Birch Street Group, LLC is a real estate development company that focuses primarily on residential development in established neighborhoods that are already built out, commonly referred to as "infill" locations. Infill development usually involves demolishing existing structures and constructing new buildings in their place.

Birch Street specializes in residential projects such as single-family homes, duplexes, townhomes and condominiums. Birch Street also focuses on mixed-used residential projects. These projects have a residential component along with another real estate product type, usually retail or office. An example of an infill, mixed-use, residential project would be condos above street-level, neighborhood, retail shops.

Birch Street's infill strategy was developed to take advantage of the nationwide trend of people moving from the suburbs back into established, close-in, neighborhoods with large trees and mature landscaping. The popularity of these neighborhoods is being fueled by the desire to reduce commute times and be closer to employment, entertainment, shopping, dining and cultural activities which many of these neighborhoods have to offer.

This trend is also growing due to the demographics of baby boomers whose children are now out of the house and they have become "empty nesters." For this huge demographic group, lifestyles are shifting and convenience and close proximity to social and cultural activities is becoming a priority. The quality of life offered to residents of these neighborhoods, which allows them to walk to neighborhood restaurants and shops, exercise in a nearby park and socialize with friends as they stroll around the neighborhood, has fueled the strong demand for these areas.

However, most of these infill neighborhoods have existing housing that is outdated and functionally obsolete. Although people love these older neighborhoods, they want the features and amenities that newer housing provides including large, open, modern kitchens designed for entertaining, master suites, high ceilings, walk-in closets and ample storage. Therefore, there is huge demand for new housing in these older neighborhoods.

Although we are not the only developer in these infill neighborhoods, Birch Street has been excelling at this strategy for almost five years and we consider ourselves one of pioneers of high-end residential infill. We have been going into established neighborhoods where many of the older homes have become functionally obsolete, and replacing them with "high-style" urban living solutions. By providing the amenities and features that new housing offers, while designing buildings that fit well into the history and architectural style of these established neighborhoods, Birch Street has developed a very successful formula.

Although Birch Street has competitors, we have carved out a unique niche that is somewhat protected. On one end of the spectrum are the local home builders who will typically not build more than a few homes a year. These builders often wait for custom home building contracts and they typically do not have access to a significant amount of capital. On the other end of the spectrum are the large regional and national "production" builders. They are unlikely to enter our market since it is so specialized. They prefer to develop large tracts of land with hundreds of homes usually on the edge of a metropolitan area. (The added benefit of focusing on infill neighborhoods is that these areas are more protected from market swings than developing new homes on large parcels of vacant land on the edge of town.) Birch Street is positioned between these two groups of competitors. We have brought the systems, technology, efficiencies, pricing and financial structure of the production builders into the infill neighborhoods where we compete with several small local builders who can only build a few homes at a time. For these reasons, we have been able to establish ourselves as one of the largest developers in each of our target neighborhoods.

Birch Street is continuously pursuing infill development opportunities in our existing markets. In addition, Birch Street is tracking other markets nationally where the long term trend of demand for new product located in infill neighborhoods is the highest. Over time, Birch Street will expand into the strongest of these markets and will bring our successful business model to specific neighborhoods in these cities. The proven demand for new housing in these neighborhoods coupled with the national demographic trends along with our systematic approach and business model has allowed Birch Street to create a strong platform that we will replicate in many markets across the country.