Bill Lurz, Senior Editor

    Target   Typical Sale price 100.0%   100.0% Cost of sales 70.0%   78.0-85.0% Gross margin 30.0%   15.0-22.0% Indirect construction costs 3.5%...

Houston-based builder David Weekley is housing's top dog in retailing.

Privately owned GIANT builders, competing with Home Depot and Lowe's in high-profile retail 'design centers,' expand a new advantage of bigness.

If you're looking for an efficient design center to use as a model for entry into this business, a trip to Hovnanian Enterprises' facility in Edison, N.J., makes sense.

Imagine the jolt Bradenton, Fla.-based builder Lee Wetherington, president and CEO of Lee Wetherington Homes, got recently when he walked into his 2,500-square-foot design center...

Design centers sprout like mushrooms as GIANT production builders go into retailing options and upgrades for big, big money.

  Many in the seniors housing industry thought it only logical that, as the baby boomers aged and the children left home, their next move would be to active adult communities...

The chief executives of the four largest private GIANTS share the lessons they’ve learned by operating shy of the spotlight.