MILLER & SMITH INVITES HOMEBUYERS TO “THE ONE VISIT EXPERIENCE”

Homebuilder rewards potential homebuyers with extraordinary opportunities – just for visiting their new homes

McLEAN, VA (February 1, 2018) – Miller & Smith, the Washington region’s most award-winning homebuilder, is reminding DMV homebuyers that “One Visit Can Change Everything” when it comes to purchasing a home. Through a regional roadshow, “The One Visit Experience,” Miller & Smith will provide potential homebuyers with an immersive experience to help them get a glimpse of authentic living in one of their homes and communities. From test driving cars to sampling neighborhood fare, to touring homes that are design forward and filled with modern features and finishes. Visitors will be able to ‘try on’ a better life in a Miller & Smith home – with just one visit. Visitors will also have the opportunity to win big beyond their visit including a customized home design with a renowned interior designer or a two-year lease on their very own Mini Cooper*.

In partnership with Mini of Sterling, Miller & Smith will have a Mini Cooper on site offering guests a test drive and the chance to see the neighborhood beyond the homes. With a photo booth stationed at each community, Booth-o-Rama Photobooth will be capturing moments of potential homebuyers as they experience the full breadth of what it would be like to live in a Miller & Smith home.

There will be various incentives for those who choose to participate at “One Visit Experience”:

• Homebuyers will be entered to win a home design from industry-known D.C. interior designer, Kerra Michele*.
• Participants who take a photo in the photo booth and share what is most important to them on their journey to purchasing a home, will be entered to win a two-year Mini Cooper lease*.
• Each participant will receive a community-curated swag bag containing local business offerings and products.

Kerra Michele is an award-winning interior designer known for her popular lifestyle blog, Apartment Envy. She offers her clients and readers an accessible taste of top design along with services that exceed spatial goals. She will be partnering up with one lucky Miller & Smith homebuyer* to offer them a custom design plan for their new home.

“Purchasing a home is one of the biggest decisions a person makes, our intention is to show people that ‘One Visit Can Change Everything’ – from your child’s first day of school to throwing your first dinner party,” says Doug Smith, president of Miller & Smith. “Whether it’s a luxurious single family home or a contemporary and spacious townhome, Miller & Smith has a new home community for everyone in the region. Our events will give people a chance to experience our homes and its neighborhood.”

“The One Visit Experience” roadshow will be held across nine selected Miller & Smith communities in Maryland and Virginia. The regional roadshow will be held on select weekends from February to April 2018.

February 10 – 11, 2018 

• Brambleton – Garden District at Brambleton Town Center – 23110
  Lavallette Square, Ashburn, VA 20148
• Brambleton – Birchwood – 42313 Fern Croft Terrace, Ashburn, VA 20148
• Brambleton – West Park – 42158 Creighton Road, Ashburn, VA 20148

February 24 – 25, 2018 

• Cayden Ridge – 9434 Brightstar Drive, Manassas, VA 20111

March 10 – 11, 2018 

• Embrey Mill – New Dominion Collection – 476 Coneflower Ln, Stafford, VA
  22554
• Embrey Mill – Stafford Collection – 500 Apricot Street, Stafford, VA 22554
• Courthouse Manor – 100 Courthouse Manor Dr., Stafford, VA 22554

March 17 – 18, 2018 

• Aspen North at Lake Linganore – 6801 Pax Ct., New Market, MD 21774
• Tallyn Ridge – Single Family Model – 8401 Pine Bluff Rd, Frederick, MD
  21704
• Tallyn Ridge Townhome Model – 5600 Scott Ridge Place, Frederick, MD
  21704

April 7 – 8, 2018 

• Upper West at One Loudoun – 20448 Northpark Drive, Ashburn, VA 20147

*Incentives available on new home contracts written between 2/1/18-4/30/18. For details and official rules and regulations on Mini Cooper and interior designer giveaways, please see www.millerandsmith.com or community sales managers. Promotions, incentives and giveaways subject to change without notice.

Founded in 1964, Miller & Smith has been one of the Washington area’s top privately-owned buildings and development firms for over 50 years. Active in both residential and commercial real estate, the company has earned a reputation for creating innovative and imaginative homes and communities. In 2017, Miller & Smith sold 113 single-family home and 185 townhomes. Miller & Smith has built 6,100+ single-family homes, nearly 9,400 townhomes and 2,200+ condominiums, and has developed approximately 13,770 homesites in 130 communities throughout Maryland, Virginia and Delaware. The company is headquartered in McLean, Virginia. For more information click here or follow Miller & Smith on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

MILLER & SMITH RECEIVES 20 HONORS AT 2017 GALA AWARDS

McLean, VA – Miller & Smith, a homebuilder and real estate development company, is thrilled to announce their outstanding success at the 2017 Great American Living Awards (GALA) Ceremony held Thursday, October 5, 2017 in Tysons, VA. Miller & Smith took honors in the following categories:

Best Design & Architecture, Detached Home (lots < 7,000 SF), $400K-$500K
Winner – Arcadia I at Tallyn Ridge

Best Design & Architecture, Detached Home (lots > 7,000 SF), $400K-$500K
Winner – Criswood at Courthouse Manor

Best Design & Architecture, Detached Home (lots > 7,000 SF), $500K- $600K
Winner – Hedgebrook at Cayden Ridge

Best Design & Architecture Detached Home (lots > 7,000 SF), $600K-$700K
Award of Merit – Merrimac at Cayden Ridge

Best Design & Architecture Attached Home, $300K-$350K
Winner – Paramount at Tallyn Ridge

Best Design & Architecture Attached Home $500K-$600K
Winner – Foxton at Evermont Trace/Brambleton

Best Design & Architecture Attached Home $500K-$600K
Award of Merit – Hillwood at Evermont Trace/Brambleton

Best Interior Merchandising Detached Home $400K-$500K
Winner – Arcadia I at Tallyn Ridge

Best Interior Merchandising Detached Home $500K-$600K
Winner – Windchase at Cayden Ridge

Best Interior Merchandising Detached Home $600K-$700K
Winner – Merrimac at Cayden Ridge

Best Interior Merchandising Attached Home $300K-$400K
Winner – Paramount at Tallyn Ridge

Best Interior Merchandising Attached Home $400K-$500K
Winner – Parkvue at Tallyn Ridge

Best Sales Office/Information Center
Winner – Upper West Experience Center

Outstanding Sales Person Detached Homes under $400’s
Winner – Debora Flora

Outstanding Sales Person Attached Homes $400K-$550K
Winner – Eric Hanson

Outstanding General Sales Manager, Director of Sales, or VP of Sales
Winner – Tracy Lamb

Outstanding Construction Superintendent & Sales Team—Embrey Mill
Winner – Debora Flora & Nelson Green

Miller & Smith’s development affiliate, One Loudoun LLC, was also honored in the following categories:

Best Online Advertising Campaign
Best Social Media 

“We’re thrilled to be honored amongst the best and brightest of the building industry. This has been a particularly exciting year for Miller & Smith, and we are thrilled to see our GALA honors reflect our momentum,” said Doug Smith, president of Miller & Smith.

The Great American Living Awards (GALA) celebrates excellence in new home architecture, interior design and sales and marketing. The ceremony is presented annually by the Washington Metropolitan Sales & Marketing Council (WMSMC), the Northern Virginia Building Industry Association (NVBIA), and the Maryland National Capital Building Industry Association (MNCBIA).

About Miller & Smith:
Founded in 1964, Miller & Smith has been one of the Washington area’s top privately-owned buildings and development firms for over 50 years. Active in both residential and commercial real estate, the company has earned a reputation for creating innovative and imaginative homes and communities. In 2016, Miller & Smith sold 86 single-family home and 115 townhomes. Miller & Smith has built 6,000+ single-family homes, more than 9,200 townhomes and 2,200+ condominiums, and has developed over 13,435 home sites in 122 communities throughout Maryland, Virginia and Delaware. The company is headquartered in McLean, Virginia. For more information click here or follow Miller & Smith on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

MILLER & SMITH INTRODUCES THE GARDEN DISTRICT, A NEW MODERN RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITY AT BRAMBLETON TOWN CENTER

Six Sophisticated Townhome Designs Seamlessly Integrate Indoor/Outdoor Living

Ashburn, VA (September 26, 2017) — Miller & Smith, the Washington region’s most award-winning homebuilder, is pleased to announce The Garden District, a new residential townhome community located on the southern edge of Brambleton Town Center in Ashburn, VA. The modern townhome collections are designed with imaginative architecture and features intimate green spaces that seamlessly integrate indoor/outdoor spaces for entertaining, gardening and relaxing.

The Garden District at Brambleton offers six new designs with modern brick facades, black windows and distinctive architectural details, featuring up to three bedrooms, two full and two half baths, two-car garages and up to 3,200 square feet of living space. Every townhome will include a dedicated private outdoor space, from charming terraces and balconies, to front courtyards or a spacious backyard. The Garden District homes were uniquely designed to ensure the outdoors are integrated into every home, creating flexible living spaces fit for entertaining, connecting with neighbors or creating a private retreat.

With its close proximity to Brambleton Town Center, Garden District residents are minutes from dozens of shops, restaurants, services, as well as, community events and concerts. The new Garden District Neighborhood from Miller & Smith is conveniently located near the Washington Dulles Airport, Dulles Greenway, Route 28, Route 50, and the Silver Line of the Washington Metro.

Garden District townhomes will be priced from $529,990 to $649,990. 5 Decorated Models are now open. Visit the sales office, located at 23110 Lavallette Square, Ashburn, VA 20148.

For more information on the Garden District at Brambleton, click here or follow Miller & Smith on Facebook and Twitter.

About Miller & Smith:
Founded in 1964, Miller & Smith has been one of the Washington area’s top privately-owned buildings and development firms for over 50 years. Active in both residential and commercial real estate, the company has earned a reputation for creating innovative and imaginative homes and communities. In 2016, Miller & Smith sold 86 single-family home and 115 townhomes. Miller & Smith has built 6,000+ single-family homes, more than 9,200 townhomes and 2,200+ condominiums, and has developed over 13,435 home sites in 122 communities throughout Maryland, Virginia and Delaware. The company is headquartered in McLean, Virginia. For more information click here or follow Miller & Smith on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

McLean, Virginia – Miller & Smith, an award-winning homebuilder and real estate development company, is pleased to announce the appointment of Anissa Willis as the Vice President of Sales. In her new role, Ms. Willis will lead the company’s in-house sales force and will be an integral part of the management team at Miller & Smith, which builds expertly designed homes throughout the Washington metro area.

Ms. Willis has more than 15 years of experience in the homebuilding and retail industries and was most recently a general sales manager at Pulte Homes. She has a successful track record of driving strategy, accelerating growth and delivering results. Ms. Willis’s leadership will be instrumental in executing company objectives of achieving sales and settlement goals.

“Anissa is a dynamic and results-oriented leader in the homebuilding industry and we’re excited to have her join Miller & Smith,” said Dale Hall, Vice Present of Operations, Miller & Smith. “Her proven experience, especially in leading and recruiting sales talent is extremely valuable as our company continues to grow. We are confident she will deliver the type of enthusiasm needed to lead our sales teams.”

About Miller & Smith:

Founded in 1964, Miller & Smith has been one of the Washington area’s top privately owned building and development firms for over 50 years. Active in both residential and commercial real estate, the company has earned a reputation for creating innovative and imaginative homes and communities. In 2014, Miller & Smith sold 141 single family homes, 105 townhomes and 45 condos. Miller & Smith has built nearly 5,840 single family homes and more than 8,945 townhomes and 2,170 condominiums, and has developed over 13,150 home sites in 96 communities throughout Maryland, Virginia and Delaware and is headquartered in McLean, Virginia. For more information about Miller & Smith, visit http://www.millerandsmith.com or call (703) 821-2500.

McLean, Virginia — Miller & Smith, an award-winning homebuilder and real estate development company, is proud to announce Robin Hicks of Laytonsville, MD as the winner of the 2014 50th Anniversary Ford Mustang Giveaway.

To celebrate its 50th anniversary and kick off the next 50 years, Miller & Smith launched the “Win Some New Wheels” giveaway in March 2014. The promotion garnered over 500 entries over the nine-month entry period and included a community tour of an immaculately restored 1964 “Must See” Ford Mustang.

“This giveaway was an expression of our gratitude for our past and continuing successes,” said Doug Smith, President, Miller & Smith. “We want to honor patrons such as Robin Hicks, who have allowed us to do what we love to do for the last 50 years. This gift represents a half-century of history while infusing today’s modern technology and design into the final product.”

For more information on Miller and Smith’s 50th Anniversary click here or follow Miller and Smith on Facebook and Twitter.

About Miller & Smith: Founded in 1964, Miller & Smith is celebrating 50 years as one of the Washington area’s top privately owned building and development firms. Active in both residential and commercial real estate, the company has earned a reputation for creating innovative and imaginative homes and communities. In 2013, Miller & Smith sold 170 single family homes, 103 townhomes and 56 condos. Miller & Smith has built nearly 5,600 single family homes and more than 8,900 townhomes and 2,180 condominiums, and has developed over 13,000 home sites in 95 communities throughout Maryland, Virginia and Delaware and is headquartered in McLean, Virginia. For more information about Miller & Smith, visit www.millerandsmith.com or call (703) 821-2500.

11/20/14
Honored at the Maryland Building Industry Association member awards ceremony

McLean, Virginia — Miller & Smith, a local homebuilder and real estate development
company, is proud to receive top honors as the 2014 Large Volume Builder of the Year
and the Environmental Award for Land Development at the Maryland Building Industry
Association’s member awards ceremony.

“It’s an absolute honor to be recognized by MBIA,” said Robert Spalding, Vice President-
Land, Miller and Smith, “It signifies that we’re doing the right thing in our work with our
partners and with the critical behind-the-scenes work to keep things running smoothly.”

In addition to being named 2014 Large Volume Builder of the Year, Miller and Smith
received a Land Development award for the construction of the 24-acre Gallery Park
neighborhood in Clarksburg, MD, which included the widening of Shawnee Lane,
providing enhanced storm water management in the Clarksburg Special Protection Area
and protecting forested areas. Environmental benefits of Gallery Park and the Lane
widening included, 14.85 acres of open space, which exceeds the zone’s 50 percent
requirement, 6.26 acres of forest retention, a variety of storm water management
features designed to enhance landscaping that also treat 125 percent of normal
requirements, and a newly constructed bike path and sidewalk.

The Maryland National-Capital Building Industry Association held this prestigious awards
program for 20 years before their merger with the Home Builders Association of
Maryland to form the Maryland Building Industry Association. The nominees are former
members of both MNCBIA and of HBAM. Entries came from all around Maryland; Anne
Arundel, Howard, Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties.

About Miller & Smith:
Founded in 1964, Miller & Smith is celebrating 50 years as one of the Washington area’s
top privately-owned building and development firms. Active in both residential and
commercial real estate, the company has earned a reputation for creating innovative and
imaginative homes and communities. In 2013, Miller & Smith sold 170 single family
homes, 103 townhomes and 56 condos. Miller & Smith has built nearly 5,600 single
family homes and more than 8,900 townhomes and 2,180 condominiums, and has
developed over 13,000 home sites in 95 communities throughout Maryland, Virginia and
Delaware and is headquartered in McLean, Virginia. For more information about Miller &
Smith, visit www.millerandsmith.com or call (703) 821-2500.

McLean, Virginia — Miller & Smith, an award-winning homebuilder and real estate development company, is proud to announce its employees have donated more than $1,800 in food and monetary donations for Northern Virginia Family Services

OPERATION TURKEY.
Northern Virginia Family Service (NVFS) is a private, nonprofit community service organization dedicated to helping individuals and families find new paths to self-reliance and brighter futures. NVFS works to improve the lives of their clients through a variety of programs in five mission initiatives: safe & stable housing, child & family enrichment, health access, and emergency assistance and workforce development. Each year, NVFS’s OPERATION TURKEY provides Thanksgiving meals to more than 800 families in the Greater Prince William area who would not otherwise have a family meal celebration. Doug Smith, President of Miller and Smith, remarked: “Giving back is a core company value for Miller and Smith. This was a wonderful example of our employees delivering on our values to ensure others have the opportunity to enjoy their Thanksgiving holiday. We commend NVFS on their efforts and dedication to our community.

About Miller & Smith:
Founded in 1964, Miller & Smith is celebrating 50 years as one of the Washington area’s top privately-owned building and development firms. Active in both residential and commercial real estate, the company has earned a reputation for creating innovative and imaginative homes and communities. In 2013, Miller & Smith sold 170 single family homes, 103 townhomes and 56 condos. Miller & Smith has built nearly 5,600 single family homes and more than 8,900 townhomes and 2,180 condominiums, and has developed over 13,000 home sites in 95 communities throughout Maryland, Virginia and Delaware and is headquartered in McLean, Virginia. For more information about Miller & Smith, visit www.millerandsmith.com or call (703) 821-2500.

10/21/2014

Chantilly, Virginia — Miller & Smith, a homebuilder and real estate development company, is proud to announce the completion of a $95,000 project for Homestretch in Falls Church, Virginia. The condominium renovation provides a new home for a single mother and her children. The project was produced in partnership with HomeAid Northern Virginia, which builds and renovates facilities for the homeless, and led by Miller & Smith along with 19 trade partners.

“The Homestretch renovation was an opportunity to give a family a new beginning,” said Scott Alford, VP of production, Miller & Smith. “We completely transformed the condominium from top to bottom as well as professionally decorated and furnished it. It became so much more than just paint and cabinets — it became a home. We can participate and help because of the generosity of our subcontractors that always go above and beyond to donate their time and materials.”

The renovation included new: floors, windows and doors; kitchen and appliances; bathroom; HVAC system, electrical fixtures, plumbing fixtures and window coverings; interior doors; and furnishings and décor specifically for the age and gender of the children who now live there. View before and after pictures.

“Homestretch, a program for homeless families located in Falls Church, was extremely fortunate to have one of our most distressed units renovated by HomeAid and Miller & Smith,” said Christopher Fay, executive director, Homestretch. “But to call it a renovation does not adequately describe the incredible makeover of the unit; it was transformational, and went from being our worst unit to our best. The new family coming in, a single mother (and victim of severe domestic violence), when seeing the home, fell to her knees in tears of joy and prayers of thanksgiving. Words can barely express our gratitude.”

About Miller & Smith:

Founded in 1964, Miller & Smith is celebrating 50 years as one of the Washington area’s top privately-owned building and development firms. Active in both residential and commercial real estate, the company has earned a reputation for creating innovative and imaginative homes and communities. In 2013, Miller & Smith sold 170 single family homes, 103 townhomes and 56 condos. Miller & Smith has built nearly 5,600 single family homes and more than 8,900 townhomes and 2,180 condominiums, and has developed over 13,000 home sites in 95 communities throughout Maryland, Virginia and Delaware and is headquartered in McLean, Virginia. For more information about Miller & Smith, visit www.millerandsmith.com or call (703) 821-2500.

About HomeAid Northern Virginia:

HomeAid Northern Virginia, a chapter of HomeAid America, leverages the resources of the homebuilding community and its corporate partners to undertake new construction and major renovations to properties that help homeless people gain stability and get back on the road to self-sufficiency. HomeAid Northern Virginia was started in 2001 by the members of the Northern Virginia Building Industry Association (NVBIA), and since then has completed 91 projects valued at more than $12 million, serving more than 60,000 homeless individuals. HomeAid also manages Women Giving Back, a program which provides free clothing to women and children in crisis.

Home Building: Enduring Appeal

September 12, 2014

Long before email, cloud drives, and smartphones, two young Harvard Business School grads sat down at their typewriters and, separated by hundreds of miles, began to craft a plan to transform their graduate school project on the home building industry into reality. With the Washington, D.C., market as their foundation, they researched the existing competition. They scouted land. They persuaded family members to invest. They developed financial projections for “realistic,” “optimistic,” and “pessimistic” scenarios.

And yes, they got a little nervous. “I must admit I left Washington with a great deal of anxiety about the future,” David H. Miller wrote to his Harvard classmate and partner Gordon V. Smith in a letter dated Feb. 19, 1961. “Certainly, a step such as our proposed business cannot be taken lightly.”

But their fears did not stop them from moving forward. “The more I go into this, the fewer doubts I have,” declared an enthusiastic Gordon in a letter dated Aug. 29, 1961, to Miller. “I can hardly wait to get started.”

By 1964, they were ready—and so was their straightforwardly named company, Miller and Smith Construction Corp., backed with $32,000 in cash to build and sell a projected nine homes in the Maryland suburbs. Their office was a makeshift door-turned-desk located in Gordon’s basement, halfway between the furnace and the water heater. They turned to their wives, Helen Smith and Pat Miller, for secretarial services; Helen also decorated the model homes.

Fifty years and nearly 17,000 homes later, Miller and Smith has clearly come a long way from its typewritten beginnings. Now headquartered in McLean, Va., the private builder survived the sky-high interest rates of the 1970s, the savings-and-loan crisis of the 1980s, the real estate depression of the 1990s, the housing boom and bust of the 2000s, and the arrival of countless national builders with deeper pockets and lower lending costs. But the firm is more than just a survivor. Miller and Smith has thrived by developing a reputation for creative home designs, land-planning expertise, and a collaborative culture in the Washington metropolitan area, where last year it closed 369 homes and generated $238 million in revenue.

“You should never deviate from what you do best,” says company founder Gordon V. Smith, now 81, his eyes twinkling.

Different By Design

Even as a young home building company, Miller and Smith recognized the importance of land and design. “As I mentioned to you while you were here, I feel the key to building success is good land acquisition and development,” Smith wrote to Miller in the early 1960s. In a separate letter, dated March 8, 1964, Smith practically shuddered on paper as he updated Miller on a parcel they might want to buy and homes he’d seen in the market. “This land backs up to [a park], and there are some small builders active there who are building some horrible stuff that is somehow being sold,” he wrote.
They got one of their first opportunities to differentiate themselves in Fairfax County, Va., where they developed Wessynton in 1967. Created on a 65-acre parcel carved from historic Mount Vernon, the community featured open, contemporary-style homes. “That’s what George Washington would have done,” says Smith, who sealed the land deal with the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association over tea served from the founding father’s china, and who named the mid-century modern development after Washington’s English ancestors. “Mount Vernon was not a Colonial house. He wanted something contemporary.”

Miller and Smith set themselves apart in other ways during those early days as the country wrestled with civil rights and racial equality in the 1960s. While other builders refused to sell homes to black buyers, Miller and Smith welcomed blacks and whites alike, selling its fifth house to a person of color. “It was the right thing to do,” says Gordon, who believes the company’s stand also attracted progressive white buyers who liked the idea of living in a more integrated neighborhood.

As the builder grew, so did its commitment to distinctive designs, frequently inspired by architectural trend-spotting trips around the country. “I didn’t want to be like a national builder that builds a product that appeals to 40 percent of the market,” explains Spencer Stouffer, who joined Miller and Smith in 1975 to handle sales and marketing and later became a partner in the business. “I’m happy to design a product that appeals to only 10 percent of the market because we’ll get a premium price for it.”

Company leaders believe design is one of the factors that has allowed the privately owned Miller and Smith to remain competitive in a market filled with national home builders. “We think they will always have that advantage [of size] on us, so we had to pick something that they can’t emulate,” says Douglas I. Smith, Gordon’s son and company president since 2002.

The approach has brought the company plenty of success—and a few nervous moments. Stouffer still remembers the nail-biting that happened when Miller and Smith’s proposal for Chicago-style brownstone townhomes in Reston, Va., was enthusiastically accepted by the developer. “We were applying to build 50 homes, and they gave us 150,” Stouffer recalls. “It was very scary product—it was urban, which we’d never built before, and it had flat roofs and decks. When we got the pricing on what it would cost to build, I thought, ‘Oh my God, we can’t do it at a price that will give us any profit.’”

He was wrong. “The product took off,” Stouffer says. “It was a home run.”

Collaborative Culture

Behind Miller and Smith’s innovative designs, though, stands some very old-fashioned values: teamwork, humility, and loyalty. “One reason we succeed is that [Miller and Smith] is not one person,” Doug says. “We are a collaborative ownership group, and it trickles down. People here realize that they are empowered to make decisions, and the most successful people here are those who check their egos at the door.”

It’s been that way at Miller and Smith since the late 1970s, when the builder went through its first leadership transition. After co-founder David Miller left the business for health reasons, Gordon turned to a few trusted colleagues to join him as partners. They included Stouffer, who handled sales and marketing; Richard North, who became the company’s chief financial officer; and construction superintendent Alvin Hall, who had been the company’s very first hire. “That’s when we became a team,” says Hall, who now serves as the company’s CEO.

They admit they are a bit of a motley crew. “If it wasn’t for the business, we wouldn’t be friends because we are that different,” North says. “But we’d do anything for each other.”

The new structure gave Miller and Smith the confidence to tackle increasingly ambitious ventures in the 1980s and beyond. In Fairfax County, Va., the builder took a former gravel pit through one of the largest rezonings in county history, transforming the property into Kingstowne, a 1,300-acre development with office, retail, and 5,800 homes. It purchased a $200 million savings-and-loan bank as a hedge against interest-rate risk and took advantage of the chance in 1988 to invest in restricted Freddie Mac stock, which turned out to be a financial boon. “That helped keep us alive during the 1989-to-1993 recession, which I thought was much worse than 2007 to 2010,” North says.

That era brought other challenges, too, as the partners mulled over the question of succession planning. “Eighty-five percent of family businesses don’t survive past the second generation,” says Gordon, who wasn’t interested in having Miller and Smith acquired by a larger builder. “What do you gain by selling? You’re getting out of the business,” he says. “We like the business.”

Gordon decided to beat the odds instead. “I took it on as a case study,” he says. “How do you pass the business along to the next generation?”

The answer, at least in Miller and Smith, is by proving your value, regardless of your name. “You’ve got to earn it. It’s not a given,” says Doug, who still remembers a long-ago watershed conversation with his father on the subject. Over lunch, Doug, then 18 and a veteran seasonal employee at Miller and Smith, told Gordon that he’d like to join the business. His father’s reply? “‘That’s great, but I don’t want to see you until you are 30 years old,’” recalls Doug, who graduated from college, got an MBA from Harvard, and worked for consumer goods company Procter and Gamble and commercial real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle before returning to Miller and Smith in 1992 in the warranty department.

Ten years later, Doug became president of Miller and Smith, just in time for the end of the boom and the start of the bust. “It was a baptism by fire,” says Doug, now 51.

But just like his father, Doug’s not going it alone. As the four partners have gradually scaled back their involvement as they approach retirement, they have also been preparing a new generation of partners—Charles Stuart Jr., Jake Oates, Alvin Hall’s son Thomas Hall, and of course Doug—to take their places at the collaborative, design-oriented builder.

As for Doug, he says he can’t wait to see what the next 50 years will bring for Miller and Smith. “Whatever problem is thrown at us, we can figure it out,” he says. –PB

Read the digital version here.

Rebecca Cooper
Washington Business Journal

Restaurateur Reese Gardner is at it again, this time with a lease to open a second location of his Shirlington restaurant Copperwood Tavern in Loudoun County. Gardner has signed a lease for a 6,500-square-foot restaurant space in One Loudoun, the mixed-use development in Ashburn that’s already home to a Fresh Market, indie movie venue Alamo Drafthouse and handful of other restaurants.

Copperwood Tavern in Loudoun is aiming to open about a year from now, in September 2015. The restaurant’s design and menu will be similar to the Shirlington location, highlighting Virginia heritage and products.

“It’s a little closer to some of the farmers we already have relationships with,” Gardner said this week. “I think the people in Loudoun will really appreciate our scratch kitchen and farm-to-table menu.”

The One Loudoun spot will make for a busy year for Gardner, who has two new restaurants under construction and also owns Irish Whiskey Public House and the Mighty Pint in Dupont.

Gardner’s spot on the Georgetown waterfront, Orange Anchor, is aiming to open in October, and Union Social will open at 100 Florida Ave. NE in NoMa later this year or early in 2015.

Mighty Pint: New builds aren’t all the nightclub-promoter-turned-restaurateur has up his sleeve, however. Gardner also dished on plans to retool Dupont Circle bar The Mighty Pint into something a little more grown up.

He plans to turn Mighty Pint into a restaurant called Second State, an homage to his home state of Pennsylvania. The menu and vibe will be similar to Copperwood Tavern, but pull from more Pennsylvania traditions than Virginia.