Hunters Point in Cortez Wins Green Builder Home of the Year in the Alternative Building Category

Thanks to green, forward thinking, the Hunters Point community thrives during natural disasters while others don't.

Reads full article in Green Builder’s latest issue here: https://www.greenbuildermedia.com/january-february-2025-green-home-of-the-year

Hurricanes cause billions in damage each year, leaving a wide path of destruction in their wake. Florida residents know that situation all too well, especially when the state was hit by category 4s-Helene and Milton—three weeks apart in fall 2024. An earlier category 1-Debby—had also struck the area in August.

Homes and businesses everywhere were destroyed or critically damaged. But Hunters Point, an 86-home community in the commercial fishing village of Cortez along the Florida Gulf of Mexico coastline, went relatively unscathed thanks to forward-thinking, environmentally resilient construction.

According to Marshall Gobuty, president and founder of the project's developer, PEARL Homes, this post-natural disaster result is nothing new. "Thanks to our innovative design team, these homes are strong enough to withstand category 5 hurricanes," he notes. "So far, they have been put to the test after withstanding four hurricanes in the last two years."

After Helene and Milton, which combined caused more than $65 billion in property damage, along with mass flooding and hundreds of deaths, more than 3 million Florida residents were left without power. The lights stayed on at Hunters Point and homes and streets did not flood.

Gobuty says the community's resilience comes from features such as using solar power as its primary energy source, hurricane-proof windows and doors, and streets intentionally designed to flood to prevent it from happening to the homes.

A Cortez resident, Gobuty watched Milton make landfall. He somewhat marveled at the 18 inches of horizontal rain to hit the area in 90 minutes and feared for the area’s other residents as winds exceeded 130 miles per hour. But in the aftermath, he had to chuckle a bit: "The only thing that really got damaged was our coconut trees."

BUILT TO LAST

Much of Hunters Point's construction was based on common sense. Power and internet lines were buried to avoid wind damage. Homes featured sturdy, solid concrete walls. And hurricane-proof windows and doors were fortified with a layer of foam insulation, providing extra safety against the most violent storms. Because the town of Cortez is on a floodplain, and to make Hunters Point dwellings hurricane ready, PEARL Homes built them 16 feet above sea level. There was also an increase in footing dimensions to accommodate a monolithic foundation. The garage level's block walls contain continuous rebar to provide reinforcement from the footing to the top of the masonry walls and are filled sold with concrete.

"We eliminated stack block foundation walls because they have little resistance to flood waters and hurricane wind loading," Gobuty notes. We engineered framing with 2-by-6 stud walls in place of 2-by-4s to help with wind resistance, and incorporated 2-by-6 interior shear walls and ZIP panels on framed levels of the building to act as interior walls with stiff backs to resist wind loading. All elevated framed structures are reinforced with metal connectors from the concrete/ masonry walls to the roof trusses."

The insulation consists of sprayed foam that fills all exterior surfaces, adding a level of strength as well as insulation. Then, taped zip 5/8-inch-thick panels were added, along with James Hardie plank siding. More than 70 tons of concrete and masonry were used to anchor the structure and help it resist pressure in the environment.

CERTIFIED SUCCESS

Hunters Point is the first U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED Zero-certified sustainable community in North America, and one of only three in the world. LEED Zero, a newer complement to the USGBC's LEED program, verifies the achievement of net zero goals in existing buildings.

With the help of the Florida Solar Energy Center at the University of Central Florida, PEARL Homes engineered houses that outperform expectations. "Originally, we set out to make each home carbon neutral, " Gobuty notes. "Instead, our models now generate 35 percent more power than we ever imagined, while consuming 25 percent less energy."

Each home's HERS score of minus 11 means it is reducing emissions and actively making a positive environmental impact by cutting carbon output by 8 tons annually, Gobuty adds. Each house can operate entirely off the power grid through use of the sonnenBatterie energy storage system that in combination with solar panels creates an independent power grid. Homes also feature an electric vehicle charging station in every garage, and the houses are (not surprisingly) all electric.

Hunters Point is the first development of its kind to offer this level of energy independence, Gobuty notes. For instance, in the event of a storm—such as hurricanes Helene and Milton-the local power grid is likely to fail and a vast majority of homeowners in Florida will face temporary outages of a few hours to days or even weeks.

As the recent storms proved, Hunters Point residents didn't experience that. Residents at Hunters Point  have the peace of mind knowing that their homes are equipped with an intelligent backup power system providing clean, carbon-neutral energy," PEARL Homes notes. The company notes that the homes are built primarily with materials that are sustainably sourced and recycled, using a process specifically designed to reduce construction site waste.

HVAC equipment utilizes non-global warming refrigerants, and ENERGY STAR  appliances do not incorporate any fossil fuels for heating or cooking.

Homes also feature Broan-Nutone's Overture, a fully automated fresh air system with smart sensors that automatically detect temperature. humidity, total volatile organic compounds (TVOCs), PM2.5 and CO2 to help control indoor air quality. "Luxury should never come at the expense of the planet. Gobutv savs. Hunters Point is showing the world what's possible when you commit to responsible, future-focused development. This isn't just a collection of homes. It is a blueprint for the future or coastal living.

‍Read full article in Green Builder’s latest issue here: https://www.greenbuildermedia.com/january-february-2025-green-home-of-the-year