Martha Stewart Home Venture Finds Success in North Carolina
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KB Home and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, which last year teamed up to build a housing community in North Carolina inspired by the domestic guru, said they plan to build a second community outside Atlanta.
KB, the fifth-largest American homebuilder by market value, and Martha Stewart Living will build about 800 homes on 480 acres in southern Fulton County, Ga. The homes, between 1,800 square feet and 4,600 square feet, will start around $200,000, the companies said yesterday in a statement.
The companies last month began selling lots in their first development of 650 homes in Cary, N.C., just outside Raleigh. The first phase of 108 planned homes sold out within the first two or three weeks, 93 of them selling the first day, a KB spokeswoman, Lindsay Stephenson, said. The first homes in North Carolina are expected to be ready by July, she said.
Like the North Carolina homes, the Georgia community will have a look that rivals Stewart’s homes in New York State and Maine and feature flooring, paint colors, and fixtures inspired by Stewart, the companies said. Though
not their official names, the communities have been referred to by local press and company officials as Marthasvilles.
Shares of Los Angeles-based KB Home fell $1.89, or 2.8%, to $65.25 as of 1:56 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. New York-based Martha Stewart Living fell 8 cents, or less than a percent, to $19.22.
