Erickson Farms holds memories for area residents, developers

• What: NW Natural Parade of Homes, presented by Home Street Bank. Developers: JB Homes; Cascade West Development; Pahlisch Homes; Vilhauer Custom Homes; Glavin Homes; Pacific Lifestyle Homes; and Stone Bridge Homes NW.

• Where: Erickson Farms, Lakeshore Drive and Northwest 106th St., Felida area of Vancouver.

• When: 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays, July 11-27.

• Cost: $12; free for ages 12 and younger. Some discounts available.

• Information: clarkcountyparadeofhomes.com

About all that’s left of the old Erickson Farms in Felida are the memories of countless longtime Clark County residents who, as children, picked fruit and berries in those fields or who, as adults, bought those berries and other produce at the Erickson’s farm store.

Only the name remains, and it will soon be identified with what is emerging as one of Clark County’s most desirable neighborhoods. Erickson Farms, a residential development that will also contain a small commercial center, is rapidly filling 52 acres of former farmland that hung on long after suburban development overtook its surroundings.

The new look of Erickson Farms will be on display July 11-27 as the site of this year’s NW Natural Parade of Homes. That show, in the project’s Phase 2 development, will showcase eight homes built by seven developers. Those homes range in value from $700,000 to $1 million.

When completed, the first two phases of Erickson Farms will have 122 homes, selling for $400,000 and above. A third phase is planned to include 28 luxury townhomes in a gated community and six additional single-family homes. A 3-acre commercial site, to be developed next year, will provide space for small shops and cafes.

Vancouver real estate agent Patrick Ginn, whose Ginn Realty Group is selling homes for Stone Bridge Homes NW in Erickson Farms, said the large site provides developers with an opportunity to build a community with a variety of housing types, costs and lot sizes that appeal to many buyers.

“Erickson’s is pretty unique, said Ginn, whose firm is affiliated with the Hasson Co. Realtors. “Diversity is the key.”

Local contractors and others in Clark County’s development and real estate industries say the success to date of Erickson Farms give them renewed confidence that the housing market battered by the recession is finally back on solid footing.

“In a lot of ways we’re back to sort of a normal economy,” said Jim Beriault, a spokesman for the Building Industry Association of Clark County, which organizes the Parade of Homes.

Contractors in recent years have been unwilling to build for the Parade of Homes unless they had a buyer in advance, he said. This year, with a stronger economy and easier access to financing, some builders came to the Parade of Homes without buyers. But as testament to the strength of the upper-end market, most of the eight houses have already been sold, he said.

“That’s great news from an economic standpoint,” Beriault said. “The Parade has always been a bellwether of the economy.”

He expects a significant increase in attendance this year, perhaps exceeding 10,000 visitors, as increasingly confident consumers come looking for homes or home improvement ideas.

“People want a ‘wow’ factor, and I think we have a ‘wow’ factor,” he said.

Erickson Farms’ legacy

No one who has witnessed Clark County’s steady, sometimes breakneck growth could be surprised that the Erickson property in the popular Felida area would eventually be converted to housing. In fact, farm owners Vinton and Helen Erickson were had made a deal to develop the property in 2005, near the peak of the previous decade’s housing boom, when the deal would have commanded a premium price. Vinton Erickson, who was born on the farm and had spent most of his life there, had even helped design the housing development that seemed imminent.

But the development plan collapsed with the real estate market, sidelining countless developers, contractors and land speculators.

By 2012, the housing market was finally showing signs of recovery and the Erickson property, with development plans already in place, held renewed appeal to local developers. The Erickson farmhouse, 110 years old, was torn down, and the project finally got underway.

Vinton Erickson, who died in September at age 84, had moved to a care center in 2011. Helen Erickson, who now lives up the road from the new development, said she was ready to let go of the unused farm property.

“I appreciate what’s being done,” she said of the development project.

Recognizing the farm’s emotional hold on many in the community, she added: “People are nostalgic about farming unless they’ve done it themselves. It’s a lot of hard work.”

Pat Jeffries, founder of JB Homes, is developing the property for the Ericksons with his brother Mark. He takes a particular pride in their long association with the farm and its owners. Jeffries worked seasonally at Ericksons starting at age 9, bailing hay and performing other farm duties. At least two other developers at Erickson Farms also worked at the farm, he said, along with countless other neighborhood residents.

“They raised a lot of kids in this county,” he said of the Ericksons.

Jeffires said he’s proud of his work on Erickson’s Farms, creating a community designed years ago in consultation with Vinton Erickson, adding that its quality is a tribute to its namesake family.

“They wanted it to be a legacy to the farm and to the family,” he said. “The subdivision has turned out as nice or nicer than anything around.”

Growing confidence

The show comes at a time of growing confidence in the construction and real estate sector. That confidence is reflected in the most recent employment numbers from the State Employment Security Department.

In the past year, construction has added 900 jobs in Clark County, a 10 percent increase that, on a percentage basis, exceeding all other employment sectors, according to Scott Bailey, the department’s regional economist.

But that number also benefits from some context. Bailey notes in his most recent monthly employment report that the county still it has 2,800 fewer construction jobs than it had in 2007 even though county employment overall has returned to prerecession levels.

Likewise, home prices have not returned to pre-recession levels despite a strong comeback from the low point of 2012.

The median house price of $236,300 in May is up by about 43 percent from its low point of $165,000 in 2012, according to RMLS, the regional real estate listing service. But prices are still about 12 percent below the peak median of $269,900 in 2007. The Portland region’s median price (in Oregon) didn’t fall as far, from its $302,000 peak in 2007 to $207,500 in 2012, and prices haven’t climbed as quickly from the trough. Still, Portland’s median of $290,000 in April is just 4 percent below its peak, according to RMLS numbers.

The county last week reported that single family residential permits are up about 4.75 percent for this year’s first six months, compared to the same period last year. The county issued 485 single-family permits, including 102 in June.

Builders who have descended on Erickson Farms say they’re finding strong demand for homes with first-floor master suites, reflecting a desire of older buyers to find homes suitable as they age. Also popular, builders say, are large, well-designed outdoor living spaces.

At Erickson Farms, Ginn predicts the development will attract about a mix of younger families drawn to large lots and good local schools and older buyers moving into their retirement years. The ranch-style homes with master bedrooms on the main floor, hard to find in Clark County’s new home market, in particular appeal to the older buyers, he said.

While their prospects and bottom lines have certainly improved, veteran local contractors say the hard lessons of the crash from the previous decade’s housing bubble won’t be forgotten anytime soon. Parade of Homes builder Peter Glavin went through the housing collapse with his old company, Taylormade Homes, and now is working with his son Niall in a new company he formed in 2011 that is simply called Glavin Homes. In addition to his $825,000 prairie-style home at Erickson Farms, he’s working with Pat and Mark Jeffries on a subdivision in Camas.

“I’m definitely a little more cautious,” said Glavin, 61. “I’m trying to keep lessons of downturn in mind and not get too extended.”

His son, 25, helps in that regard.

“It turns out that he’s more financially conservative than I am,” Glavin said.

Just a few months ago, he started worrying that the housing market was heating too quickly. Then demand started to cool slightly.

“It seems like pretty good equilibrium right now,” he said.

Glavin’s contribution to the Parade of Homes is called the Lakeview Prairie, described as a contemporary version of Frank Lloyd Wright’s prairie-style home. It has an $825,000 asking price, Glavin said.

As someone who once picked berries and beans at Erickson Farms, he calls his return to the land as a developer “bittersweet.”

But, he said, “I think it’s going to be a great development.”