For Steward Land Company, development is more than building houses, it’s about shaping the lives within them. Mormon Redd joined real estate developers Sky Hazlehurst and Brad Brown to build Steward Land Company after discovering their shared passion for elevating people’s lives through what they created.
“Steward Land Company is on a mission to set a new standard — what we call conscientious development,” Redd said. “We want to build communities with character by understanding the people who will live there, the city officials who guide policy, and the culture of each neighborhood.”
Redd enrolled in the Master of Business Creation program at the University of Utah to sharpen his skills and enable the company to achieve their vision and address Utah’s housing challenges.
Developers usually push cities to allow the highest possible building density, while cities push back because they’re trying to protect their limited resources, such as available land, water supply, school capacity, and utility infrastructure. The result is rows of homes that all look the same.
“I think those kinds of developments lack humanity,” Redd said. “They take away from the character of the community, and they still lock out the 40,000 home buyers in Utah who can’t afford a home right now.”
Steward Land Company takes a different approach. They start by researching the character of the community and really understanding the city’s priorities and concerns. Next, they get creative with innovative solutions, many of which have been tested and proven in different parts of the country but are not yet widely adopted, and try to work hand-in-hand with city officials to create the ideal “win-win-win” solution.
This gives the city a development they can be proud of, and one that reflects their community values. It also ideally allows for more efficient land-use.
Their goal isn’t just to make development a more honest and collaborative process, but to shape the lives of future homeowners.
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