RICHMOND, Va. — Danny Sowers didn’t expect to host Richmond’s Homearama two times in three years.
The developer’s RounTrey community in Chesterfield was the site of the annual homebuilding and design showcase in 2015. He said circumstances happened to line up for the community’s newest neighborhood, NewMarket Estates, to host this year’s event, which kicks off this weekend.
“It wasn’t something that we had ever really thought about. We had joked about hosting it again at some point, but it’s a large undertaking, and it takes its toll on everybody,” said Sowers, who in addition to hosting will be one of the event’s 10 featured builders.
Sowers, who serves on the board of the Home Building Association of Richmond, the nonprofit trade group that puts on the show, said talks about potential host communities this year once again led to Midlothian, where newer, still-developing communities like Hallsley and Magnolia Green have hosted the event the past five years.
Sowers described NewMarket Estates as the custom-home section of RounTrey’s NewMarket, a neighborhood featuring larger lots ranging from a quarter-acre to just under an acre, and home prices ranging from $640,000 to the low $700,000s. Sowers said those lots, some fronting an inlet of Swift Creek Reservoir, were just starting to be developed when the conversation of hosting Homearama turned toward RounTrey.
“We had multiple sections opening up right when builders were needing to get houses started, so we had the lots available, we had the builders that had interest in it,” Sowers said. “And HBAR needed a host site, so everything just worked out.”
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