Del Webb pitchman promotes `lifestyles'

     By Nick Haley
     Real Estate Writer
      When Sean Patrick joined Del Webb Corp. five years ago, his job was to promote Sun City Summerlin, an age-qualified community he was 21 years too young to join. The public relations specialist, at the time 34 years old and the father of two small children, became the pitchman for an active lifestyle intended for his parents' generation.
      "As long as you have a good understanding of your audience, you can handle public relations for just about anything," Patrick said. "The first thing we in public relations ask ourselves is `Who is our audience?' Once in a while, we learn a hard lesson when we don't answer this question correctly."
      The most important lesson he's learned with Del Webb: There is no "senior audience."
      "Like any other audience, seniors are not homogenous," he said. "There are segments within them like any other audience. And there's so many different ones within our communities."
      This is something that became clear to Patrick's staff when it began marketing a second age-qualified property across the valley at Sun City MacDonald Ranch in Henderson. Like the residents, one community is different from the next.
      "What works at one place might not work at the next. One of the things we do is free concerts for our Sun City residents. It turns out that at Sun City MacDonald Ranch, they love country music," Patrick said. "It's just one of those things you have to find out."
      Patrick said the hobbies, interests and preferences of Del Webb's buyers are something the company is always trying to find out because it is selling a lifestyle as well as a home. "Lifestyle" being a somewhat ambiguous concept and not a tangible product, the company counts on Patrick's staff to create an image of what their communities are about.
      "The most rewarding thing about Webb from my perspective is that the company takes P.R. seriously," he said. "At some places, P.R. is an afterthought; at ours, it's a forethought."
      In recent years, Del Webb has rapidly expanded the number and variety of communities it offers in Southern Nevada, each one with a lifestyle appealing to a different segment of the home-buying market. The company develops single-family homes throughout the valley under the Coventry Homes label and is the sole builder and developer of Anthem, a 5,000-acre master-planned community in Henderson. Anthem comprises a Sun City, a series of Coventry Homes properties and Anthem Country Club.
      For each, Patrick must determine his audience and describe not only the facilities, but the lifestyle.
      "If there's one common thread, it's that they're all looking at how they're going to live rather than where they're going to live," he said.
      "That's perfect for (Del Webb). It's a lifestyle-based world and that's what we do."
      In many ways, he said, having Sun City as a community prototype and an image stereotype helped to launch the company's other products.
      "Sun City is probably what Del Webb is known for most. It's at the core of the company and it shows what the company is about," he said.
      "What has happened is we have stepped back and taken a new look at the Del Webb image. We've made it much more than it was. For a time, Sun City was it. That's who we were.
      "We're still a premier home builder and developer, but there are so many markets we want to be in and we feel we can make a positive contribution to.
      "With (Anthem Country Club), it's not all that different (from Sun City) because we're still crafting a lifestyle. We're doing the same with our other products. We're starting with the kind of lifestyle we're trying to create."
      Patrick's own lifestyle is one built around his three sons: Danny, 10; Aaron, 7; and Tommy, 4. His wife, Paulette, and he have lived in the same community in the southern valley for more than 10 years. The two originally moved to Las Vegas from the Midwest in 1985 to "rŽsumŽ build," as Patrick puts it.
      "I left Wisconsin at 10 a.m. and it was 55 degrees, I arrive here days later at 10 at night and it's 95 degrees. I thought, `What am I doing here?'"
      Time, family and prosperity have changed their perspective.
      "The area has been great to us. We've grown up as the city has," he said. "I have no intention of leaving. I love it here. I live where I live because of the lifestyle I enjoy.
      "In public relations, we have odd hours -- nights and weekends often -- but it's nice to have the flexibility to be there with my family."
      Although the prospect is still years away, Patrick has considered whether or not he would fit into the Sun City lifestyle.
      "I can see myself being there one day," he said. "All the things I have no time for now I would work on. Woodworking and golf, I figure. I can see living that kind of lifestyle.
      "We've gone, so far, from sewing and shuffleboard to rock climbing and rollerblading, so it will be interesting to see what the next generation brings to retirement. As the baby boomers enter retirement, it will change what retirement is. So Sun City is going through those changes as well."
     "We're actually looking at the country club. I can see my kids hanging out at the club there."
     director of public and community relations for Del Webb Corporation Nevada Communities Inc.
     media relations specialist at Yucca Mountain, on the nuclear waste issue "I have no opinion about that. None."
     worked for nonprofits United Blood Services, American Cancer Society, was a DJ in Wisconsin
     on NPOs: "I was used to running the show. You pretty much do it all with nonprofits. You're tied to the cause itself so you're always working at it fast and furious."
     "Then I went to the Yucca Mountain Project which is this huge, slow-moving government entity where you can only have limited input on anything. I feel like I got to see both sides of the (P.R.) world."
     "I love the challenge this job brings. The opportunities are still great. I'm here for a while."
     
     "There's been so many changes within Del Webb that it's exciting to keep going with the company. What we're doing now is venturing out into a lot of new areas."
     "If you look back into Webb's history, it's even more diverse, because we started in gaming."
     found Del Webb 25th anniversary paperweight on E-Bay

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