen and bath upgrades – are part of the home and built into the cost. “These are quality homes,” said Kropp. “But unlike other developers, we don’t start with a lower price and add on for each of these features that we know people are going to want. Instead we include them, so our price is very close to the final cost.”

“We are providing something unique in a great location,” said Whitcraft. “These homes are inspired from developments in Charleston, S.C. and the Florida Panhandle, and we are putting it in a central location in Gainesville. We believe that we have created a development with real Florida charm.”