the spirit of giving back Three leading builders teaming up on the Corrales Home for Hope will donate profits to charity—and the lucky buyer gets a finely detailed hacienda.
By Emily Esterson Photography by Kirk Gittings

Early on Tuesday or Friday morning, you can usually find Betty Blea, Norm Schreifels, and Bill Reynolds occupying their regular table at Little Anita’s near Corrales, New Mexico. They might have some plans spread before them or a work checklist. They might be talking about their next big project or going over the progress of their current one—a house they’re building for charity. Although the three are competitors, call this trio the epitome of cooperative competition.

Marie Elizabeth “Betty” Blea of Homes by Marie, Bill Reynolds of New Haven Homes, and Norm Schreifels of Sun Mountain Construction each run separate—and successful—custom building enterprises. Most recently, though, the three formed yet another business entity called, fittingly, Tres Amigos Builders, with the aim of completing a charity house and donating the profits. They gather to plan the next phases of that project and update their progress on the rest of the lots in the Mesa Vista subdivision in Corrales. The proceeds from the sale of the home, which they’re hoping will sell for $1,150,000, will benefit four nonprofits. In the meantime, the project, called the Corrales Home for Hope, has united three friendly competitors along with a community of vendors and subcontractors for a common cause.

“The idea of forming Tres Amigos came about when we began working with the developer on the Mesa Vista de Corrales project,” Reynolds says. “We had talked off and on about building a house together. We formed [the company] to build this one home, as well as involve our vendors and suppliers to help us create something unique and different.”

The 3,574-square-foot-home comes with an open floor plan and highly refined detailing. A great room greets entrants, splitting the house into two portions. The guest suite is on the opposite side from the master suite, which opens onto what could be the house’s most attractive feature, besides the views of the mountains: an enormous outdoor living space, including a fireplace. All the cabinets are custom, and each bedroom has its own bath; the open kitchen and great room lend themselves to entertaining.

“I’d describe it as Southwest Contemporary,” says Reynolds. “It has a lot of curves, exposed wood on the ceilings, stacked stone and stone accents, with plaster finishes, and a fantastic outdoor living space. That’s become a feature that’s much in demand among our clients today. Plus, the community itself is a feature. The Mesa Vista subdivision will be in the green belt, and open space surrounds the perimeter, which creates a mini-bosque. All of that open space belongs to the [Mesa Vista de Corrales] community.”

This isn’t the first time Blea has been involved in building a home for charity. In 2000, she was part of the construction of a home in the Los Poblanos Orchard subdivision in the Village of Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, where a 4,200-square-foot dwelling sold for $829,000. The proceeds from that house went to support the Children’s Hospital of New Mexico. General Norman Schwarzkopf, who was involved in a national project to raise money for a hospital computerization project, was the guest of honor during the home’s dedication.

Although the three have worked together in the Tierra de Corrales subdivision, this is the first time they’ve formed an official company, rather than operating on a handshake and long-term association. Blea describes the synergy among the three principals: “Bill from New Haven [Homes] is the detail man,” she says. “Norm [from Sun Mountain Construction] is the get-it-done-in-the-field man. I’m the girl, so I’m the boss. No, really, I’m the final detail person, working on the finish selections and the creative side,” she explains.

She also does much of the marketing of the charity home, according to Reynolds. “Betty brings a wealth of experience in the industry,” he says. “She has been [Home Builders Association of Central New Mexico] Home Builder of the Year. Her strength is in marketing and design touches. She’s decisive and has a great eye.”

The three companies have similar philosophies: a desire to build high-quality homes with an eye for detail, using green-building techniques and the surroundings incorporated as part of the design process. All three have worked in the market for some time and respect their colleagues’ quality and customer-centric ethos.

Bill Reynolds’ company, New Haven Homes, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. For 14 years, Reynolds says, he worked in a variety of executive positions with national regional home builders. He’d come up through the ranks of construction, and by the time he’d put in almost two decades for other companies, he decided it was time to get back to doing what he enjoyed most: designing and building homes. Reynolds’ first solo project, completed in 1997, was an award winner in that year’s Homes of Enchantment Parade. Since then he’s earned state and national recognition and won several green-building awards for his homes. Reynolds says he builds no more than five homes a year, mostly in Corrales, Placitas, and Albuquerque’s North Valley, though he doesn’t purposefully limit his territory.

Reynolds considers charity part of his company’s mission. He was president of a custom builders cooperative—a buying group that helped custom home builders gather enough economic clout to get significant materials discounts, among other industry-related work.

“Personally and through the company, I’ve always tried to give back to the community. I volunteer to our home-building industry and give money to a variety of charities that we hold near and dear. The charity house seemed like a great opportunity to raise that kind of money,” Reynolds adds. “We’re speculating, obviously, but if the house is near the appraisal, we should be able to generate a substantial contribution.”

For Norm Schreifels, green techniques are at the forefront of the design-build process. Blea and Reynolds note that he’s the green-building go-to guy on the team. Sun Mountain Construction was the first builder ever endorsed by Green Builder Magazine, according to Schreifels. Sun Mountain’s VISION House 2006, a collaboration with that publication, won the national Single-Family Concept Home of the Year for the National Association of Home Builders. The home was built from the highest quality energy-efficient materials, from insulated concrete to energy-efficient appliances. The company is also involved in the La Cuentista subdivision, Albuquerque’s first “all-green” community.

“We’ve been building green for 20 years, before it became the thing to do,” Schreifels says. He started Sun Mountain Construction as a renovation and property maintenance business to support him through college. “It took off so well that I went for it full time when I graduated,” he says. Blea, too, participates in La Cuentista. As part of her building philosophy, she notes attention to detail while getting to know the homeowners and their preferences before beginning to build. Her design philosophy is to start from the inside out, learning the particulars of a family’s lifestyle before beginning the design process.

For Blea, who started her company, Homes by Marie, 18 years ago after she ditched her banking career, the charity house idea came easily. The plan was decided over one of those morning breakfasts. Reynolds notes that it didn’t take a lot of discussion for the three to commit to the project. Since Blea had already completed one charity home and she’s on the board of directors for the New Mexico Cancer Center, she slated that charity to be the major recipient of the Corrales Home for Hope’s sale proceeds. And, in the spirit of giving back to the community, the other charities to benefit are the Corrales Community Library, Corrales MainStreet, which is a grassroots economic development program, and the Albuquerque Museum’s historic Casa San Ysidro home in Corrales.

“Even though we’re competitors, we are very interested in each other’s businesses,” says Reynolds. “Each of us builds somewhat alike, and we felt this would be a good combination. Sharing a subdivision where just three of us will be building means we can keep our quality and appraised value high. People like to know what’s going to be around them. It gives a comfort level to a client to know that they’re going to have a quality home next to them.”

As to whether the Tres Amigos will continue as a going concern after the Corrales Home for Hope project is finished, Reynolds didn’t have an answer. “The charity house is the first one that we’ve done as this entity. We have not decided to do more houses or not to do more houses.” About 30 percent of the expenses to date had been donated, Blea says. “People have been really generous.”

A journalist and editor for 20 years, Emily Esterson survived her own home renovation adventures. She’s written for many national publications on topics as varied as small business strategies, art, and architecture.