Pitt Business e-newsletter Issue 13, January 2009
Green Home-Building Business is Growing
Shaun Seydor (MBA '07) has been busy since graduating. He launched his company, Bella Terra Homes; began building Anita Grove, a community of luxury green homes in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh; and sold his first Anita Grove property. While others might be overwhelmed by the bustle that has filled Seydor's life, he's enjoying it. After all, he spent his time in the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business helping other entrepreneurs launch and grow their businesses with the help of the Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence (IEE).
"Working with the IEE [as a graduate student consultant] gave me a great opportunity to be on the cusp of the entrepreneurial spirit in Pittsburgh and get a firm understanding of the direction of the city - the intangibles that you can't get in a business class," said Seydor, a Pittsburgh native who returned to the city for graduate school. He added that he still meets with mentors from the IEE and seeks their input as his business grows.
Despite the national subprime mortgage crisis, Seydor's business is going strong. Between offering a luxury, niche product—each of the five single-family homes in Anita Grove offers geothermal heating, Energy Star certification, resource monitoring technology, and responsible materials with low or no offgassing—and being insulated by Pittsburgh's relatively stable housing market, Seydor is looking forward to a bright future.
"With rising energy costs, it makes sense to make your home, one of the largest energy consumers, more efficient," Seydor said. "It's just doing the right thing, and you can still have a luxury home and be responsible."
The tremendous preparation Katz and the IEE offered does not mean Seydor's path has been free of surprises. He gained an appreciation for the sometimes maddeningly slow speed at which things move while helping other entrepreneurs establish their businesses, but, nevertheless, found that the creation of Bella Terra Homes took longer than he expected.
"But I feel more prepared than if I'd started [the business] right out of school," he said.
While Pittsburgh may not historically be known for its "green-ness," Seydor sees a lot of potential for the former smoky steel city to become a leader in the growing industry. The Pittsburgh director of the Green Building Alliance is also the interim director of the national alliance, Seydor noted, and the David Lawrence Convention Center is the largest green building in the country. By starting his business now, he will also be much better positioned when the market rebounds.
"I feel the industry is going to move forward," he said. "I'll be established in the industry as it grows and the market corrects."
