Hunters Point Stands Up to Hurricane Ian… and Wins "Grid-free" Sustainable Homes Maintain Power Through Class 4 Hurricane

SARASOTA, Fla., Oct. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Hunters Point from Pearl Homes, the community-focused home builder revolutionizing LEED Zero and LEED Platinum homes, stood up to Hurricane Ian and won.

"The Hunters Point AYRE homes remained intact without any damage from Hurricane Ian, while winds exceeding 75 miles per hour surrounded the community," said Pearl Homes founder Marshall Gobuty. "Sonnen's ecoLinx power system kept Hunters Point's lights and air conditioning on all through the night, despite widespread power outages."

With Hunters Point, Pearl Homes has created the first true "Grid Free" and LEED Zero luxury home community on Florida's Gulf Coast in Cortez, Florida. A true modern-era lifestyle community, like previous developments and other Pearl Homes communities, Hunters Point is changing the way homes are built, using sustainable methods which are built for resilience while contributing positively to the environment.

Each Pearl Home generates more power than the owners consume, simultaneously saving the environment of eight tons of CO2 that would be exhausted annually. This enables Pearl Homes communities to maintain a negative carbon footprint, facts that third-party inspections have verified by LEED. The Hunters point homes have a HERS rating of -13, which means that they contribute to a positive environment instead of emitting CO2.

With a track record of awards and recognition from LEED champions, the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), and many other leading organizations recognizing home builders and developers, Pearl Homes and founder, Marshall Gobuty have been recognized for sustainability leadership for some time.

"Our hearts go out to the many families and communities hard hit by Hurricane Ian," added Gobuty. "As climate change threatens a future of extreme weather events like this, we hope that more homebuilders embrace sustainable building methods that add resilience and protect homeowners and their property."

Pearl Homes is a Florida-based homebuilder and real estate developer with sustainable and workforce housing projects underway in the Sarasota-Bradenton area and other locations throughout Southwest Florida and California.

Founded in 2015 by Marshall Gobuty, Pearl Homes focuses on building single-family and multi-family communities that meet at the intersection of affordability and sustainability. Pearl Homes communities are a step towards solving our nation's livability crisis by working closely with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and the Department of Energy (DOE).

In 2019 Pearl Homes founder, Marshall Gobuty was named the recipient of the USGBC's Visionary Award for his pioneering work to bring LEED Platinum focused design and construction to the residential housing market.

Editor's Note:

Here is why the Hunters Point home stood up during Hurricane Ian.

1. Enhanced foundations, more weight to the foundations creates more stability. 
2. Sheer walls in the home, that prevents the home from racking (heavy wind will try to twist the building, we have a concrete beam at the top of foundation).
3. Sheer walls are designed to absorb the pressure from the wind.
4. We use 2x6 inch lumber. There are more sectional values to a 2x6 than a 2x4.
5. We exceed the code for framing connections of the building. 
6. The roof is connected to the building by special Simpson anchors. (Metal connections connecting the stud to the roof.) We have a continued engineered metal connection from the roof truss all the way down to the foundation. 
7. The footings are tied to the masonry walls to the concrete beam by filled cells structural concrete which creates a continuous connection from the roof to the framing.
8. This is a complete engineered system designed to withstand Category 5 Hurricane winds.

Media Contact:
Savannah Mather
2039935373
[email protected]

SOURCE Pearl Homes