Housing construction management firm Reid’s Heritage Construction (RHC) is now operating under the umbrella of Reid’s Heritage Homes (RHH), as both are now owned by Tim and Charlotte Blevins. 

Former RHC president Eric Schmidt retired last November and its operations were brought under the leadership of RHH president Ron McMillan, who has held that role since December 2021. 

“Reid’s Heritage Homes is now a full-service homebuilder,” McMillan told RENX. “We will build for other clients, but we will also continue to build our own condominiums, our own detached homes and our own townhomes on land that we developed.” 

RHH has rebranded with a new logo and branding tagline -- "Heritage redefined, refined, reimagined" -- as part of the change in structure, which has pushed the total number of employees to about 150. The company also moved to 27,000 square feet of space at 700 Jamieson Pkwy. in Cambridge, Ont. so all of its office employees can be under one roof.

RHH's decor studio and sales office will move in September to the same location from its current 3,500-square-foot leased site at 30 Clair Rd. W. in nearby Guelph.

RHH has a profitable niche

RHH has been building homes in Ontario's Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH) region since 1978 and it ranked as the top builder in the region in terms of sales volume in 2020 and 2021. It delivered more than 1,000 homes last year between RHH and RHC.

That figure is right in the sweet spot that McMillan is comfortable with, as he said building more units adds more sites, people, complexity and overhead costs. 

RHH has also found a profitable geographical niche, as it knows the GGH area well and has a good base of tradespeople to work with -- while not having to deal with the higher land and construction costs, as well as other challenges, of the Greater Toronto Area.

“Three years ago we saw the potential for there to be a market correction and things to get difficult,” McMillan said. “So we started buying infill sites and, instead of putting mid-rise or high-rise condominiums on those sites, we decided to do stacked townhouses. 

“We saw construction costs for mid-rise and high-rise going through the roof and, as we started modelling and doing our pro formas, we were like, ‘We can't make money doing this anymore. It’s not going to work.’”

RHH came up with a design that it could build and price efficiently. McMillan said it can get more units on a three- or four-acre site by building stacked townhomes than it can by erecting a five- or six-storey building, while saving significantly on construction costs and time.

Stacked townhome developments

All 112 stacked condo townhome units at Sunrise Grove, at 950 St. David St. N. in Fergus, sold out within two months of going on sale last year. Prices started in the high $400,000s for the smallest homes and occupancy is anticipated to take place late next year.

Sales and construction for the first phase of the 392-unit Poet & Perth bungalow and three-storey townhome community, on Quinlan Road near O’Loane Avenue on the outskirts of Stratford, are underway.

Sales have begun and are doing very well for the first release in Argyle Village, a 150-unit stacked townhome project at 1563 Gordon St. in Guelph. 

Sales for The Block On Clair, a 135-unit stacked townhome development at 331 Clair Rd. E. in Guelph, are expected to begin in August or September.

Sales began for the first phase of the Modal At Main stacked townhome development at 345 Franklin Blvd. in Cambridge last fall and 75 of the 120 units have been sold. The development will have about 600 units upon full completion.

RHH’s other recent and current projects

A six-storey, 90-unit condo at 103 Roger St. in Waterloo, the second phase of Spur Line Common, began occupancy in March. The project had two mid-rise condos and 68 stacked townhomes on the brownfield site of a former factory that took two years to demolish and remediate before new construction could begin.

Occupancy has just begun at the five-storey, 132-unit Royal Windsor at Balmoral Village condo at 14 Harbour St. W. in Collingwood. Bungalow townhomes will be released later this spring as part of the project.

The first five mid-rise condos at Lackner Ridge on Lackner Boulevard in Kitchener have sold out and registration has begun for a sixth. Two of the buildings have been completed, the third is underway and construction of the fourth and fifth will begin soon. 

The community is a partnership with Newmarket-based Calibrex Developments.

While McMillan said RHH is always looking for new land acquisition opportunities for future projects, he believes many owners are still asking for too much money to make developing on their parcels feasible. He added, however, that RHH is working on acquiring three or four different sites for stacked townhome developments.

Construction arm activity with other companies

In addition to constructing 450 units internally, McMillan said RHH’s construction management arm built more than 600 purpose-built rental units in 2023 for other companies -- primarily for Guelph-based Skyline Apartment REIT, as well as for a few small independent owners.

This year it’s building condo stacked townhomes for Polocorp, an integrated land development company based in Kitchener that doesn’t have a construction arm. McMillan said it’s in talks for a few other projects that haven’t yet been secured.

“We do not go out and look for industrial or commercial work,” McMilla said. “Our specialty is residential.”