Avatar Wins APEX Award for America’s Most Innovative Product Design
December 31, 2003
Avatar Holdings Inc. has earned an APEX Award™ from Big Builder magazine as America’s top homebuilder for most Innovative Product Design in both homes and communities.
Avatar also won an APEX Award™ as America’s second Most Admired Builder, one of six categories in the competition in which companies on Builder magazine’s 2002 Builder 100 list were eligible.
The parent company of Avatar Properties Inc., Avatar is the only Florida-headquartered homebuilder to win an APEX Award™ which is in its inaugural year and planned as an annual event.
In Florida Avatar is developing five major master-planned communities: Poinciana, SoliVita and Bellalago just south Orlando, Cory Lake Isles in Tampa, and Harbor Islands in Hollywood.
Given at a ceremony in Las Vegas, the APEX Award™ is the result of independent votes cast by the nation’s largest and most successful builders. Ballots were e-mailed to more than 28,000 executives and managers on Builder and Big Builder magazines’ database.
“Today’s leading homebuilders represent some of the best and most professionally managed companies in America,” said Wyatt Kash, editor of Big Builder. “The APEX Award™ recognizes those companies which are seen by their peers as being the best in the business of building the American Dream of home ownership.”
“No company submits entries for judging nor are companies solicited by the magazines to participate,” said John Fels, president of Avatar Properties Inc.
“This prestigious award reflects the hard work and dedication of our staff in on-going efforts to build and deliver creatively designed and affordable homes for today’s buyers,” added Gerald D. Kelfer, president and CEO of Avatar Holdings Inc. “The very fact that Avatar’s contributions and performance were judged and recognized by our industry peers speaks volumes,” Kelfer said.
“In Central Florida, Bill Cowart at Poinciana and Bellalago and Rick Woodley and Helen McEnerney at Solivita have established uncompromising standards of home buildings,” said Fels. “And in Tampa, David Pardue leads our dedicated and professional team. We believe their attitudes as community development leaders directly makes Avatar homes better and ultimately distinguishes us from other home options buyers have."
In Florida, Avatar currently is developing Poinciana, America’s largest unincorporated master-planned community (47,000 acres) and home of the nationally-acclaimed active-adult community of Solivita just south of Orlando; Bellalago, a gated master-planned community of upscale homes and a multi-million-dollar recreational complex overlooking Lake Tohopekaliga in Kissimmee; Cory Lake Isles, a gated master-planned community of luxury homes embracing a 165-acre lake in Tampa, Florida; and Harbor Islands, a gated master-planned community of luxury homes and a private deep-water marina on the Intracoastal Waterway in Hollywood. Avatar also is developing The Villages of Rio Rico, south of Tucson, Arizona.