TRILOGY® Boutique CommunitiesTM

When Trilogy® communities debuted nearly a quarter-century ago, they signaled – or perhaps beget – a change in the expectations of the active lifestyle homebuyer. Bigger was no longer the standard; better became the benchmark. More refined clubs. More thoughtful design. Now, as Trilogy looks at the horizon once again, there is new opportunity ahead. Shea Homes is preparing to launch the first collection of its Trilogy Boutique Communities, which are crafted to offer all the benefits of Trilogy, on a slightly more modest scale. To talk a little about this evolution, we caught up with Shauna Farmer from the Shea Homes Active Lifestyle Communities team. Our conversation is below.

MTL: Shauna, before we dive into the story of what’s ahead, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your experience with Trilogy?

SF: You bet. I am the Vice President of Marketing & Sales for Shea Homes® Active Lifestyle Communities, which includes Trilogy, and I lead an incredible team that brings the Trilogy message to homebuyers across the country. We also support our community sales teams as they help our customers become part of the Trilogy lifestyle. I’ve been with the company since 2002, and I’ve seen incredible growth and change. The best part is I absolutely love what I do.

I am now in Trilogy’s target consumer group, which is an interesting shift in perspective. My husband Alan and I are empty nesters (with our new mini goldendoodle puppy, Sandy). Our kids are starting their adult lives, and, like many Trilogy homeowners, Alan and I are taking a fresh look at how we spend our time and where we focus our energy. It’s fun to apply some of that personal experience to my role with Trilogy.

MTL: Time does seem to move more quickly all the time. We have another interview in this edition with your longtime colleague Jeff Hinkle (pg. 78), and he talks a lot about Trilogy’s evolution. How do you feel the communities have changed over the years?

SF: One thing I appreciate is we’ve always been willing to adapt to better serve our Members. The core Trilogy tenets of Wellness, Connection, and Freedom have never changed, but the way we deliver on those tenets certainly has. I mean, when we started, the iPhone didn’t exist, Pickleball was completely unknown, and we certainly weren’t “Zooming” our friends and family. A lot has changed, us included.

We recognize our customers’ priorities have also evolved, and we’ve responded accordingly. In the past, customers focused more on tangible features. Today, the intangible has become very important to them. How do I feel when I enter the community? Am I going to be able to easily make new friends here? Will this move help me reach my fitness goals? People’s desire for a real sense of community and places where they feel known, cared about, and happy to be is more important than ever.

MTL: How does that evolution lead to the new wave of the boutique communities? Before that, what does it mean to be a Trilogy Boutique Community™?

SF: We’re really excited about this new concept of Trilogy Boutique Communities. Our boutique communities offer a very similar living experience to our larger resort communities, just on a smaller scale. The benefit is we can introduce new communities more frequently in locations where we know our customers want to live.

From a homeowner perspective, the experience is very much the same. There is still an amazing Club, a highly trained on-site hospitality team, and a commitment to those same tenets of Wellness, Connection, and Freedom. However, the Boutique Communities will generally have 300 to 700 homes, rather than 1,000 to 3,000 homes found in our existing communities.

We’ve been doing research with customers and based upon that feedback, our focus right now is to introduce these Boutique Communities in greater Phoenix, California’s Central Coast, and western Washington. However, there is always potential for additional new locations over time. We’ll keep listening to what our customers tell us as we work to grow the overall Trilogy offering.

MTL: That’s a helpful setting of the stage. Even though it sounds like the boutique communities will be very familiar to those who know Trilogy, is there anything other than scale they may find different?

SF: As we work to design these communities with input from our customers, we’ll continue to design around our Trilogy brand pillars of Wellness, Connection, and Freedom. We will work to keep our customer at the heart of all our decisions. That’s been a hallmark throughout Trilogy’s history. This research will be on-going as we introduce new Boutique Communities and learn what customers in each market are excited about.

You asked for a specific change, so I’ll give you one. In the past, our Clubs have been mostly a collection of dedicated spaces. One room for art, one room for cards. One room for social groups, another for meetings. The customers we’ve been speaking with are telling us –almost like what has happened in residential architecture – they want more open spaces that are as malleable as possible. Of course, we need a dedicated area for fitness, for example. But by listening to our customers, we’re unlocking a new opportunity to use a lot of the remainder of our Club square footage much more creatively and pack a lot of lifestyle into a smaller campus.

MTL: Are the locations of these new communities set? If so, where are they?

SF: Right now, we are very close to launching the first of our Trilogy Boutique Communities in Paso Robles, California and the Tacoma, Washington area. Interest lists will be forming soon, and it is likely that by the time you read this we may already have begun officially marketing these communities. In the meantime, I recommend visiting our website [SheaHomes.com/Trilogy] on a regular basis to see if new Trilogy Boutique Communities have been launched.

MTL: Are there any final thoughts you’d like to share before we wrap up?

SF: For me, it’s important our homeowner Members and our future homeowner Members understand how grateful I am to be part of the Trilogy and Shea Homes family. Our whole team works every day to create communities where people have the chance to live a happier, richer, more fulfilling, and fun-fi lled life. That’s what motivates and inspires us.

When I speak with our homeowners it’s truly humbling to hear what living in their community has meant to them; the people they’ve met and connected with; new relationships they’ve had blossom; experiences they’ve embraced and the excitement they’ve felt. Like them, I feel blessed every day to be a small part of the Trilogy story.