Industry Insider: U.S. Shelter

Jack and John Sorenson believe that when their family company, Elgin-based U.S. Shelter LLC, develops a community and constructs the houses within it, they have three separate and distinct constituencies they need to please — besides themselves.

First, they must come to equitable terms with the landowner, giving him or her a fair price for their property that, in many cases, has been in a family for generations. But, at the same time, they must be sure to keep that purchase price reasonable enough so their future homebuyers, in turn, will be able to afford it.

Next, they must build attractive, innovative and quality homes for their buyers, which are architecturally appealing, filled with good amenities and meet the needs of their new owners.

Finally, they must add value to the community in which the land is located. They must build a subdivision that fits well into the surrounding housing stock.

In the case of the Sorensons’ current project, for instance, Oak Ridge in Elgin, they are building townhouses and small lot single-family homes in the portion of the subdivision near Lake Street, while at the northern end of Oak Ridge they are building single-family homes on larger lots.

This was done, the builders said, to better blend the new homes with existing homes in the two areas.

“We feel that we must look at every project we do from those three perspectives,” said Jack Sorenson, president of U.S. Shelter.

“We try to always remember we are building communities for people. So we work to make sure the homes and communities are functional for our buyers, providing affordable, but also safe, secure places for them to live,” he said.

Company history

U.S. Shelter was founded in 1969 by Edmund H. Sorenson, Jack’s father. Jack, a graduate of Monmouth College, joined him in 1973. U.S. Shelter, while based in Elgin, has built homes in more than 20 different suburbs including Itasca, Roselle, Arlington Heights, Hainesville, Aurora, Joliet and Matteson.

Over the past four decades, U.S. Shelter has built more than 6,000 homes in the Chicago area.

Both Jack and his son John, who joined the business in 2003, learned the family business from the ground up, working as summer laborers, salesmen, purchasing agents and construction superintendents before moving into management.

John is a graduate of the University of Colorado and also earned an MBA from Northern Illinois University. He was named vice president in 2008.

At the height of the building boom, U.S. Shelter was building and selling about 100 homes per year with two to three active communities under construction at any given time. By 2006, that number had dropped to 50 to 80 homes constructed per year and now, thanks to the mammoth decline in new home construction, they are pleased to be selling 10 to 12 homes per year, John said.

“We credit our survival to the fact that we never extended ourselves beyond our capability,” Jack said. “We never wanted to get so large that, if there was some kind of problem, we wouldn’t be able to address it personally. We felt that we would have more control if we remained smaller. Consequently, while we were left holding some land, it wasn’t too much, and that, combined with hard work and some luck, is why U.S. Shelter has survived.”

Current projects

“We are concentrating on completing Oak Ridge in Elgin, which we opened in 2006,” John said. “Once complete, it will consist of 72 townhouses and 66 single-family homes, surrounded by generous green space.

“We still have ten townhouses to sell, two of which are currently under contract, and we have two single-family homes under construction that can be purchased and three remaining single-family lots where people may have homes constructed for them.”

Designs offered in this community range from 1,832 to 3,340 square feet and cost between $170,000 and $349,000.

“U.S. Shelter personally involves its clients in all phases of the home-building process,” John said. “From selecting the most desirable homesite and choosing customized features, all the way until the client is comfortably situation in their new home, the entire team at U.S. Shelter is there to lend their extensive knowledge and expertise to ensure each buyer’s vision is fully realized.

“Each home is carefully crafted according to the client’s specifications and all of the building details are handled from start to finish, making the construction process smooth and enjoyable for customers,” he said. “This allows the buyers to focus their energy on simply making decisions for their dream home, while letting U.S. Shelter take care of the rest.”

U.S. Shelter has also branched out into tearing down small, outdated homes on scattered lots along the North Shore and building new homes there.

“Prior to the current housing decline, U.S. Shelter had 18 to 20 employees who were organized into groups like land development, construction, sales and management,” Jack said. “But we had to cut back on staff so now there are only five of us and we are all pitching in wherever we are needed, wearing many hats.”

But that does not stop them from working with top architects and subcontractors in the area. These respected professionals have proved themselves in helping to create masterful designs and beautiful homes, he said.

What is the best part about being a builder?

“This is a varied business which involves creating, selling and servicing a product — in our case, houses,” Jack said. “That is exciting and interesting.”

John agreed.

“Every day is different,” he said. “One day I might be designing a new home to take the place of a teardown and the next day I am solving problems in the field and the third day I may be talking to a bank. There is nothing routine about his job and that is fun.”

What are the biggest changes you have seen over the years?

“I started building homes in Chicago in 1973 and in those days, almost all homes were built by privately-held companies whose owners got together and called the shots,” Jack said. “Since then, the big public home-building companies have come into the Chicago market and changed everything because their makeup and mentality, since they have to report to Wall Street, is totally different than that of the private homebuilders.”

Jack said the quality and energy-efficiency of houses being built has also improved and the number of standard amenities, like hardwood floors and 9-foot ceilings, greatly increased. He has also noticed a greater degree of product segregation.

“Homes are more and more being built to meet the needs of specific target markets, like the (age) 55-plus communities,” Jack said.

At Oak Ridge, for instance, the townhouses (starting in the $170,000s) are primarily appealing to first-time buyers who are coming from a rental or from their parents’ home, as well as to recently-divorced singles. The ranch homes are selling to downsizers, primarily, but also to some younger families. Finally, the two-story homes, John said, are being purchased by young families and newlyweds.

Single family homes at Oak Ridge start in the $290,000s and include basements and three or four bedrooms.

For more information about U.S. Shelter and Oak Ridge, call (847) 622-1077 or visit www.usshelter.com.