COLUMN: Carmel Hopkins

We all know that I'm a fan of the local home-building industry. I believe that with very few exceptions, the guys and gals who work in this field are honest, hard-working people whose primary concern is to offer a great product at the best possible price.

People in the communications business consider someone such as me to be a homer, and in this case I plead guilty. Ergo, it amuses me that the home-building industry calls its annual ceremony honoring the best and brightest of its peers the Homer Awards.

We all gathered at the MGM Grand Convention Center recently for the 19th annual ceremony. Mark Pfister, local weather personality, was the master of ceremonies. When I call Pfister a "personality," I'm not kidding. He probably is one of the best stand-up comics in town, and his remarks seemed unrehearsed.

Last year, the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association, which works so hard to put on the awards ceremony, seemed to feel obligated to have a female companion to Pfister. The woman was beautiful, but unable to compete with his witticisms. This year, it worked much better letting Pfister free-wheel it.

So who won? Other than Christopher Homes? Christopher Homes is the gorilla on the block. Their work is so advanced and beautiful, that other companies are hard-pressed to compete.

Chris Stuhmer and company topped their award winners with the Home of the Year award. This year's winner was the Nechita model at The Villas, the builder's newest project along the Southern Highlands golf course. This was the second year in a row that Stuhmer's company won the award.

Christopher Homes took seven awards in all. Trudging to the stage were Erica Geiser, sometimes accompanied by company President Steve Hackney, to pick up the trophies. The final time they went up, they dragged along Bill Blanchard, the vice president of construction who has been working for the builder on its Southern Highlands projects for the past 2 1/2 years.

Under Blanchard's tutelage, Stuhmer's company has proved successful with the Christopher Collection and now The Villas. Blanchard's most recent challenge has been overseeing Home Destinations 2003, the show home the company is building for the 2003 International Builder's Show.

Other builders winning awards were Astoria Homes, Celebrate Homes, Del Webb Corp., Pacific Properties, R/S Development Co., Signature Homes, Sunrise Colony Co., Toll Bros. and Westmark Homes.

The Howard Hughes Corp., the other gorilla on the block, won an award for its Summerlin ad campaign in the category of Best Master-Planned Community over 1,500 units.

The best part of the evening was the pre-dinner cocktail hour, when we were able to mingle with our friends and rivals. We're all so busy, we don't get a chance to see each other very often and last Saturday evening was an opportunity to shmooze and booze.

It was great getting together with all the folks from the industry who work together to bring the American Dream to Las Vegas. Congratulations to all the winners.

Carmel Hopkins, Real Estate Product Manager for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and Las Vegas Sun, can be reached at 380-4574. Her e-mail address is Carmel_Hopkins@lasvegasnewspapers.com. Snail mail is P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.

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