December 29, 2025 • 33 mins
Jamie & Jonathan Wilcox are not just brothers, they are managing partners at Columbus based Wilcox Communities. A family-owned, award winning company is a premier builder and developer of for-rent maintenance-free communities. Our communities offer an easier lifestyle without the hassle of exterior maintenance, and many luxurious amenities such as clubhouses, heated pools, walking trails, and more. At Wilcox Communities, we are passionate about building neighborhoods for an active and carefree lifestyle. Since our first new community in 2002, our unique home designs have given thousands of residents a place to experience life to its fullest.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Columbus in Central Ohio have a rich history of companies
being headquartered here, everything from technology, manufacturing, retail, insurance, and more.
But what about the leaders behind these companies? What makes
them tick? How do they get their start? This is
where you get to meet the captain of the ship.
Welcome to CEOs You Should Know and iHeartMedia Columbus Podcast.
Welcome back to another episode of CEOs You Should Know
(00:23):
an iHeartMedia Columbus Podcast. I'm your host, Boxer, and this
week we're diving into the world of real estate and
real estate developing. There's a rich history in this town
and in central Ohio of real estate developing and I'm
glad to welcome Jamie and Jonathan Wilcox from Wilcox Communities. Jonathan, Jamie,
(00:44):
welcome to the episode this week.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Thank you, Thanks great to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
You have quite the story and what I love is
this is the first time we've ever in our I
don't know, five six year history that we've had brothers
on the show before, so this should be a lot
of fun. You guys fight at all?
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Uh not often?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
No, no, but when we do, I win. Okay.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Can I just ask who's older Jamie or Jonathan, who
I'm two years older. You're two years older, Okay, yeah,
but I'm taller. And you also provide a great asset
in the world of law because you went to law school.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Jonathan, So I did, yeah, back in the day, back
in the day, years ago.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
We're gonna get to all of that in your guys'
background coming up. For those that don't know about Wilcox Communities,
because you have a whole array of different communities, I
feel like you've covered all of Central Ohio pretty well,
in the big booming towns and those that are growing
pretty fast. So why don't we, Jamie, why don't we
(01:48):
just ask you first, Wilcox Communities. What do we need
to know?
Speaker 4 (01:51):
What is it?
Speaker 2 (01:53):
So?
Speaker 4 (01:53):
We're a family owned So Jonathan, myself, and our dad
are the three partners of the company. Family owned multifamily
meaning homes for rent, developer, owner, manager of properties in
and around Central Ohio. We've been at it for a
little over twenty two years I think technically twenty I
(02:13):
believe twenty three years. And we're passionate about creating great
places to live, something that's in our blood. We're passionate
about customer service, building great places and building unique places
that people are very proud to call home.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
And I think we've done.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
It time and time again throughout Columbus. As you tour
around town and see the communities that we.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Built, Jamie and Jonathan, It's funny. When I arrived in
town in ninety nine, I look at what you've built
and designed and I'm like, wait, where was this? When
I came to town, there was nothing like this. So
I can't wait to talk, especially a little bit more
about the evolution of rentals and how they've changed in
(02:54):
the amenities. Not to mention, let's talk about the history first.
When did Willcox Communities arrived? When when was it born?
Speaker 4 (03:03):
So it's a bit of a winding story. But the
good news as we've an hour so we can we
can take you through it.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
We have more if you need it.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
So Willcox Communities as it exists today is a family
owned business. It didn't start that way. It started as
two entrepreneurials started companies. One was called Wilcox Development, which
actually I started in Chicago. I moved to Chicago shortly
after college. I started a home building company in Chicago,
and at the same time in Columbus, there's a company
(03:34):
called Long and Wilcox that was developing product in the
Columbus area. Jonathan uh Well started Willcox Communities in the
early two thousands. Jonathan went to law school and in
two thousand and six, I believe joined long In Willcock
joined long In Wilcox, and both companies were growing independently
(03:54):
of each other.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
There was some common ownership.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
We did some work together and then the Great Financial
Crisis happened and very difficult time for everyone in.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Our industry, ourselves no exception. We did survive.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
We learned some really important and really good lessons that
we keep to this day. And during that process we
came to the realization that the only groups that had
bigger problems than us as developers were the banks and
lenders that were lending to developers. And we, through a
(04:27):
lot of hard work and talking to a lot of people,
realized there's an opportunity to buy distressed communities, and we
bought distressed for sale condo communities primarily across seven states.
Had some equity backers behind us were able to do
that during that that was both through Wilcox Development and
(04:48):
long In Wilcox. During that process, we repositioned a number
of those communities got them kind of back on their feet.
The market was improving, and along the way there were
a couple of communities we decided to try a rental
concept versus a four seal concept. Both here in Columbus.
(05:08):
Those were very successful. And after that experience and based
on some of the dynamics in Chicago, decided, hey, we
really want to focus are both companies going forward in Columbus.
Let's take these two businesses, let's combine them into a
family owned business. And so I moved back to Columbus.
As part of that change, we repositioned the businesses. One
(05:30):
really important thing that happened along that way was our
mom sat us down and she sat across the table
just like you are right now, a boxer from us,
and she said, Okay, you looked at me, look me
in the eye, looked at Jonathan, you look me in
the eye. I'm not signing off on this unless you
guys promise that this will never affect the family dynamic.
(05:50):
It's something that we made a solemn oath. Unfortunately, our
mom passed away a few years ago, but that promise
lives to this day and I think is indicative of
what has become the culture of Wilcox communities. Is that
that family first type of mentality. So he made that change,
(06:11):
moved back to Columbus, combined the companies, and today we
are a what we call a first generation multi generational company.
As I mentioned, Jonathan, myself, and our dad are the
three partners.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Well, Jamie and Jonathan. First, I'm sorry to hear about
your mother, but what she certainly sounds like someone who
was the glue to the family. And with what she
said just out of curiosity, was was she just asking
and making sure, Hey, before you boys go in on
a business together, I want to make sure business doesn't
get in the way of family. Is that kind of
(06:46):
what she meant or exactly?
Speaker 3 (06:48):
You know, I think everyone has heard stories about family
businesses that that implode and then relationships are impacted. And
I think her thought was, you know, look, family is
the most important, So don't do this if there's any
chance that it could impact the family. Yeah, And we've
taken that to heart and still do.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Jamie, by the way, pretty ambitious to go to Chicago
and start a development company. Why why Chicago? Why not
right here in Columbus. Is was it something you just
wanted to get away for a little bit, or it's.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
A good question to take myself back twenty some years
to figure it out. I think mainly, you know, I
had I was freshly married, my wife's not from Columbus.
We had a number of friends in Chicago, and we're
kind of looking for a fresh start, a new start,
and kind of let's say, going out on my own
in building something successful that that was really the maint Yeah,
(07:44):
but as a as a young twenty something, there's not
all that much thought that goes into it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Yeah, Hey, this might be captain obvious, So forgive me.
I'm guessing the biggest difference between developing in Chicago and
Columbus is there's probably more opportunity here to develop versus Chicago.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
Well, the Chicago market, so after the Great Financial Crisis,
the Chicago market from the peak of building permits to
the trough of permits, so number the highest number to
the lowest number during the Great Financial Crisis and after
it was a ninety two percent drop. That's a market
that was decimated by the Great Financial Crisis, and frankly
(08:25):
to this day is still recovering. And there are a
lot of demographic and other headwinds in that area, and
we kind of have the opposite situation here in Columbus
where we have demographic and other tailwinds behind us. And
so you know, we just saw a lot more opportunity
going forward here in central Ohio versus that market.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Yeah, by the way, with the Great Recession and what
we saw in the late two thousands, just as a
as a business nerd for a second, how did as
a developer you guys survive that? What was the secret sauce?
What did you I mean, what did you do? How
did you survive that? A lot of people didn't.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
I think a couple of things. One, we were proactive
with our lenders. We had eight active projects of four
in Columbus, four in Chicago, so a lot going on
that were in various stages of completion. None of them
were done. We were proactive with our lenders, and I
think just understanding the reality that hey, we have a problem,
(09:29):
let's engage with our banks and let's you know, mutually
come up with ways to get through this.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Was beneficial.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
We also were fortunate to have access to capital to
get through it. And I think a lot of the
guys that that lost communities just didn't have that staying
power or the capital behind them, and so, you know,
maybe a little bit of luck. I think those three
things though.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Jonathan, when did you look at your background? You also
decided you you had an underground of business, but you
decided to move on and go to law school, Jamie,
by the looks of it, Correct me if I'm wrong.
You right out of school undergrad just went right after,
went right after developing right away. What did you were
you not? Did you always know, Jamie, you wanted to
(10:17):
do developing? Was that something you always wanted?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Actually?
Speaker 4 (10:20):
No, So I spent a year originally out of school.
I worked at Arthur Anderson doing business consulting and it
was a great year. Met a lot of great people, learned.
It was kind of a you know, big business type
of environment. What I really didn't like about that job
is it was it was consulting and it was created.
It was application developments that are creating you know, systems
(10:43):
for for clients, and I didn't like that. You'd work
a long time, very hard on a project. You'd hand
over the what you created to the client, they'd shake
hands and say see you later, thanks a lot, and
there was nothing there to show for what you had
spent your your your blood, sweat and tears on. Yeah,
so I put after I actually, Arthur Anderson ceased to
(11:06):
exist as a company after the Enroun situation, and so
I found myself out of a job and was looking
for a change in the approach to my career to
do something that I personally could could touch, see and
feel and see the fruits of what I did, and
do something that will be standing and people will be
enjoying long after we're gone.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
That to me was very attractive to real estate.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Yeah, Jonathan, how about you, because you went to law school?
So were you? Were you going a different router?
Speaker 3 (11:35):
I didn't know, you know, my interest. I had an
interest in business. I was a finance major in college.
I had an interest in politics, and I had an
interest in government. And I really didn't know yet what
I wanted to do. Law school to me, felt like
a good foundation for all three things. So went straight
through after undergrad through law school, and after law school,
(11:58):
I worked for a litigation firm for a short while
and then worked for did a one year clerkship with
a federal judge, Judge George Smith, who recently passed away.
But he was a he was a phenomenal guy. And
I I finished that at the end of five and
had some decisions to make. You know, did I want
(12:19):
to spend the rest of my life in a law firm.
Did I want to go to d C. Did I
want to run for office?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
What did I want to do?
Speaker 3 (12:25):
And you know, after talking to people, I had a
really funny conversation. I met with a well known politician,
elected official. I'm not going to name his name, but oh,
come on, I I'm not going to do it. I
won't do it to him. But I went and talked
to him and said, hey, I'm really you know I
mentioned in politics, I'm really you know, considering, you know,
maybe running for something. And he sat me down. He said, Jonathan,
(12:49):
why the hell would you want to do that? He said,
this is a this is a frustrating existence. It's hard
to get anything done. People are always mad at you. Said,
you know, you've got this great education, you have a
wonderful family business. You know, go into the business. And
that really that was good advice. And you know, talk
to to our dad as well. And of course timing's
(13:13):
never been my forte. This was like the peak of
the housing bubble and like late O five, early of six.
But my dad really encouraged me to join the business,
as did Jamie, and so I joined in January of
O six.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Knowing your interest in government and policy, I would have
to imagine, and Jamie you can jump into I would
have to imagine that you're a huge asset to Wilcox
to get through red tape permits.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
I'm guessing yeah, yeah, I mean, Jamie, you can sing
my praises.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Yeah, I will. I would love to. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
I think Jonathan has the perfect background for really what
we do. In the heart of what we do is
we in order to get new developments done, we have
to work through an approval on a zoning process. And
having the legal background, the legal mind, combined with you know,
an ability to connect with people and just work with
people and find common ground and find middle ground to
(14:08):
solve problems has really catapulted us to be able to
do what we've done. So, you know, I say very often,
I'll say here on the podcast. You know, Jonathan is
the best zoning person in Columbus. He's just as good
as it gets and doing what he does and what
we do as a.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Company, all right.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Jamie and Jonathan Wilcox are with us for this week's
guests and CEOs you should know from Wilcox Communities. Okay,
I want to fast forward a little big guys. First
community that you built, where where is it?
Speaker 3 (14:40):
First apartment community? Yes? Sorry thet Yeah, very first rental
community is a is a location called Wheaton Village in Reynoldsburg.
And it was a distressed, failed, unfinished condo development that
another developer had started and had lost it to the bank. Okay,
we bought it and it was a little bit of
(15:01):
a disaster, I would say.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
As many communities were that had gone through that process,
you know, that was that was kind of just part
of the deal was was figuring out solutions to problems
that the communities had had.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Yeah, And so a developer had plans to build one
hundred and twenty town homes. He built ten, he sold
four and then went out of business. So he had
six drywall to unfinished units. He had an unfinished clubhouse
with a bunch of debris in the pool. It just
never got off the ground, unfortunately. And these poor people
we had bought homes there and weren't sure what was
(15:35):
going to happen. So we were really really interested in
getting into the apartment business, but we wanted to do
something different. And our idea, and this goes back, I
think to our experience building condominiums, was let's offer an
apartment community that's different than traditional multi story apartments with
surface parking. Let's build you know, single story, vaulted ceilings.
(15:59):
Let's build homes that look and feel more like condos
with attached to car garages. But we'll build them and
we'll rent them. And so Wheaton Village was our first
attempt at that. I will say we bought all four
units back from the people that had bought units, so
they weren't stuck in an apartment development. So we were
proud to be able to do that. And then we
built eighty apartments at Wheaton Village and they filled up
(16:23):
as quickly as we could build them. We heard from
the market that, hey, this is not the typical apartment.
You know, I've been looking for something like this. But
I don't want you know, people living above and blow me.
I don't want to climb steps, I don't want to
park out in the surface lot. And it went great.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
How how long after you could tell that there was
success there in Reynoldsburg. Did you move on to the
next community?
Speaker 3 (16:48):
We did pretty quickly. So our second community is another
similar story. A stalled condo project we bought on Broad
Street in Black Lily called Bedford Place. Oh yeah, and
did the same thing, built about one hundred and twenty
five units. And I think by that point we knew
we were onto something. And I don't remember the exact moment,
(17:11):
but I'm pretty sure we sat down and we said, hey,
home building for sale. Home building is history. We really
want to focus on this segment of the market, and
we want.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
To do it in a bigger way.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Was it because of the housing situation and the Great
Recession that you decided I think we could have more
success pivoting to rental versus for sale.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Was that part of it or I don't know that
it was. If that was a major part of it.
We did have questions early on as to whether our
success would be short lived because people were still dealing
with the Great Recession. Yeah, but we found out that
this was a growing part of the market unrelated to
the recession. And you know, our average age resident is
(17:55):
about fifty, so you know this as America ages and
there's more people entering, you know, into their fifties and
their sixties. We're finding a percentage of people are choosing
to rent rather than own, and that demographic shift and
both preference and the growth of that age group has
(18:16):
caused a lot of demand for that product.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
I'm so glad you brought that up. I was just
literally over the weekend reading an article I think it
was the Wall Street Journal about how that age or
even younger people are deciding that that thought process of
owning something, owning property might be changing a bit. There
(18:38):
are some people that believe I'm just gonna rent and
I can retire early and then I'll go figure out
if I want to own something. And then you still
have people that believe I want the American dream. But
we also see that maybe the American dream is changing too,
maybe it's not necessarily home ownership. What do you, guys,
what's your take on that?
Speaker 4 (18:58):
Well, I guess our experience and the types of folks
that live in our communities mainly are people who've already
had the American dream, and they are typically coming out
of a single family home that they've raised their their
family in, and you know, with the dynamics of the
market today, they can sell that home for top dollar.
(19:22):
Sometimes it's hard to then get into a smaller home
or a condo or something else. And so our approaches,
we'd like to attract them to one of our communities.
We like to show them the level of service they
get in a Wilcox community. We'd like to show them
how they can make connections with new neighbors, really enjoy
their life. In fact, our company vision, what we what
(19:43):
we strive to do every day is to improve people's lives.
And so we want them to come in love, love
the way they're living, and decide they never want to leave.
It's a it's a real simple it's a real simple model.
And so you know, in our experience, those those people
sell their home put them on either pocket. Maybe they're
able to travel, maybe they're able to help their kids
or grandkids with education, you know whatever, and they have
(20:06):
this outstanding new way of living that happens to be
rental but has all these great other antillary things that
come along with it.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
So, guys, how many communities do you have?
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Now?
Speaker 3 (20:17):
We have seventeen I was gonna say sixteen, sixteen or
seventeen plus have additional a few more in developmentyah plus
in the pipeline.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Your guys' story the early days of taking over another
project to get your own company started and launched. That's
economically that seemed like a pretty solid idea. Why not?
Has has that changed? Versus where you're right now? Meaning
we're in a world of data. Are you guys reading
a bunch of data? Do you collect data on your
(20:48):
communities and where to build next? How does that work?
Speaker 2 (20:53):
I think for us.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
At least in Columbus, and we know the market very well.
We're born and raised here, and so it's a mix
of you know, gut feel what we know about the market,
and data. It's not really strictly one or the other.
Sometimes the data looks really good somewhere, but the gut
feel just isn't right, and vice versa. Sometimes you know
(21:17):
that the patterns of movement, migration or heading to a
certain area, the data is not quite there yet, but.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
We know it's going to be a good location. So
it's a combination of it.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
I was looking at your website. Do you there's one
that's about to open one community, maybe it already opened.
What's your latest build.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
That you have?
Speaker 1 (21:34):
What community I forget.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Probably Ma're in reserve in Plain City.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Yeah, it's probably.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
That's our newest one, just recently had our grand opening
and it's on the west side of Plaine City. It's
a it's a wonderful area, growing area, and we have
a total of two hundred and twenty six units there
and we've recently opened the clubhouse in Phase one and
it's already filling up.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Well, yeah, do you guys think there's a housing crisis?
Are we in one right now? When it comes to
central Ohio?
Speaker 3 (22:03):
I believe I think we absolutely are. We. You know,
if you look at the permit numbers historically versus where
we are today, and you compare that to our job
growth and our population growth, I think there's no doubt
we're in a housing crisis. I want to say, last year,
I think we permitted ten or eleven thousand new homes.
(22:25):
About half of those were apartments. So if you take
the apartments away, we're built permitted five thousand new single
family homes last year, which you know, even opponents of growth,
I think would acknowledge that that's just simply not enough.
We're seeing it in pricing, both in rent and in
the home builders, and the for sale space pricing is
going up. So I think there's no doubt.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
What do you ate, Jamie and Jonathan, What do you
say to someone who will say, oh, the rent's so
expensive everywhere? Why do they have to keep jacking up
the rent? Not that you guys are, by the way,
but what But there's a whole thought process, business model
behind that too. What maybe people don't realize.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
Well, I mean, whether it's rent or home prices, we
are all none of us control the rents the prices.
These are supply demand, market driven, market driven factors. And
as Jonathan was saying, we firmly believe there is a
housing crisis in Columbus, and we also firmly believe there's
there's one way to solve that solve this crisis, and
(23:31):
that's to build more homes. Supply and demand or these
are these are laws of economics that that don't go away.
I think a great place to look at is Austin,
Texas and what's happening down there right now where they
have massively increased population, they've increased jobs, they've massively increased
the production of new homes and rents and prices are down.
(23:53):
GDP for the community is up and the percentage of
residents there who are I forget the term by our
housing house poor, are have more than their proportionate share
is reducing along the way. And so there is a
future for Columbus where we can add jobs, we can
add economic growth, and we don't have to sacrifice affordable
(24:15):
housing in the process. But the solution is to is
to build more, is to have more supply.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
I would have to imagine your future business plans are
knowing this are pretty ambitious, I would imagine. And where
can you say where you're looking to go next or
what area of central Ohio or.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Sure, Yeah, we we have a new project we're working
on for a spring groundbreaking can out Winchester called Miller Farm.
We were at city council meeting last night, so things
that are trending in the right direction. We're excited about that.
Pretty close to.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
The and Roll facility.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
That's a great idea, which yeah, which I'd like to
say we planned it that way, but we started working
on it before that announcement, so we just look smart.
But we have a new location in Marysville that'll be
a spring start, and work on a new location in Heath. So, yeah,
a lot of opportunities. I mean, we are extremely bullish
(25:12):
on the central Ohio market, particularly the central house suburban market,
so we're always looking for new opportunities. It's gotten very
difficult to buy land at a reasonable price. Sure, there's
just so much competition with other home builders, developers, out
of town developers, and builders coming into the market. So
(25:33):
it's getting harder and harder, but a lot of room
for growth. And we're out there and.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Every day I would imagine you guys have some sort
of pro forma set up where you know, buying the
land and it can't go over a certain price, otherwise
forget it. There's got to be a I'm guessing a
certain number and if it's over that, you're like, well
we got to walk. We're not going to make anything
out of this. Is that right?
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (25:57):
And it's one of the challenges right now in this
there's a whole bunch of factors that go into this.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Is it.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
It's harder too, and using some industry jargon, it's harder
to make properties pencil, it's harder to make the numbers work.
The input costs, the land costs, interest rates, insurance costs,
you know, all kinds of things go into that, So
that is essentially exacerbating the challenge that we're seeing as
a market right now. It's just it's just harder to
(26:24):
get it done. It means fewer new communities. Uh, the
economics work on them. That so we've got to work
that much harder to make each community work.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Yeah, Wilcox communities. What sets Wilcox apart from other communities
amenities for example.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Yeah, I think we've continued to expand our amenities. So
going back to Plaine City, we just did our first
pickleball court. A lot of excitement around pickleball these days. Yes,
we put a clubhouse in every development, and you know,
we have fitness center, We have a nice kind of
club room for resident use and for events. We have
(27:02):
this coffee bar that that gets a lot of use.
And then beyond the clubhouse, we always put a dog
park in of our residents have dogs, so we always
we always welcome that and you know, walking paths as
well as community gardens. So we we've continued to expand
upon our amenity offering.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
To set ourselves apart.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
But I think, you know, Jamie, I think customer service
and our approach to our residents. Probably is our our
biggest differentiator.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
Yeah, there's a couple of different jators that is that
is number one in the list. It's funny, so customer
service is something that is in our DNA, not by accident,
uh our. Our our dad when we were little kids,
was in the computer business and their business was run
on customer service, and we would hear stories at dinner
about customer service, as crazy as that sounds, and it
(27:53):
had a lasting impact on both of us. And so
when you live in a Wilcox community, you feel you
feel the difference in many many ways. Combined with great amenities,
as Jonathan said, which which creates spaces where people can
make connections. We want to build communities that aren't just
houses that their their homes, their neighborhoods. People make these connections,
(28:15):
get and get to know each other. And then the
third differentiating factor for us is design.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
We take an.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
Incredibly thoughtful, probably sometimes overthoughtful approach to the design of
our homes, of our exterior finishes, our exterior colors every community.
We labor over to make sure that it's a great
looking community, appropriate for where it's located, appropriate to the
town that it's in.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
And probably drive our team a little crazy in that process.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
Very much so, but it's but it's worth it and
you can see it as you drive around town. And
we also have a great team of dedicated folks. We
have an in house designer, which is unusual for a
for a company our size, and she does a great
job with interior colors and layouts and all those all
those sorts of things. So we have we've invested in
this and it shows in the communities that are out there.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
So, by the way, with your customers, I'm assuming you
must hear from them quite often on hey, we'd love
to have this or that, or do you do You
hear from them on other ideas and hey, the next
one you build, maybe you could do this.
Speaker 4 (29:27):
We do, and we we we go out and we
collect that feedback where we're constantly surveying, asking, talking to
our customers. Because who knows better about the experience of
living in the Wilcox community the folks that are living there.
We hear a lot of great feedback and of course
we hear feedback that is opportunities for improvement, and we're constantly,
you know, hearing that working on it, making changes making improvements.
(29:50):
It's a this is an ongoing evolution that really will
never stop.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
What's the most popular amenity? Is it the coffee bar
last year?
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Well, it depends on asked our dad.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Our dad was a big proponent of the coffee bar,
and he continues to be honestly, that probably is the
neat thing about it is residents stopping in the morning. Okay,
so our managers get to see him and interact with them,
and that's all kind of part of building those connections.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
It's not cheap to do a coffee bar, is it
like to design and have one sustainable?
Speaker 4 (30:26):
There's well, there's a lot of I mean there's a
lot of there's a lot of coffee we go through.
I was gonna say, so, I've heard this before.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
That's why I asked to buy a lot of coffee.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Beans every month.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
Another another new amenity that we just The first place
we did this was at Marin Reserve, which is similar
to the coffee bar, but it's kind of on the
other end of the spectrum. We have a beer and
wine tap system and so if you're a resident, you
get a card and you can come in every evening
and you can get one free one free drink from
the tap system.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Wow. And it's been wildly successful. People have loved it.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
It gives again, it's a reason for people to get together,
whether they're outside the patio, inside the clubhouse, playing pickleball,
having a drink. So we're going through beer and wine
kegs like you wouldn't believe.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
We probably need to start a coffee bean farm and
a distributor exactly.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
That's what's next. That's ironic because Jonathan and Jamie, I
was just going to ask you what's the future of
Wilcox Communities as we wrap up? Where where do you see?
I don't know if you can, you know, divulge this
or not. Where where's the growth? Where are you heading
to next?
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Well, first and foremost, who want to continue the growth
here in our hometown. And we're not going to change
our approach central Ohio. But we are working on entering
the Cincinnati Date and Dayton suburban market. So as we
look at the North Cincinnati suburbs South Dayton suburbs, we've
actively been evaluating markets there and based on our success
(31:56):
here and understanding the market there, we think are product
could be really successful and consolving it there. So that's
our next stop. But you know, long term, we want
to get to ten thousand units. We're a little over
a couple thousand now, and you know, we're passionate about
what we do. We think there's a lot of demand
for it. So beyond that, you know, we've talked about Indianapolis,
(32:18):
We've talked about maybe the Carolinas. So we're gonna we're
going to be smart with our growth, but we definitely
want to keep expanding beyond Central Ohio.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
By the way, guys, how often do you lean on
dad for advice when it comes to business.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
All the time?
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Yeah, Yeah, we have.
Speaker 4 (32:35):
We have an incredible mentor just happens to be our father,
which is which is great and it's helped shape who
both of us are, of course, and we just kind
of are lucky to have him as a father and
as a mentor.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
That's awesome. Guys. Where can someone find out more on
Wilcox Communities website social media?
Speaker 4 (32:56):
Yeah, our website is Wilcoxcommunities dot com. Community these plural
C O, M, M, you and I T I E S.
I spelled that about three thousand times probably, and then
we're on all.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
The social media.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
I'm not all the platforms, all the normal platforms, yes, correct.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
All right, super easy to find just yep, Google search
it and you'll be able to find it well. Jonathan
and Jamie Wilcox Wilcox Communities, congratulations on your success and
thanks for joining us today. And CEOs you Should Know.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Yeah, thanks Boxer, This is a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
Yeah, thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
CEOs You Should Know is hosted and produced by Brandon Boxer,
a production of iHeartMedia, Columbus
Columbus in Central Ohio have a rich history of companies
being headquartered here, everything from technology, manufacturing, retail, insurance, and more.
But what about the leaders behind these companies? What makes
them tick? How do they get their start? This is
where you get to meet the captain of the ship.
Welcome to CEOs You Should Know and iHeartMedia Columbus Podcast.
Welcome back to another episode of CEOs You Should Know
(00:23):
an iHeartMedia Columbus Podcast. I'm your host, Boxer, and this
week we're diving into the world of real estate and
real estate developing. There's a rich history in this town
and in central Ohio of real estate developing and I'm
glad to welcome Jamie and Jonathan Wilcox from Wilcox Communities. Jonathan, Jamie,
(00:44):
welcome to the episode this week.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Thank you, Thanks great to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
You have quite the story and what I love is
this is the first time we've ever in our I
don't know, five six year history that we've had brothers
on the show before, so this should be a lot
of fun. You guys fight at all?
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Uh not often?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
No, no, but when we do, I win. Okay.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Can I just ask who's older Jamie or Jonathan, who
I'm two years older. You're two years older, Okay, yeah,
but I'm taller. And you also provide a great asset
in the world of law because you went to law school.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Jonathan, So I did, yeah, back in the day, back
in the day, years ago.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
We're gonna get to all of that in your guys'
background coming up. For those that don't know about Wilcox Communities,
because you have a whole array of different communities, I
feel like you've covered all of Central Ohio pretty well,
in the big booming towns and those that are growing
pretty fast. So why don't we, Jamie, why don't we
(01:48):
just ask you first, Wilcox Communities. What do we need
to know?
Speaker 4 (01:51):
What is it?
Speaker 2 (01:53):
So?
Speaker 4 (01:53):
We're a family owned So Jonathan, myself, and our dad
are the three partners of the company. Family owned multifamily
meaning homes for rent, developer, owner, manager of properties in
and around Central Ohio. We've been at it for a
little over twenty two years I think technically twenty I
(02:13):
believe twenty three years. And we're passionate about creating great
places to live, something that's in our blood. We're passionate
about customer service, building great places and building unique places
that people are very proud to call home.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
And I think we've done.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
It time and time again throughout Columbus. As you tour
around town and see the communities that we.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Built, Jamie and Jonathan, It's funny. When I arrived in
town in ninety nine, I look at what you've built
and designed and I'm like, wait, where was this? When
I came to town, there was nothing like this. So
I can't wait to talk, especially a little bit more
about the evolution of rentals and how they've changed in
(02:54):
the amenities. Not to mention, let's talk about the history first.
When did Willcox Communities arrived? When when was it born?
Speaker 4 (03:03):
So it's a bit of a winding story. But the
good news as we've an hour so we can we
can take you through it.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
We have more if you need it.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
So Willcox Communities as it exists today is a family
owned business. It didn't start that way. It started as
two entrepreneurials started companies. One was called Wilcox Development, which
actually I started in Chicago. I moved to Chicago shortly
after college. I started a home building company in Chicago,
and at the same time in Columbus, there's a company
(03:34):
called Long and Wilcox that was developing product in the
Columbus area. Jonathan uh Well started Willcox Communities in the
early two thousands. Jonathan went to law school and in
two thousand and six, I believe joined long In Willcock
joined long In Wilcox, and both companies were growing independently
(03:54):
of each other.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
There was some common ownership.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
We did some work together and then the Great Financial
Crisis happened and very difficult time for everyone in.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Our industry, ourselves no exception. We did survive.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
We learned some really important and really good lessons that
we keep to this day. And during that process we
came to the realization that the only groups that had
bigger problems than us as developers were the banks and
lenders that were lending to developers. And we, through a
(04:27):
lot of hard work and talking to a lot of people,
realized there's an opportunity to buy distressed communities, and we
bought distressed for sale condo communities primarily across seven states.
Had some equity backers behind us were able to do
that during that that was both through Wilcox Development and
(04:48):
long In Wilcox. During that process, we repositioned a number
of those communities got them kind of back on their feet.
The market was improving, and along the way there were
a couple of communities we decided to try a rental
concept versus a four seal concept. Both here in Columbus.
(05:08):
Those were very successful. And after that experience and based
on some of the dynamics in Chicago, decided, hey, we
really want to focus are both companies going forward in Columbus.
Let's take these two businesses, let's combine them into a
family owned business. And so I moved back to Columbus.
As part of that change, we repositioned the businesses. One
(05:30):
really important thing that happened along that way was our
mom sat us down and she sat across the table
just like you are right now, a boxer from us,
and she said, Okay, you looked at me, look me
in the eye, looked at Jonathan, you look me in
the eye. I'm not signing off on this unless you
guys promise that this will never affect the family dynamic.
(05:50):
It's something that we made a solemn oath. Unfortunately, our
mom passed away a few years ago, but that promise
lives to this day and I think is indicative of
what has become the culture of Wilcox communities. Is that
that family first type of mentality. So he made that change,
(06:11):
moved back to Columbus, combined the companies, and today we
are a what we call a first generation multi generational company.
As I mentioned, Jonathan, myself, and our dad are the
three partners.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Well, Jamie and Jonathan. First, I'm sorry to hear about
your mother, but what she certainly sounds like someone who
was the glue to the family. And with what she
said just out of curiosity, was was she just asking
and making sure, Hey, before you boys go in on
a business together, I want to make sure business doesn't
get in the way of family. Is that kind of
(06:46):
what she meant or exactly?
Speaker 3 (06:48):
You know, I think everyone has heard stories about family
businesses that that implode and then relationships are impacted. And
I think her thought was, you know, look, family is
the most important, So don't do this if there's any
chance that it could impact the family. Yeah, And we've
taken that to heart and still do.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Jamie, by the way, pretty ambitious to go to Chicago
and start a development company. Why why Chicago? Why not
right here in Columbus. Is was it something you just
wanted to get away for a little bit, or it's.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
A good question to take myself back twenty some years
to figure it out. I think mainly, you know, I
had I was freshly married, my wife's not from Columbus.
We had a number of friends in Chicago, and we're
kind of looking for a fresh start, a new start,
and kind of let's say, going out on my own
in building something successful that that was really the maint Yeah,
(07:44):
but as a as a young twenty something, there's not
all that much thought that goes into it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Yeah, Hey, this might be captain obvious, So forgive me.
I'm guessing the biggest difference between developing in Chicago and
Columbus is there's probably more opportunity here to develop versus Chicago.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
Well, the Chicago market, so after the Great Financial Crisis,
the Chicago market from the peak of building permits to
the trough of permits, so number the highest number to
the lowest number during the Great Financial Crisis and after
it was a ninety two percent drop. That's a market
that was decimated by the Great Financial Crisis, and frankly
(08:25):
to this day is still recovering. And there are a
lot of demographic and other headwinds in that area, and
we kind of have the opposite situation here in Columbus
where we have demographic and other tailwinds behind us. And
so you know, we just saw a lot more opportunity
going forward here in central Ohio versus that market.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Yeah, by the way, with the Great Recession and what
we saw in the late two thousands, just as a
as a business nerd for a second, how did as
a developer you guys survive that? What was the secret sauce?
What did you I mean, what did you do? How
did you survive that? A lot of people didn't.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
I think a couple of things. One, we were proactive
with our lenders. We had eight active projects of four
in Columbus, four in Chicago, so a lot going on
that were in various stages of completion. None of them
were done. We were proactive with our lenders, and I
think just understanding the reality that hey, we have a problem,
(09:29):
let's engage with our banks and let's you know, mutually
come up with ways to get through this.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Was beneficial.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
We also were fortunate to have access to capital to
get through it. And I think a lot of the
guys that that lost communities just didn't have that staying
power or the capital behind them, and so, you know,
maybe a little bit of luck. I think those three
things though.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Jonathan, when did you look at your background? You also
decided you you had an underground of business, but you
decided to move on and go to law school, Jamie,
by the looks of it, Correct me if I'm wrong.
You right out of school undergrad just went right after,
went right after developing right away. What did you were
you not? Did you always know, Jamie, you wanted to
(10:17):
do developing? Was that something you always wanted?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Actually?
Speaker 4 (10:20):
No, So I spent a year originally out of school.
I worked at Arthur Anderson doing business consulting and it
was a great year. Met a lot of great people, learned.
It was kind of a you know, big business type
of environment. What I really didn't like about that job
is it was it was consulting and it was created.
It was application developments that are creating you know, systems
(10:43):
for for clients, and I didn't like that. You'd work
a long time, very hard on a project. You'd hand
over the what you created to the client, they'd shake
hands and say see you later, thanks a lot, and
there was nothing there to show for what you had
spent your your your blood, sweat and tears on. Yeah,
so I put after I actually, Arthur Anderson ceased to
(11:06):
exist as a company after the Enroun situation, and so
I found myself out of a job and was looking
for a change in the approach to my career to
do something that I personally could could touch, see and
feel and see the fruits of what I did, and
do something that will be standing and people will be
enjoying long after we're gone.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
That to me was very attractive to real estate.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Yeah, Jonathan, how about you, because you went to law school?
So were you? Were you going a different router?
Speaker 3 (11:35):
I didn't know, you know, my interest. I had an
interest in business. I was a finance major in college.
I had an interest in politics, and I had an
interest in government. And I really didn't know yet what
I wanted to do. Law school to me, felt like
a good foundation for all three things. So went straight
through after undergrad through law school, and after law school,
(11:58):
I worked for a litigation firm for a short while
and then worked for did a one year clerkship with
a federal judge, Judge George Smith, who recently passed away.
But he was a he was a phenomenal guy. And
I I finished that at the end of five and
had some decisions to make. You know, did I want
(12:19):
to spend the rest of my life in a law firm.
Did I want to go to d C. Did I
want to run for office?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
What did I want to do?
Speaker 3 (12:25):
And you know, after talking to people, I had a
really funny conversation. I met with a well known politician,
elected official. I'm not going to name his name, but oh,
come on, I I'm not going to do it. I
won't do it to him. But I went and talked
to him and said, hey, I'm really you know I
mentioned in politics, I'm really you know, considering, you know,
maybe running for something. And he sat me down. He said, Jonathan,
(12:49):
why the hell would you want to do that? He said,
this is a this is a frustrating existence. It's hard
to get anything done. People are always mad at you. Said,
you know, you've got this great education, you have a
wonderful family business. You know, go into the business. And
that really that was good advice. And you know, talk
to to our dad as well. And of course timing's
(13:13):
never been my forte. This was like the peak of
the housing bubble and like late O five, early of six.
But my dad really encouraged me to join the business,
as did Jamie, and so I joined in January of
O six.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Knowing your interest in government and policy, I would have
to imagine, and Jamie you can jump into I would
have to imagine that you're a huge asset to Wilcox
to get through red tape permits.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
I'm guessing yeah, yeah, I mean, Jamie, you can sing
my praises.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Yeah, I will. I would love to. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:45):
I think Jonathan has the perfect background for really what
we do. In the heart of what we do is
we in order to get new developments done, we have
to work through an approval on a zoning process. And
having the legal background, the legal mind, combined with you know,
an ability to connect with people and just work with
people and find common ground and find middle ground to
(14:08):
solve problems has really catapulted us to be able to
do what we've done. So, you know, I say very often,
I'll say here on the podcast. You know, Jonathan is
the best zoning person in Columbus. He's just as good
as it gets and doing what he does and what
we do as a.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Company, all right.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Jamie and Jonathan Wilcox are with us for this week's
guests and CEOs you should know from Wilcox Communities. Okay,
I want to fast forward a little big guys. First
community that you built, where where is it?
Speaker 3 (14:40):
First apartment community? Yes? Sorry thet Yeah, very first rental
community is a is a location called Wheaton Village in Reynoldsburg.
And it was a distressed, failed, unfinished condo development that
another developer had started and had lost it to the bank. Okay,
we bought it and it was a little bit of
(15:01):
a disaster, I would say.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
As many communities were that had gone through that process,
you know, that was that was kind of just part
of the deal was was figuring out solutions to problems
that the communities had had.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Yeah, And so a developer had plans to build one
hundred and twenty town homes. He built ten, he sold
four and then went out of business. So he had
six drywall to unfinished units. He had an unfinished clubhouse
with a bunch of debris in the pool. It just
never got off the ground, unfortunately. And these poor people
we had bought homes there and weren't sure what was
(15:35):
going to happen. So we were really really interested in
getting into the apartment business, but we wanted to do
something different. And our idea, and this goes back, I
think to our experience building condominiums, was let's offer an
apartment community that's different than traditional multi story apartments with
surface parking. Let's build you know, single story, vaulted ceilings.
(15:59):
Let's build homes that look and feel more like condos
with attached to car garages. But we'll build them and
we'll rent them. And so Wheaton Village was our first
attempt at that. I will say we bought all four
units back from the people that had bought units, so
they weren't stuck in an apartment development. So we were
proud to be able to do that. And then we
built eighty apartments at Wheaton Village and they filled up
(16:23):
as quickly as we could build them. We heard from
the market that, hey, this is not the typical apartment.
You know, I've been looking for something like this. But
I don't want you know, people living above and blow me.
I don't want to climb steps, I don't want to
park out in the surface lot. And it went great.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
How how long after you could tell that there was
success there in Reynoldsburg. Did you move on to the
next community?
Speaker 3 (16:48):
We did pretty quickly. So our second community is another
similar story. A stalled condo project we bought on Broad
Street in Black Lily called Bedford Place. Oh yeah, and
did the same thing, built about one hundred and twenty
five units. And I think by that point we knew
we were onto something. And I don't remember the exact moment,
(17:11):
but I'm pretty sure we sat down and we said, hey,
home building for sale. Home building is history. We really
want to focus on this segment of the market, and
we want.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
To do it in a bigger way.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Was it because of the housing situation and the Great
Recession that you decided I think we could have more
success pivoting to rental versus for sale.
Speaker 3 (17:33):
Was that part of it or I don't know that
it was. If that was a major part of it.
We did have questions early on as to whether our
success would be short lived because people were still dealing
with the Great Recession. Yeah, but we found out that
this was a growing part of the market unrelated to
the recession. And you know, our average age resident is
(17:55):
about fifty, so you know this as America ages and
there's more people entering, you know, into their fifties and
their sixties. We're finding a percentage of people are choosing
to rent rather than own, and that demographic shift and
both preference and the growth of that age group has
(18:16):
caused a lot of demand for that product.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
I'm so glad you brought that up. I was just
literally over the weekend reading an article I think it
was the Wall Street Journal about how that age or
even younger people are deciding that that thought process of
owning something, owning property might be changing a bit. There
(18:38):
are some people that believe I'm just gonna rent and
I can retire early and then I'll go figure out
if I want to own something. And then you still
have people that believe I want the American dream. But
we also see that maybe the American dream is changing too,
maybe it's not necessarily home ownership. What do you, guys,
what's your take on that?
Speaker 4 (18:58):
Well, I guess our experience and the types of folks
that live in our communities mainly are people who've already
had the American dream, and they are typically coming out
of a single family home that they've raised their their
family in, and you know, with the dynamics of the
market today, they can sell that home for top dollar.
(19:22):
Sometimes it's hard to then get into a smaller home
or a condo or something else. And so our approaches,
we'd like to attract them to one of our communities.
We like to show them the level of service they
get in a Wilcox community. We'd like to show them
how they can make connections with new neighbors, really enjoy
their life. In fact, our company vision, what we what
(19:43):
we strive to do every day is to improve people's lives.
And so we want them to come in love, love
the way they're living, and decide they never want to leave.
It's a it's a real simple it's a real simple model.
And so you know, in our experience, those those people
sell their home put them on either pocket. Maybe they're
able to travel, maybe they're able to help their kids
or grandkids with education, you know whatever, and they have
(20:06):
this outstanding new way of living that happens to be
rental but has all these great other antillary things that
come along with it.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
So, guys, how many communities do you have?
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Now?
Speaker 3 (20:17):
We have seventeen I was gonna say sixteen, sixteen or
seventeen plus have additional a few more in developmentyah plus
in the pipeline.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
Your guys' story the early days of taking over another
project to get your own company started and launched. That's
economically that seemed like a pretty solid idea. Why not?
Has has that changed? Versus where you're right now? Meaning
we're in a world of data. Are you guys reading
a bunch of data? Do you collect data on your
(20:48):
communities and where to build next? How does that work?
Speaker 2 (20:53):
I think for us.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
At least in Columbus, and we know the market very well.
We're born and raised here, and so it's a mix
of you know, gut feel what we know about the market,
and data. It's not really strictly one or the other.
Sometimes the data looks really good somewhere, but the gut
feel just isn't right, and vice versa. Sometimes you know
(21:17):
that the patterns of movement, migration or heading to a
certain area, the data is not quite there yet, but.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
We know it's going to be a good location. So
it's a combination of it.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
I was looking at your website. Do you there's one
that's about to open one community, maybe it already opened.
What's your latest build.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
That you have?
Speaker 1 (21:34):
What community I forget.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Probably Ma're in reserve in Plain City.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Yeah, it's probably.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
That's our newest one, just recently had our grand opening
and it's on the west side of Plaine City. It's
a it's a wonderful area, growing area, and we have
a total of two hundred and twenty six units there
and we've recently opened the clubhouse in Phase one and
it's already filling up.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Well, yeah, do you guys think there's a housing crisis?
Are we in one right now? When it comes to
central Ohio?
Speaker 3 (22:03):
I believe I think we absolutely are. We. You know,
if you look at the permit numbers historically versus where
we are today, and you compare that to our job
growth and our population growth, I think there's no doubt
we're in a housing crisis. I want to say, last year,
I think we permitted ten or eleven thousand new homes.
(22:25):
About half of those were apartments. So if you take
the apartments away, we're built permitted five thousand new single
family homes last year, which you know, even opponents of growth,
I think would acknowledge that that's just simply not enough.
We're seeing it in pricing, both in rent and in
the home builders, and the for sale space pricing is
going up. So I think there's no doubt.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
What do you ate, Jamie and Jonathan, What do you
say to someone who will say, oh, the rent's so
expensive everywhere? Why do they have to keep jacking up
the rent? Not that you guys are, by the way,
but what But there's a whole thought process, business model
behind that too. What maybe people don't realize.
Speaker 4 (23:08):
Well, I mean, whether it's rent or home prices, we
are all none of us control the rents the prices.
These are supply demand, market driven, market driven factors. And
as Jonathan was saying, we firmly believe there is a
housing crisis in Columbus, and we also firmly believe there's
there's one way to solve that solve this crisis, and
(23:31):
that's to build more homes. Supply and demand or these
are these are laws of economics that that don't go away.
I think a great place to look at is Austin,
Texas and what's happening down there right now where they
have massively increased population, they've increased jobs, they've massively increased
the production of new homes and rents and prices are down.
(23:53):
GDP for the community is up and the percentage of
residents there who are I forget the term by our
housing house poor, are have more than their proportionate share
is reducing along the way. And so there is a
future for Columbus where we can add jobs, we can
add economic growth, and we don't have to sacrifice affordable
(24:15):
housing in the process. But the solution is to is
to build more, is to have more supply.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
I would have to imagine your future business plans are
knowing this are pretty ambitious, I would imagine. And where
can you say where you're looking to go next or
what area of central Ohio or.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Sure, Yeah, we we have a new project we're working
on for a spring groundbreaking can out Winchester called Miller Farm.
We were at city council meeting last night, so things
that are trending in the right direction. We're excited about that.
Pretty close to.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
The and Roll facility.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
That's a great idea, which yeah, which I'd like to
say we planned it that way, but we started working
on it before that announcement, so we just look smart.
But we have a new location in Marysville that'll be
a spring start, and work on a new location in Heath. So, yeah,
a lot of opportunities. I mean, we are extremely bullish
(25:12):
on the central Ohio market, particularly the central house suburban market,
so we're always looking for new opportunities. It's gotten very
difficult to buy land at a reasonable price. Sure, there's
just so much competition with other home builders, developers, out
of town developers, and builders coming into the market. So
(25:33):
it's getting harder and harder, but a lot of room
for growth. And we're out there and.
Speaker 1 (25:38):
Every day I would imagine you guys have some sort
of pro forma set up where you know, buying the
land and it can't go over a certain price, otherwise
forget it. There's got to be a I'm guessing a
certain number and if it's over that, you're like, well
we got to walk. We're not going to make anything
out of this. Is that right?
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (25:57):
And it's one of the challenges right now in this
there's a whole bunch of factors that go into this.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
Is it.
Speaker 4 (26:02):
It's harder too, and using some industry jargon, it's harder
to make properties pencil, it's harder to make the numbers work.
The input costs, the land costs, interest rates, insurance costs,
you know, all kinds of things go into that, So
that is essentially exacerbating the challenge that we're seeing as
a market right now. It's just it's just harder to
(26:24):
get it done. It means fewer new communities. Uh, the
economics work on them. That so we've got to work
that much harder to make each community work.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Yeah, Wilcox communities. What sets Wilcox apart from other communities
amenities for example.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Yeah, I think we've continued to expand our amenities. So
going back to Plaine City, we just did our first
pickleball court. A lot of excitement around pickleball these days. Yes,
we put a clubhouse in every development, and you know,
we have fitness center, We have a nice kind of
club room for resident use and for events. We have
(27:02):
this coffee bar that that gets a lot of use.
And then beyond the clubhouse, we always put a dog
park in of our residents have dogs, so we always
we always welcome that and you know, walking paths as
well as community gardens. So we we've continued to expand
upon our amenity offering.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
To set ourselves apart.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
But I think, you know, Jamie, I think customer service
and our approach to our residents. Probably is our our
biggest differentiator.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
Yeah, there's a couple of different jators that is that
is number one in the list. It's funny, so customer
service is something that is in our DNA, not by accident,
uh our. Our our dad when we were little kids,
was in the computer business and their business was run
on customer service, and we would hear stories at dinner
about customer service, as crazy as that sounds, and it
(27:53):
had a lasting impact on both of us. And so
when you live in a Wilcox community, you feel you
feel the difference in many many ways. Combined with great amenities,
as Jonathan said, which which creates spaces where people can
make connections. We want to build communities that aren't just
houses that their their homes, their neighborhoods. People make these connections,
(28:15):
get and get to know each other. And then the
third differentiating factor for us is design.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
We take an.
Speaker 4 (28:23):
Incredibly thoughtful, probably sometimes overthoughtful approach to the design of
our homes, of our exterior finishes, our exterior colors every community.
We labor over to make sure that it's a great
looking community, appropriate for where it's located, appropriate to the
town that it's in.
Speaker 3 (28:44):
And probably drive our team a little crazy in that process.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
Very much so, but it's but it's worth it and
you can see it as you drive around town. And
we also have a great team of dedicated folks. We
have an in house designer, which is unusual for a
for a company our size, and she does a great
job with interior colors and layouts and all those all
those sorts of things. So we have we've invested in
this and it shows in the communities that are out there.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
So, by the way, with your customers, I'm assuming you
must hear from them quite often on hey, we'd love
to have this or that, or do you do You
hear from them on other ideas and hey, the next
one you build, maybe you could do this.
Speaker 4 (29:27):
We do, and we we we go out and we
collect that feedback where we're constantly surveying, asking, talking to
our customers. Because who knows better about the experience of
living in the Wilcox community the folks that are living there.
We hear a lot of great feedback and of course
we hear feedback that is opportunities for improvement, and we're constantly,
you know, hearing that working on it, making changes making improvements.
(29:50):
It's a this is an ongoing evolution that really will
never stop.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
What's the most popular amenity? Is it the coffee bar
last year?
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Well, it depends on asked our dad.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Our dad was a big proponent of the coffee bar,
and he continues to be honestly, that probably is the
neat thing about it is residents stopping in the morning. Okay,
so our managers get to see him and interact with them,
and that's all kind of part of building those connections.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
It's not cheap to do a coffee bar, is it
like to design and have one sustainable?
Speaker 4 (30:26):
There's well, there's a lot of I mean there's a
lot of there's a lot of coffee we go through.
I was gonna say, so, I've heard this before.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
That's why I asked to buy a lot of coffee.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Beans every month.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
Another another new amenity that we just The first place
we did this was at Marin Reserve, which is similar
to the coffee bar, but it's kind of on the
other end of the spectrum. We have a beer and
wine tap system and so if you're a resident, you
get a card and you can come in every evening
and you can get one free one free drink from
the tap system.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Wow. And it's been wildly successful. People have loved it.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
It gives again, it's a reason for people to get together,
whether they're outside the patio, inside the clubhouse, playing pickleball,
having a drink. So we're going through beer and wine
kegs like you wouldn't believe.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
We probably need to start a coffee bean farm and
a distributor exactly.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
That's what's next. That's ironic because Jonathan and Jamie, I
was just going to ask you what's the future of
Wilcox Communities as we wrap up? Where where do you see?
I don't know if you can, you know, divulge this
or not. Where where's the growth? Where are you heading
to next?
Speaker 3 (31:36):
Well, first and foremost, who want to continue the growth
here in our hometown. And we're not going to change
our approach central Ohio. But we are working on entering
the Cincinnati Date and Dayton suburban market. So as we
look at the North Cincinnati suburbs South Dayton suburbs, we've
actively been evaluating markets there and based on our success
(31:56):
here and understanding the market there, we think are product
could be really successful and consolving it there. So that's
our next stop. But you know, long term, we want
to get to ten thousand units. We're a little over
a couple thousand now, and you know, we're passionate about
what we do. We think there's a lot of demand
for it. So beyond that, you know, we've talked about Indianapolis,
(32:18):
We've talked about maybe the Carolinas. So we're gonna we're
going to be smart with our growth, but we definitely
want to keep expanding beyond Central Ohio.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
By the way, guys, how often do you lean on
dad for advice when it comes to business.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
All the time?
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Yeah, Yeah, we have.
Speaker 4 (32:35):
We have an incredible mentor just happens to be our father,
which is which is great and it's helped shape who
both of us are, of course, and we just kind
of are lucky to have him as a father and
as a mentor.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
That's awesome. Guys. Where can someone find out more on
Wilcox Communities website social media?
Speaker 4 (32:56):
Yeah, our website is Wilcoxcommunities dot com. Community these plural
C O, M, M, you and I T I E S.
I spelled that about three thousand times probably, and then
we're on all.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
The social media.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
I'm not all the platforms, all the normal platforms, yes, correct.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
All right, super easy to find just yep, Google search
it and you'll be able to find it well. Jonathan
and Jamie Wilcox Wilcox Communities, congratulations on your success and
thanks for joining us today. And CEOs you Should Know.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
Yeah, thanks Boxer, This is a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
Yeah, thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
CEOs You Should Know is hosted and produced by Brandon Boxer,
a production of iHeartMedia, Columbus
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