Woodhill Homes Named COBA 2015 Builder of the Year

(Photo courtesy of Woodhill Homes)

The Central Oregon Builders Association has recently announced that Woodhill Homes was named COBA 2015 Builder of the Year, an excellence award that recognizes the company’s dedication to the building industry in the Central Oregon community.

Jay Campbell and George Hale, owners of Woodhill Homes, are passionate about Central Oregon. Campbell was voted President of the Central Oregon Builders Association (COBA) for 2015 and along with this Builder of the Year award, the company truly shows its dedication to Bend and the greater Central Oregon community.

“The common thread between all the builders of the year, including Jay, is how they give back to the community, they step up for COBA and they’re advocates for the building industry,” said Andy High, COBA’s vice president of government affairs.

Back in 2002, Campbell partnered with Portland-based builder and real estate broker George Hale to create Woodhill Homes. The company began developing Willow Springs in Redmond with a strong mission of creating high-quality, sustainable communities.

“We believe smart growth is essential to our survival,” said Campbell. “We are trying to be smart about our position in the market and the land we buy, so we can compete in the future.” he added.

The company is well known for building affordable, contemporary first homes but also homes that are known as “move-up” homes for less than $350,000. Size doesn’t matter, as the company has built homes from 1,120 square feet to 5,000 square feet in various regions such as Redmond and SW Bend.

Currently, the company is developing at Southeast Bend’s Reed Pointe and Ironstone, Northeast Bend’s Tuscany Pines Phase 2 developments as well as in Corvallis.

Woodhill Homes was founded in April 2002 by George Hale and Jay Campbell. With combined experience in real estate and residential construction, they set out to build a company whose purpose was to find innovative ways to change the home buying and home building experience in Central Oregon. The result was a development company whose product was the creation of high quality production communities that are built with integrity and sustainability.

After attending Hobart College in New York (NY), Campbell moved west to live in Jackson Hole, Wyoming before moving to Portland back in 1995 where he started his homebuilding career with D.R. Horton. Woodhill Homes has participated in COBA’s Tour of Homes annually since 2002 and collected dozens of awards so far. Woodhill Homes was also awarded with the Green Builder of the Year award in 2009.

Hale is a lifelong Oregonian. He got his start in real estate when he was in college, buying beat up houses and fixing them up for a profit and has been passionate about real estate ever since. He started building in-fill housing in Portland and then partnered with Campbell in Central Oregon.

During the past 14 years, Woodhill Homes has built more than 500 homes. The company has seen many changes in the local building landscape and is actively contributing to these changes. The changes took an effect, as back in 2002 most homes were 100 percent bank financed, while today 90 percent are privately funded.