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March 20, 2023

Torrington homebuilder Ugalde gains national industry stature

PHOTO | NORM BELL More than 70 members of the Home Builders & Remodelers Association of Central Connecticut attended the recent International Builders Showcase in Las Vegas.
By Norman Bell, Hartford Business Journal Contributor
In Vegas, CT homebuilders sort through industry headwinds, opportunities
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In New England, the name Greg Ugalde is synonymous with the National Association of Home Builders, which recently put on the International Builders Showcase in Las Vegas, an event that drew 107,000 people from around the globe.

Ugalde is the only New Englander ever elected to lead the national group whose 140,000 members build 80% of the nation’s housing.

Ugalde is a builder and developer from Torrington, where he is president of T&M Building Co. and founder of GFU Investments. He’s built more than 1,000 homes and worked through the highs and lows of the business.

He tells a story about getting all the permits for a housing project in Rocky Hill only for the state to issue a cease-and-desist order over a utility easement. It’s a tangled tale of multiple lawsuits but the outcome is the lawyers made money and the builders didn’t.

Ugalde was chairman of the National Association of Home Builders’ board in 2019, filled in again during the pandemic and has been active in local, state and national associations for years.

Although this year’s International Builders Showcase drew a record-breaking crowd, Ugalde said he did have at least one disappointment: the shrinking field of Connecticut firms manufacturing goods for the homebuilding community.

He searched his mental Rolodex, checked with a network of contacts and could find no Connecticut-based suppliers among the 1,300 exhibitors at this year’s event.

It’s a shame, he said, as the old-timers are retiring and selling out to national firms.

And that’s not good for Connecticut — or for homebuilders — long term, he said.

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