A firm may be listed as a builder or developer depending on its role in the project's planning and construction.
Depending on the role a firm plays in the planning and construction processes for a given project, it may be listed as either a builder or a developer in a BuildCentral project report. In fact, if you take a look at the Market Leaders within a particular segment, you might see significant overlap between the big firms that dominate the Top Builders and Top Developers lists. Here's how we distinguish between the two in different scenarios:
- Say Lennar spearheads the development of a site and has its construction arm actually build the units. In cases like this one, we’d list them as the Developer/Builder.
- Lennar just develops the site and then sells acres that are approved for construction to different builders to do a subdivision with different designs. In this case, Lennar would just be listed as the Developer.
- Then, there are builders that design the model units, sell them, and do all the building. For this type of situation, we’d list them as the Builder.
So, the developer leads the approval process — applications, zoning, and plan reviews with the city — while the builder typically steps in as the GC, pulls permits, and builds the units.