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Builder
won’t let weak economy get in his way
Featured in Hilton Head Monthly
Magazine - April 2010
March 30, 2010
By Mark Kreuzwieser
When John Cardamone was 14, he became the proud and wide-eyed
owner of a Wen saw, a Skilsaw-type power tool normally
familiar only to builders and serious tool-shed hobbyists.
Now 59, the homebuilder can still be found working in
his garage on Hilton Head using that old saw. Cardamone
had long ago traded in hammers, nails and tools for three-piece
suits as a young applied science and engineering college
graduate going to work for Alcoa Inc. He was dealing with
banks, government agencies and bureaucrats a bit more
than he cared.
In his heart of hearts Cardamone, a partner in the development
of Beaufort’s Dataw Island and Bluffton’s Colleton
River Plantation and Belfair Plantation, really just wanted
to be a builder.
“Ever since I was little, I think I was building
dreams, whether they were docks, outboard motors or houses,”
he said. “I love building anything, to see it come
together,” including model railroads.
When the Pittsburgh native landed in the Lowcountry in
1983, not only did he realize that movers and shakers
didn’t bother wearing suits and ties or even socks
inside their loafers and golf shoes, he found that the
community was primed for high-end residential communities.
At Dataw, Colleton and Belfair, though, he still wasn’t
doing what his soul craved — building homes. He was
developing the communities’ infrastructure, roads
and golf courses. |
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He decided the area needed affordable yet high-quality homes
just as badly as he longed to again build houses sublimely connected
with their neighborhoods, and his new company CraftBuilt raised
the walls and roofs of nearly 1,000 homes in such communities
as Woodbridge, Sandy Point, Arborwood, The Willows, Barton’s
Run, Lawton Station and Alston Park in greater Bluffton and
in Georgia.
With an offer he couldn’t refuse, Cardamone sold CraftBuilt
to a national homebuilder in 2006 just before the economy tanked
and the housing boom went bust. “I sold Craftbuilt at the
height of the market, and it was a good opportunity. Then everything
slowed down, and I went to work for the company I sold to.”
That irony soon transformed into Cardamone’s founding Village
Park Homes; he never could see himself really getting out of
the business or taking up something new. With Village Park Homes
and Village Park Communities, he’s able to keep his hand
in neighborhood-building while helping people buy affordable
homes.
“If not for Village Park Homes, I’d still be building
houses,” he said. “It’s fun. And it’s gratifying
to hear from so many people, mainly through word of mouth, that
they want me and Village Park Homes to build their house.”
He certainly hasn’t given up on the market. He sees the
economy eventually coming back, perhaps slowly, but picking
up steam gradually, like one of his model trains.
“I’m still restarting; I began Village Park Homes
in the fall of 2009, and we’re continually working with
some 50 contractors and suppliers, almost all of them local
and who I have known for 20 years or so.” He’s now
concentrating on Lawton Station and Alston Park, just off the
traffic circle at S.C. 170 and S.C. 46 ( May River Road ).
The market’s interesting to watch,” he said. “Everybody
in the business got scared. It was like being punched in the
face. The pain goes away, and you start to feel more comfortable
again. Everyone, including our customers, will gain confidence
again.” |
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