Published by The National Association of Home Builders on April 30, 2025.

 

Wellness-focused home design is becoming increasingly common as home builders and owners focus on comfort and livability. But most wellness concepts in the residential space are offered at the very high end of the market in custom homes.

 

ERTH360, a home design and architecture firm based in Ontario, has spent years focused on bringing wellness concepts to production home design. Its collaboration with Empire Communities, a home builder based in Toronto, won the Gold award for GIA Global Innovation Home of Year at NAHB’s The Nationals for 2024.

Published by The Builders Daily on Friday, February 7th, 2025.

 

Empire Communities, one of North America’s largest privately held homebuilders, has acquired Charlotte-based SouthCraft Builders, further extending its reach in the Southeast U.S. housing market.

 

This acquisition continues a pattern of regional consolidation. Well-capitalized private homebuilders — particularly international firms — are absorbing local operators to strengthen their market position, secure land pipelines, and scale more efficiently in an environment where land, capital, and homebuyer affordability are non-negotiable challenges.

Vaughan, ON – February 6th, 2025 – Empire Communities, one of North America’s largest privately-held homebuilders, has acquired Charlotte-based SouthCraft Home Builders (“SouthCraft”), expanding its presence in the region and strengthening its ability to serve a broader range of homebuyers. SouthCraft will continue to focus on value-driven homebuyers while maintaining its current operations and leadership team.

Empire Communities is recognized as Trusted Builder/Developer through the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD)’s Trusted Builder Program. BILD’s Trusted Builder Program is a public facing recognition program that identifies builder and developer members that have been part of the association for at least 25 years. The program is designed to acknowledge the longstanding commitment of BILD’s builder and developer members that have met the housing needs of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) for decades.

 

Members of the program meet specific criteria, including:
1. Demonstrated experience enduring the challenges of fluctuating markets and ever-changing environments (economic, policy and regulatory)
2. Like all accredited builders in Ontario, the builders and developers of the program are fully licensed and comply with Ontario’s highest building codes and regulations
3. Have been members of BILD and adhered to BILD’s strict code of ethics for a minimum of 25 years.

 

Visit bildgta.ca/trustedbuilder to learn more about the Trusted Builder Program.

Willowdale Asset Management Launches as Premier Owner and Manager of Leading Real Estate Businesses

Vaughan, Ontario, Dec. 02, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Willowdale Asset Management, formerly the corporate division of Empire Communities, today announces its official launch as a diversified real estate asset manager, overseeing seven distinct businesses across the industry. Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Willowdale’s legacy dates to its founding in 1993, growing from a single-project homebuilding company into a dynamic, vertically integrated real estate asset manager with nearly $5 billion in assets under management across North America.

For Immediate Release:

VAUGHAN, ON (OCTOBER 24, 2024) — Empire Communities and ERTH360 are proud to announce that they have been recognized with the prestigious Energy & Environmental Building Alliance (EEBA) Excellence in Healthier Homes Award. This award, presented at the EEBA High Performance Home Summit in Salt Lake City, UT highlights the companies’ collaborative efforts to advance healthier living environments through innovative homebuilding solutions.

For Immediate Release:

Vaughan, Ontario, Nov. 04, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Empire Communities Corp. (“Empire Communities” or “Empire”) announced today that it has closed its offering, on a private placement basis, of CAD$225 million aggregate principal amount of 7.625% senior unsecured notes due November 1, 2029 (the “Notes”). The Notes were issued at par and have been guaranteed by certain of Empire’s subsidiaries. Interest on the Notes will be payable semi-annually in arrears on May 1 and November 1 of each year, commencing on May 1, 2025.

For Immediate Release:

 

VAUGHAN, ON (SEPTEMBER 30, 2024) – Empire Communities, one of North America’s largest privately held homebuilders, continues its U.S. expansion with the announcement of a strategic partnership with Colorado Springs-based builder Covington Homes. The partnership further diversifies and expands Empire’s presence in the U.S. to 8 markets, including Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Atlanta, Chattanooga, Charlotte, Greenville, and now Colorado Springs.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

[Vaughan, Ontario, August 12^th, 2024] – Empire Communities, an award-winning residential homebuilder in Canada and the United States is proud to announce that its standard home model featuring ERTH360 Air enhancements has achieved the rigorous clean airflow requirements of ASHRAE Standard 241 — the new high bar for infection resiliency. This first-of-its-kind achievement is a testament to Empire’s commitment to providing homes with the highest standards of indoor health and sustainability. ASHRAE Standard 241, Control of Infectious Aerosols, is a landmark standard published in July 2023 and applies to all building types, commercial and residential.

 

The clean air performance of Empire’s standard home with ERTH360 Air was evaluated and verified to meet the standard’s targets using a new test method that ASHRAE Standard 241 introduced to the industry, known as ‘air tracing’. Poppy, a venture-backed company based in San Francisco, has pioneered air tracing as a rapid, low-cost commissioning / retro-commissioning technology and service for any building. The Poppy Certify program has been used in over 1,000 locations globally, promoting gold-standard health measures while reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions. Empire’s attainment of Poppy Certify status underscores the company’s commitment to creating a healthier and safer environment for its homeowners.

 

“In our 31st year of homebuilding, Empire continues its dedication to ensuring the safety and comfort of our homeowners while constructing more sustainable homes. Achieving Poppy Certify status is part of a broader initiative to introduce ERTH360 Air in select Empire communities,” states Dan Guizzetti, Co-CEO of Empire Communities. Andrew Guizzetti, Co-CEO adds, “This underscores our commitment to enhancing homebuyers’ health and well-being by providing clean and healthy indoor air, while minimizing environmental impact through balanced energy use.”

 

Empire Communities joins an elite group of sustainable, healthy buildings across various sectors that have been assessed using air tracing and have achieved Poppy Certify status. This breakthrough in single-family homes demonstrates that accessible HVAC upgrades combined with comprehensive testing enable a home with central air conditioning to meet the most stringent requirements of ASHRAE Standard 241. The Empire Communities standard home featuring ERTH360 Air improvements used a bypass HEPA filtration unit, alongside MERV 13 filters, and a 175 CFM energy recovery ventilator (ERV) to enhance indoor air quality and sustainability.

 

For the homeowner, ASHRAE Standard 241 offers numerous benefits by promoting healthier environments for occupants. These benefits include:

1. Clean air necessary to substantially reduce the risk of disease transmission.
2. Reduced occupant exposure to various pathogens, including the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for COVID-19, as well as influenza viruses and other disease-causing agents that inflict significant personal and economic damage each year.
3. A separate area where a household member known to be infected can isolate with the clean air equivalent to a patient room in a healthcare facility.

 

“Poppy congratulates Empire Communities on achieving this landmark for single-family homeowners and builders. Poppy Certify is awarded to buildings that satisfy performance requirements linked to ASHRAE building standards for the control of infectious aerosols,” says Elizabeth Caley, Co-CEO of Poppy.

 

The ERTH360 Air package was developed by ERTH360 to demonstrate that strategic improvements to standard homes can significantly enhance indoor air quality. ERTH360 also designed a Discovery Home at Empire’s Avalon community in Caledonia, Ontario featuring more substantial indoor environment improvements, including clean air, filtered water, and circadian lighting. This model also successfully passed the ASHRAE Standard 241 test, showcasing its effectiveness in improving indoor environmental quality.

 

About Empire Communities

Empire Communities is a vertically-integrated homebuilder involved in all sectors of the new home-building industry, including both low-rise and high-rise built forms. Celebrating over 30 years of building inspiring new places to live, Empire has an established tradition of creating prestigious award-winning new homes, communities and amenities, and has earned a reputation for outstanding attention to detail and customer service. Since its inception in 1993, Empire has built and sold over 35,000 new homes and condos. Today, Empire is one of North America’s largest privately held integrated residential homebuilders, with current communities in Toronto, Southwestern Ontario, Texas, Georgia, North and South Carolina, and Tennessee.

 

For more information, please visit Empire Communities | Building New Homes and Communities in North America.

About ERTH360

Empire acquired ERTH360 in 2022 and has established it as a separate business unit focused on designing healthier indoor living environments that improve occupant health and well-being while using more sustainable building materials.

 

For more information, please visit ERTH360.

About Poppy:

Poppy is the market leader in advanced air technologies for healthy, sustainable buildings. Poppy revolutionizes how buildings measure equivalent clean airflow, manage rising energy costs and secure health in buildings with their patented air tracing technology. Poppy serves locations in 25 cities, across Canada, US, Europe and the Middle East, helping building operators to reduce costs, decarbonize, and protect occupant health. Poppy was founded in 2019 and is based in San Francisco and Toronto.

 

For more information visit Poppy.com.

Austin, Texas, June 6, 2023: Empire Communities has opened a new model to showcase a new series of floor plans that are now being built in the Bastrop community of Adelton.

 

The homes, designed for 35- and 45-foot homesites, have urban and Craftsman exteriors, with rear-entry garages that allow for front porches and unhurried streetscapes. Home buyers can choose from five 35-foot floor plans priced from the $330,000s and sized from 1,551 to 2,159 square feet. The six floor plans for 45-foot properties start in the $390,000s and range from 2,025 to 2,772 square feet.

 

“We’re excited to bring these homes to market and grow our footprint in Bastrop,” said Terry Shuffler, Empire Communities Division President for Central Texas. “The exterior aesthetics reflect Hill Country ambiance, and the interiors deliver the types of features our research shows that today’s buyers are looking for.”

 

The model home, 148 Adelton Blvd, Bastrop, TX 78602 is the builder’s Pecos design, one of the larger floor plans Empire offers in Adelton. The primary suite is located at the front of the home, and the model shows the optional door from the walk-in closet to the laundry room. The flex space has been fashioned as a study in the model. Upstairs are two secondary bedrooms — each with walk-in closets — plus a game room and a balcony. There is also an optional Zoom room behind a hidden bookcase, one of several options available for the home. The 2,579-square-foot design is base-priced in the $470,000s.

 

“The interior is stunning,” Shuffler said. “TRIO Design tapped into emerging design trends to create a welcoming home that is both rustic and contemporary.”

 

Of note, he said, is the stone wall flanking the stucco fireplace.

 

Empire has 47 homesites within the first phase of the 348-acre Adelton, which is being developed by West Bastrop Village Ltd. The community will have four miles of trails and 50 acres of parks, open space and greenbelts.

 

In addition to Adelton, Empire also builds in nearby Double Eagle Ranch. In all, Empire is active in nine Austin-area communities. Empire’s portfolio spans two countries, eight regions and over 90 communities.