My House? I Got It at the Mall!

Estridge, a homebuilder that has put up some 7,000 in the Indianapolis area in the past 40 years, is developing a new way to sell their product: at the mall. HOMExperience, the company’s new store at a Clay Terrace, an upscale outdoor mall in suburban Carmel. HOMExperience will allow customers to look at house plans, customize their choices with a designer and even furnish the home with products from Estridge’s partners in the scheme, which include bath-and-kitchen maven Kohler, Masterbrand cabinets and Anderson Windows. Offering virtual tours of homes as well as art shows and cooking demonstrations, Estridge hopes the stores will lure women—specifically overscheduled soccer moms who aren’t as likely to visit a model homes at distant development—with the convenience of buying a home the way they buy coordinated back-to-school outfits at The Gap.