Parade of Homes returns with 60-plus homes and dozens of sites
After skipping 2020, the Parade of Homes returns this week with a new format.
For the first time, the parade will be held at multiple sites, an arrangement commonly used in other communities.
The event, which runs Thursday through Oct. 10, will feature 61 homes by 22 builders in dozens of locations.
Although the format will require traveling for visitors, and will lack the festive-like pizzazz of the old parade, it allows for a wider selection of homes and, of course, locations. It has the added bonus of being free.
“What was successful for 67 years may not be successful for the next 67 years,” said Jon Melchi, executive director of the Building Industry Association of Central Ohio, which hosts the parade.
“When we looked around at other markets, and what was successful there, and what would help our builders and consumers better, we landed on this format, which allows our builders to display homes in communities where they
are already located in, and opens the parade to all price points and products — attached, detached, single-family, and at prices ranging from the low $300s to more than $1 million.”
Last year, for the first time in nearly a half-century, the BIA canceled the parade, but not because of COVID. The parade was cancelled in February so the organization could reevaluate the annual event, which had become exclusively a showcase for million-dollar homes, some of which struggled to find buyers.
The parades had become geographically as well as financially limited. The past nine parades have been held in either Delaware or Union county.
This parade will instead showcase homes in 10 counties, said BIA President Jeff Yates, who chaired the parade committee.
“For the longest time, it’s been the same 12 or 15 builders in southern Delaware County,” said Yates, a partner in Manor Homes, which will showcase two homes in the parade.
“Just trying to find the property and the builders was a challenge. With this new format, we’re opening it up to any builder to showcase their products.”
Yates and Melchi said the new arrangement is modeled off parades in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Minneapolis.
The format is designed to link builders with more serious prospects, unlike the previous parade, which drew upward of 30,000 visitors a year, almost all of them window shoppers in search of architectural eye candy.
“It’s going to be a change, but it probably allows us to reach our target market and allows consumers to search in a more positive way,” said Andrew Russ, a marketing and design consultant with P&D Builders, which will show one home in the parade. “I still think we’ll get a really good turnout, but it will allow us to get more one-on-one with consumers.”
The new structure also allows several builders to participate in the parade for the first time.
Among them is one of Greater Columbus’ biggest builders, Epcon Communities, which builds patio-home condominiums. Like other condominium builders, Epcon does not build individual homes outside Epcon communities, so was unable to participate in traditional Columbus parades. About onethird of this year’s parade homes are condominiums.
For this parade, Epcon will feature 10 homes in nine communities, including a new model debuting at the parade — the Provenance, at the Courtyards on Hyland Run near Plain City.
Although this will be Epcon’s first Columbus parade, the builder has participated in similar scattered-site parades in other cities.
“We’ve had great successes with this
format in the Raleigh and Charlotte parades,” said Nanette Overly, Epcon’s vice president of sales. “For the consumer, they can really focus on the areas they’re interested in, that really apply to them. And if they want to see the million-dollar aspirational homes, they can still see those.”
Another, unlikely, builder new to the parade is Franklinton Rising, a faithbased nonprofit that teaches skilled trades to at-risk youth while renovating Franklinton homes. The organization
will showcase a 120-year-old home on Chicago Avenue in Franklinton that it has overhauled.
“We thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to have something in Franklinton on the tour?’ “said Tom Heffner, president of the organization. “This is an opportunity to promote Franklinton and let people see what’s happening down here ... It seemed like a natural fit.”
The scattered-site format is in some ways a return to tradition for the parade. Many of the BIA’S earliest parades in the 1950s were held on multiple sites. The last parade to feature more than one location was the 1997 parade, split between Heron Bay on Buckeye Lake and Scioto Point in Upper Arlington.
Although the parade will end Oct. 10, Melchi hopes it continues indefinitely online.
As part of the parade, the BIA will feature extensive digital descriptions and photos of the homes. Melchi hopes the site will become a permanent hub for information for all new homes in Greater Columbus.
Melchi knows some people will miss the old one-stop parade, with its concessions and party vibe, but he and Yates say the changes are necessary to keep the builders’ group relevant into the future.
“You and I aren’t doing the same thing and the same way we did 30 years ago,” Yates said. “It was time for a change.” jweiker@dispatch.com @Jimweiker