Hubbard Commercial - Development Lots - Article
Triad New Home Guide - Spring 2022
Hubbard Realty: A Key Player in the
Development of the Piedmont Triad
Hubbard Realty of Winston-Salem, was founded in 1950 by Lewis and Emma Hubbard. They moved to Winston-Salem in 1946, when Lewis was only twenty years old, and four years later in 1950 Lewis opened Hubbard Realty in a small partitioned space in the lobby of the Zinzendorf Hotel.
Bruce Hubbard, Hubbard RealtyThe post World War II market meant an abundance of prospective home buyers, but a shortage of homes. Reflecting on the time, Lewis once said, “All you had to do to sell a house was get the listing.” The shortage of listings led Lewis to purchase vacant lots, and resell them to builders with the promise that he would get the listing. According to Bruce Hubbard, CEO of Hubbard Realty, “it began in the 1950’s when my father Lewis Hubbard met a builder who asked that Lewis find a lot for him to build a house on, and if he liked it, he would buy it, and let Lewis sell the new home for him. One lot turned into two, and from then Hubbard Realty began to help builders who needed lots and a good real estate marketing company. Over the years, instead of finding scattered lots, Hubbard and many development partners began to purchase land, develop the residential lots, and then Hubbard would sell the lots to builders. Up until 2008, Hubbard Realty was working for over 100 local builders. There were years when the lot sale exceeded 500 lots sold.”
Bruce Hubbard joined the company in 1975 and continues at the helm today with John Lewis Godfrey serving as COO. Since they began tracking lot sales in 1994, Hubbard Realty has been involved in over 10,043 transactions as the developer or marketing company for new residential home sales for other developers.
Today Hubbard companies remain a family business, focused primarily on Forsyth and Davidson counties, with an inventory of over 300 lots available to builders and 51 communities in which individuals or builders can purchase lots.