Clayton Birmingham Home Show draws business owners from more than a dozen states
Eight companies built 27 homes in seven days for the Clayton Birmingham Home Show at the BJCC. (Michael Tomberlin/Alabama NewsCenter)
Clayton Home Building Group is holding the inaugural Clayton Birmingham Home Show this week and organizers hope it is the first of many.
Keith Holdbrooks, president of Clayton, said when the manufactured homes giant wanted to break away from the industry show in Tunica, Miss., the Magic City was where they hoped to go.
“Alabama, we feel like, is our home,” he said. “It was great to be able to pick a venue and Birmingham was number one on our list.”
The inaugural Clayton Birmingham Home Show from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.
Clayton, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is hosting the show by invitation only for its suppliers and retailers from across the country. Holdbrooks said representatives from companies in more than a dozen states are visiting the event, which ends Thursday, at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex.
To make the event worth the trip, Clayton brought in eight of its companies to actually set up 27 homes in a parking lot beside the BJCC. Those represented were Buccaneer Homes, Cavalier Homes, Clayton Series, Energy Homes, River Birch Homes, Savannah, Southern Estates, Southern Homes and TRUmh.
Seven of the eight companies are in Alabama, where Clayton currently employs 2,142 workers and 10 additional supply operations. Last year the company built 5,734 homes in the state.
SEhomes, an Addison- based operation, is the official host of the Birmingham show.
“SEhomes is proud to host the Clayton Birmingham Home Show in our home state of Alabama,” Britt Richards, vice president of Clayton Home Building Group, said. “Birmingham was an obvious choice for an annual event because of its close proximity to our retailers and facilities. The city has been extremely accommodating and welcoming throughout the process, and we’re excited to witness first-hand the revival of downtown Birmingham.”
Among the homes showcased are a 2,200-square-foot, three-bedroom energy efficient model and a “tiny home,” the latest addition to the Clayton lineup that follows a trend popular with millennial buyers.
“That’s a fun and exciting new home for us that is getting a lot of attention,” Holdbrooks said of the tiny home.
He said as more millennials are reaching points in their life where they are looking to buy homes, the market is recovering.
“The upside is in front of us,” he said.
Apart from the homes themselves, Clayton used the event to preview some of its upcoming technological advancements for its retailers and customers.
A new website is coming in July that will build on some of the current features like a virtual tour by adding in “Dream Home Designer” that allows for the customization kitchen materials, colors and features as well as the colors of the exterior of their home. Floor plan designs with three-dimensional effects will also be included on the site.
One of the most popular new additions coming to Clayton sales centers will be a green room with virtual-reality goggles that immerse visitors into different rooms of a home that give would-be buyers an experience as close to the real thing as possible.
The MyMobi home finder is an app that uses geolocation software to navigate to the nearest Clayton home for sale.
Clayton also presented a check for more than $100,000 to Hope for the Warriors, a non-profit organization that provides services for wounded war veterans and their families. In 2015, Clayton pledged to contribute to the non-profit for each Clayton Patriot Home built. To date, 964 Patriot Homes have been built and the company anticipates selling more in the future.
Clayton builds traditional site-built homes, modular homes, manufactured housing, “tiny” homes, college dormitories, military barracks, and apartments. In 2015, Clayton built over 34,000 homes.
Holdbrooks said they are already looking to do the home show in Birmingham again next year with plans to expand it to include the general public.
