Dog lovers find their spot in themed neighborhood
Dog lovers find their spot in themed neighborhood
In Morrisville, North Carolina, there’s a neighborhood that caters to a specific kind of resident: dog owners.
It’s called Houndswood Village. It has street names like Spaniel Drive and Terrier Place. There’s a dog park that includes a dog wash station — which is like a car wash, but for dogs — complete with hose, soaps and shampoos, the works.
Marlon Holmes and his dog, Oreo — a rescue with black fur and a tuft of white — were soaking up the afternoon sun in the dog park when a small dog and its two owners walked up to the gate.
Oreo has a deep bark he unleashed on the unassuming pup. “Sit, Oreo, sit,” Holmes said. “He’s just friendly.”
But not friendly enough. The small dog and its owners decided now wasn’t the right time to enter the fenced park after all.
As one might guess, having a dog is the lifestyle here. In the evening, the sidewalks are filled with Labradors and spaniels. There’s even a massive South African boerboel.
This kind of specialized neighborhood attracts a specific customer, said Kim Whitler, who teaches marketing at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.
“The opposite of being a commodity is being different,” Whitler said. “And the way that you do that is that you create value that’s meaningful to the consumers.”
It helps when there are a lot of your target consumers. “You have a great number of families in this country who have pets,” Whitler said. “About a third to 40% have dogs.”
According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, 38.4% of American households do, and about a quarter have a cat.
Colleen Yeager leads operations for Quinn Residences, which owns the rental homes in Houndswood Village.
From the phone-controlled lock that lets dog walkers in without providing access to the house to wooden floors to minimize pet wear and tear, Yeager said the homes are as pet-friendly as can be.
One more thing: “This is the access underneath the stairwell, and they cut it out,” Yeager said. “It gives the dog its own private little cubby.”
It’s a small room that residents can decorate, put a dog bed and water bowl in, or convert to a nondog use like a closet. Think of it like a doghouse inside the main house.
Quinn Residences has other themed neighborhoods too. There’s one where every house has solar panels for eco-minded renters; there’s another with community gardens.
Richard Ross is the CEO and founder. “We find that if we keep our residents happy, they tend to stay and stay longer,” he said.
And when tenants stay, that reduces turnover costs.
Back in the dog park, Oreo’s dad-dog, Marlon Holmes, said he’s rented there since the neighborhood opened.
With all those dogs around, the competition never ends, Holmes said. Oreo “tries to mark every spot up here.”
That’s one reason walks around the area are interesting — at least for the dogs.
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