Thomas James Homes (TJH) has been a proud Orange County-based homebuilder since 2006, but it didn’t start building in its backyard until nearly two years ago.
It’s been full speed ahead ever since.
The company, which counts 110 employees in its hometown of Aliso Viejo, specializes in tearing down older homes in unique West Coast neighborhoods and building new ones on a speculative or custom basis, and selling them for anywhere from $3 million to $7 million.
It’s part of a strategy to increase in-demand home inventory in coastal neighborhoods with little to no developable land, such as Newport Beach.
“What we are looking for are homes that are underutilized on the land it sits on,” founder Tommy Beadel said, noting it will tear down a home spanning north of 14,000 square feet to build a much smaller home, around 4,000 square feet, that’s more modern and in demand from today’s home shoppers.
“We carry over $1 billion in for-sale value on our balance sheet at any time,” Beadel said, adding its profit margins are similar to that of a public homebuilder, nearing 20%.
Beadel and co-founder James Quandt launched the company in 2006; Beadel had been chief executive of the firm until last month, when he became co-chairman of the board of directors. James Mead, who joined the firm about two years ago as chief financial officer, is the company’s new CEO.
The company has more than 500 homes in production in California, the Pacific Northwest, Colorado and Arizona.
Newport Beach
In Orange County, TJH has 31 projects underway, and recently delivered a 4,509-square-foot home with a price tag of $5.3 million in Newport Beach’s Eastbluff neighborhood.
“We’re building brand-new houses in the best neighborhoods,” Beadel said.
Beadel started the company in Aliso Viejo where he was raising his family, though the company was predominantly involved in developing homes in West LA neighborhoods like Brentwood and Santa Monica.
Following a cash infusion from Oaktree Capital about five years ago, Beadel started to expand the business, ultimately picking up lots in Orange County about 18 months ago, around the same time the local market was booming, in part driven by homeowner relocations from Los Angeles and San Francisco.
“We had customers in Los Angeles asking if we had any projects in OC, and if we would build them a home down here,” Beadel said. “It was great timing.”
TJH has home projects underway in other Newport Beach neighborhoods as well as Huntington Beach and San Clemente.
“Tommy has placed us on the right track; my job going forward is to continue our important mission,” Mead said.
North OC Expansion
TJH counts two other growing business lines, one in which the company sells a land parcel to a prospective homeowner, who then signs a contract with TJH to build a custom home, and another more traditional custom home offering where TJH is contracted to build a home on a private lot.
“When we build a home for someone, we guarantee the timeline and cost, and we pay them for every day we are late,” Beadel said.
The firm wants to expand into more entry-level homebuilding in North Orange County markets like Anaheim and Westminster.
“The housing stock there is nearly 80 years old in some neighborhoods,” Beadel said.
“We see demand to maximize the utilization of the land and sell homes closer to $2 million, which would expand our buyer portfolio.”
