Farrell Building Adds Shovel-Ready Packages

Already well known for its high-end speculative homes, the Farrell Building Company recently started purchasing vacant parcels to make “shovel ready” for home buyers.

The idea is to streamline the process and at the same time suit construction to the buyer “from day one,” the company’s operations manager, Kyle Messinger, said this week. Build to Suit is the name of the program, which was launched about eight months ago by the Bridgehampton-based company.

“We’re looking to acquire lots everywhere, from Quogue to Montauk,” Joe Farrell, the company’s president and CEO, explained this week. “In the last couple of years, land has really gotten so tight that potential clients call me and say, ‘Do you know where there’s any land?’”

Mr. Messinger said the company is looking at properties in every market and price range. “We’ll purchase them and tailor a package specific to each property,” he said.

Farrell will handle permitting, clearing, grading and connecting to utilities, so that the prospective buyer can get a clear vision of what the developed property will look like. Potential buyers can also see which of three options they prefer.

One includes the land, house plans and all permits. Another includes the same components, but the buyer can also modify the plans using Farrell’s in-house architectural staff. The third option includes the land and permits as well as a custom home design—“from concept to final plans”—using the company’s architectural and design teams.

“If you’re shovel ready, you’re taking four months out of the process,” said Mr. Farrell, adding that the idea is to get fall buyers into their new homes by May, when pretty much everyone wants to be able to use them.

Mr. Messinger said the company has purchased nine lots in East Hampton Village, Bridgehampton, Water Mill and elsewhere in Southampton Town, for which it has designs ranging from $3 million to $10 million each. “We’ll continue to grow over the next year,” he said, noting that the company is working with real estate firms both to acquire more land and to market packages that are ready to be built.

Mr. Farrell said there has been “huge interest” in the Build to Suit program, with a few homes already sold in Bridgehampton north of the highway.

“When the good lots come up, we need to buy them,” he said. “Earlier in my career, I didn’t have the luxury” to lay out that much capital, he said, but “after 400 houses, I have that luxury.”

Farrell has completed more than 400 homes on the South Fork since 1996 as well as a number of luxury residences in Palm Beach, Florida, since extending its reach to the south in 2012.