Retailer Builds Up Property Development in Local Community

Paul Gabbard hasn’t spent much time with a hammer. But he still has more than his fair share of construction knowledge.

Gabbard, third-generation store owner of Malone Do it Best Lumber & Rental in Greenville, Ky., helped his father and grandfather with the hardware business—“I’ve been working at the store since I was in seventh grade”—as well as the construction company they owned when he was growing up.

“I was very involved—as far as having a hammer in my hand, you wouldn’t want that, but I knew a lot about construction, thanks to helping them with that company,” he says.

While the construction company closed its doors in the 1990s, Gabbard and his wife are still very much involved in local new construction: They’re working on a new property development on a piece of land they own in Greenville.

It’s a small subdivision, with about half large, single-family homes and half garden homes—smaller homes that the couple has marketed to senior citizens.

“The idea was that maybe an investor would build a nicer home, and he would have an older relative who would purchase a smaller garden home,” he says. “Everyone would be there in the neighborhood together and would take care of each other.”

While he says it hasn’t worked out like that just yet, he is seeing a community that’s been created as more homebuyers purchase homes in that subdivision. “There are more families attracted to this area, and we still have a ways to go in finishing construction.”

He’s seeing other benefits, too: “This construction has helped my business, because we supply the materials, and the contractors are my regular customers.”

This work is welcome news for contractors, who are looking for jobs in a struggling local economy.

“In some cases, they’re remodeling a small bathroom or putting in flooring or new windows,” he says. “They’re starting to be more creative in what their business offers, simply because they need to get business.”

While Greenville doesn’t have many first-time homebuyers—“A lot of kids graduate from high school, go to college in a bigger city, and get a job there, rather than coming back,” says Gabbard—there are plenty of families in the area, as well as a strong rental market.