Filling In and Filling Out the Wasatch Front

Urban infillers, master planners, developers, and more, C.W. Group has found their niche to meet the Wasatch Front’s growing residential needs.
By Taylor Larsen

“INVOLVED.”

That is one word that summarizes residential developer and builder C.W. Group. And they are involved in quite a bit. It’s how the company likes it.

“People don’t know everything we do,” said Darlene Carter, CEO of C.W. Group. According to her, their work in residential development, design, and construction is profound in depth and wide in breadth.

Throughout the overall company, they are homebuilders (Cole West Home), master-planned community land developers (C.W. Land Co.), commercial general contractors (Cole West Development)—and don’t forget their work in residential real estate development, architecture and design, commercial construction, and boutique urban and infill multifamily projects (C.W. Urban, and in-house architecture firm, C.W. Design).

Intentional Work Leads to Growth

Affordable housing, single-family homes, apartments, townhomes, nightly rentals, senior housing, you name it, C.W. Group is involved. "Every demographic or product type,” began Carter, CEO of C.W. Group. “We have an offering for them somewhere.”

What sets them apart isn’t that they do so much, said Colin Wright, Founder of C.W. Group. It is the volume, the quantity, “and we do it intentionally.”

The intentionality of the firm is present in everyone in the company, said the executives. “The energy here on a daily basis is unmatched anywhere. It’s not pro forma for us,” said Wright. Intentionality from C.W. Group comes from thinking about everything—future residents, neighborhood, market conditions, cultural attitudes, and more—and how all of it relates to the whole.

“It’s countertops, it’s families,” said Colin before pausing, “I hear people talk about where [in the house] they’re going to put the doggy doors.”

The company’s intentionality has brought it a long way. Cole West Home and Cole West Development have experienced explosive growth since their inception in 2016 and specifically during the pandemic. Together with the work done via C.W. Land Co.—and the award-winning work from C.W. Urban and C.W. Design, 2021 Most Outstanding Adaptive Reuse Project winners with theCHARLI—the firm is poised to create a greater number of livable and vibrant communities.

Full Service, Full Experience

In an industry that struggles to change, C.W. Group wants to be dynamic in every sense of the word. One way they do that is by achieving as many things as possible in-house.

“We are involved in so much,” said Carter. “Every single day gives us a new way to look at every project. […] Our culture of creativity and our ability to change [quickly]” is a strategic advantage for the firm.

“By doing everything in-house, we eliminate a lot of wasted time coordinating” and therefore “get things across the finish line faster, because we have more time for execution,” said Carter. They continue to buy into the collaborative nature of construction and design. “Having the team under one roof is one of our biggest strengths. All team members are working towards a collective goal, and the synergy that creates is truly invaluable.”

The in-house nature of C.W. Group has another benefit. It allows everyone on the team to be accountable to each other.

“Too much of our industry is passing the buck,” said Bryce Willardson, VP of Commercial Operations for C.W. Urban. The firm has a plan to avoid the fragmented and often litigious nature of the A/E/C industry and is sticking to it. Mistakes still happen, he said, “but it’s on us to fix them. […] When there is a mistake, it’s ours and we have to own it.

The speed of trust and knowing that fellow team members are looking at projects with the same end goal in mind helps set the company apart from others. And it isn’t just the executive suite touting an idea. It is how they treat their partners, too.

“We really rely on subcontractors and engineers to bring their minds together to ‘MacGyver’ these projects,” said Jon Galbraith, VP of Architecture and Design for C.W. Urban. “There’s no other way to be successful nowadays,” so he and his colleagues continue to lean into and trust those around them.

Slide title

Darlene Carter

Button
Slide title

Collin Wright

Button

Setting the Bar and Raising It

Collaboration, trust, and accountability continue to lead to breathtaking growth for C.W. Group, and they are proud that clients in particular and the industry as a whole are taking notice.

“The product we offer is some of the most innovative and high-design in the real estate market,” said Carter. After all, urban infill townhomes in Salt Lake City weren’t nearly as common five years ago as they are today. The company has influenced the market and Salt Lake City in particular by helping remedy the middle housing demand with projects like theMABEL, theABBIE, and theELLIE in Salt Lake City.

As developers follow in their footsteps, “We see that as a compliment—not competition,” she said. “Utah needs more housing. We welcome all our peers who want to be part of that solution.”

It isn’t just a lucky swing, according to Carter, especially since the company has completed scores of projects that have received rave reviews from residents.

As the products that C.W. Group planned and designed years ago are coming to market—theCHARLI, theRANDI specifically—Willardson was confident that some of the choices made in design and planning were the right way forward.

One of those choices is “one bedroom plus,” where a larger space for an office or reading nook gives the unit more character and space. Willardson said these types of units at theRANDI have been leasing especially quickly.

To Carter, the desire of potential residents to move into these properties is a testament to the people that make up C.W. Group. “We have some of the most knowledgeable industry professionals that help us stay in tune with a fluid market, which will always help us keep a competitive edge,” she said.

People and Passion

How do they find professionals who buy into this vision?

Willardson explained it this way: “You can teach a passionate person any hard skill,” but teaching passion to someone who has the hard skills? That “doesn’t work.”

Passion is visible in plenty of ways beyond the energy brought forth by team members. Abbie Wardle, Director of Marketing for C.W. Urban, talked about the passion for brand identity—and how that can be seen. “We like to focus on providing an experience for our residents beyond just purchasing or renting a home,” she said. “They are buying into a lifestyle.”

C.W. Urban takes note of every detail—from their architecture to the signs visible on a drive past their properties. Every part of the company's identity matters; that is reflected in their work.

“We want the entire process to be an experience from the first time a prospect touches our brand to the time they close on or rent a home from us,” said Wardle.

A mission, a brand, a group of passionate people, and a set of motivated leaders have “given us the keys to figure this out,” Galbraith said. Carter and Wright don't just push orders, they are supportive mentors who ask, “What can we give you so you can succeed?”

Wardle, Willardson, and Galbraith said that the executive leadership genuinely cares about and empowers everyone in the company. A quote Carter uses that perfectly surmises their management style comes from French aviator and writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry:

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”

Emphasis on Community across Utah

The vast and endless sea, according to C.W. Group, is creating community.

“Our mission is to create micro-communities that enhance, strengthen, and contribute to the greater fabric of existing areas,” said Carter. It comes in one of their trademarked phrases, “We Build Community™.”

They do it via best practices in design and construction and an eye for where their housing products are needed most.

“Through thoughtful land planning, we create neighborhoods that encourage exploration and discovery,” continued Carter. “We believe in intentional design and development that brings a positive impact, growth, and progress to enhance existing communities.”

Neighborhoods and communities across the Wasatch Front may receive the most attention, but C.W. Group has projects in Summit County (theVILLAGE), Morgan County (ROAM), Weber County (theBASIN), as well as single-family and townhomes in Davis, Iron, and Washington counties. They are as far outside of the Wasatch Front as Richfield and working on a Low-Income Housing Tax Credit project named Sandstone Apartments.

Future Focus

They want to break through preconceived notions as to what’s possible in residential real estate. C.W. Urban’s penchant for the high design of “missing middle” housing like townhomes is one way, but their quest to make highly desirable, single-family for-rent housing is what they are most excited about.

“I don’t think anyone has done anything like theYARD,” said Wright of the master-planned community set to transform an old industrial district in Salt Lake City’s Poplar Grove neighborhood. Rehabilitating old land, creating community, creating the missing middle housing with 180 townhomes—all in one go— “no one has ever done that.”

thePEARL in Daybreak is another of C.W. Group’s projects that the company is excited to bring forward. According to Wright, thePEARL will be suburban but walkable, words that require a double-take when seen together. It will be a community that can walk to a grocery store, do recreation in the nearby lagoon, and enjoy living in new housing.

According to executives, build-to-rent housing is the future of real estate development.

“Nationwide, there is more attention and more capital placed on master-planned, build-to-rent communities,” said Wright. Their company sees rising interest rates and inflation changing the emphasis on homeownership, with residents looking for alternative solutions.

“Build-to-rent [housing] is going to shatter a stereotype where people who rent do so because they don’t have the money to buy,” said Carter. “In these communities, we are providing a product that is highly amenitized and built around convenience, which makes the decision to live there more of a lifestyle choice than a financial decision.”

With all the market and demographic changes, all of the ideas and new faces coming into Utah, and all the projects on the docket, C.W. Group is prepared to make the most of it, creating high-quality housing in the process.