For more than a half-century, Caldwell & Johnson Inc. has followed where the house building has gone in Rhode Island.
Founded in the late 1960s, it produced hundreds of modest, middle-class houses when those homes were relatively affordable in the Ocean State. By the 1980s, it was constructing larger homes in new subdivisions and in more-rural areas of the state.
Now its work is custom construction and renovations.
David Caldwell, whose father co-founded the company in 1968, would prefer that the company build nothing but middle-class, workforce housing. But that’s difficult in Rhode Island.
“There is nothing I’d like to do more than to build affordable houses,” Caldwell said.
The issue, as many others have pointed out, includes the zoning and land restrictions in towns that often prohibit density – the kind of density a builder needs to build less-expensive homes profitably.
Caldwell & Johnson has been able to build economically priced, efficient duplexes in towns that encourage it. In North Kingstown, the company recently completed a net zero energy, affordable duplex.
The rental units will be aimed at senior citizens who need one-level, wheelchair-accessible living. “It’s specifically designed for seniors in the community who want a quality place to live,” he said. “They can live in this community and get out of the unsuitable or suboptimal housing they’re in now.”
If the company partners with R.I. Housing and Mortgage Finance Corp., the units will be leased at affordable rates. If that partnership doesn’t materialize, the units will be rented at the market rate.
Caldwell, who returned to Rhode Island about 10 years ago to take over the family business, previously worked in Los Angeles for a large commercial builder. He got his start in the family business at 12 years old, initially by dipping cedar shingles in a bleaching oil and hanging them on a clothesline.
His family made the move back to Rhode Island, in part, because he and his wife wanted a good place to raise children.
But the home construction business has changed since the company began.
“The market of new construction is high-end and subsidized/affordable, and nothing in the middle,” Caldwell said. “You can’t get the land costs [down]. You need the density.”
Renovations now make up about one-third of his business, he said, but he expects that will increase.
Millennial buyers are moving into small and dated homes, and those homes need to be updated. And move-up purchasers may have upward of $1 million in their budget for a house, but they can’t find anything they want. So, they purchase a dated house in a good town, and go in for a large-scale renovation.
What Rhode Island lacks is new construction for homes in the $200,000 to $400,000 range. By his estimates, between the time his father started his business and now, Rhode Island should have built another 100,000 of these middle-class homes.
“What the state needs more than anything else is moderate and workforce housing,” he said. “You need a lot of duplexes.”
OWNERS: David and Virginia Caldwell
TYPE OF BUSINESS: General contractor, custom builder, remodeling
LOCATION: 6500 Post Road, North Kingstown
EMPLOYEES: 18
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1968
ANNUAL SALES: WND
Mary MacDonald is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Macdonald@PBN.com.
