Homebuilding family starts Next Generation

After being a part of Chicago's homebuilding industry for more than 40 years, the second generation of the Hughes family is forging a path into the future under a new name.

Jim Hughes is now at the helm of Next Generation Development, which is based in the same Wheaton building his father, also named Jim, and his dad's partner at the time, Jerry Wiseman, built in 1985 for their bustling, highly successful Wiseman-Hughes Enterprises.

"For many years Wiseman-Hughes built in the Western and Southwestern suburban corridors. We know Aurora, Naperville, Oswego and even St. Charles very well. By 2005 and 2006, we were building between 500 and 600 homes per year," Hughes said.

"But then we experienced a global meltdown and our business model changed dramatically, going from 90 employees to six. From the middle of 2007 until 2012 or 2013, we worked with the banks to settle with everyone. I take great pride in that," he said. "In fact, several banks had us help them with their bank-owned properties or REOs. We helped them market some parcels and reposition them within different municipalities, and we even built some apartments and other rental properties.

"We knew the market would come back eventually, so we wanted to stay in the game. We wanted to be one of the few private builders left," Hughes said.

The company took a new name Hughes believes accurately reflects its future - Next Generation Development.

Randall Highlands in North Aurora is a good example of how the builder handled the tough years. Randall Highlands had been a Wiseman-Hughes property when the bottom fell out of the market. In fact, the infrastructure was already in place. So Next Generation built a slightly different townhouse product there and marketed them as rentals.

"We couldn't build these two- and three-bedroom rental townhouses fast enough for the young families that wanted to live there," he said. "Then we sold the property in April, 2015."

Today Next Generation Development is building, marketing and selling single-family homes and townhouses again. It recently opened models at Springbank in Plainfield, where it plans to build 99 single-family homes, and the company expects to open a townhouse model in late spring at Union Square, adjacent to the train station in Aurora, where it will build 55 townhouses.

"The days are gone when builders would buy 100 acres and put in 2½ homes per acre. Going forward, Next Generation Development will follow where the market goes and where the opportunities are. We will watch for infill locations of five to 10 acres within three blocks of train stations in good municipalities, or, like with Springbank, we will look for finished lots in good municipalities with good schools.

"As Springbank, we will market to move-up buyers, especially those coming from Oswego, Bolingbrook, Plainfield and from Joliet's Caton Road corridor," Hughes said. "Our base prices range from $285,900 to $360,000 and it is a fabulous product with traditional exteriors and cutting-edge, modern designs inside, including a drop zone near the owners' door. The community has easy access to I-55 and it features an enormous water park for the families."

Union Square, on the other hand, is aimed at younger couples who want an easy commute downtown via the train or to the Oak Brook corridor.

"They used to say that if you sell a house for $20,000 less, people will be willing to drive 20 miles more. But that is no longer true," Hughes said. "Today you have to be in a good location, close to transportation. Builders also have to be careful not to overbuild or overprice. Buyers are more conservative today about what they want versus what they need. So all of us are trying to figure out exactly where the market is and what today's buyers truly want in terms of size, amenities and price because buyers are also very cognizant of their ability to borrow.

"Next Generation Development is trying to continue to be the type of private builder that offers more options and works more closely with customers than the national builders are able to do. Eventually we would like to be building between 250 and 300 homes per year in six or seven different communities at a time," he said.

For more information about Next Generation Development, visit nxtgendevelopment.com.