Driving down the smooth, paved streets of Maple Lawn Farms, an upscale, mixed-use, planned community in Fulton, a few bulldozers can be seen  working on new homes and a smattering of “sold” signs are posted on doors of finished residences.

But while construction has not stopped and homes are still being sold, Maple Lawn, one of Howard County’s most exclusive new communities, has not escaped the ravages of the current recession, which has hit the housing industry particularly hard.

To boost sales, builders have added amenities and slashed prices on homes, sometimes by as much as $100,000. And, the pace of home-building has been slower than expected.

Maple Lawn’s 1,340 homes were to be completed in 2014, but last year, according to Howard County spokesman Kevin Enright, the developers “rephased” and changed their estimated completion date to 2017.

Still, developers and builders at Maple Lawn say they are faring better than many other new housing communities.
“Construction has slowed some, but almost all of our homes are sold before they are built,” said Stewart Greenebaum, Maple Lawn’s developer and owner of Greenebaum, Rose and Associates. “We haven’t had any foreclosures and we’re doing better than I would have expected in this current economy, although I wish we were doing better.”

In 2000, Greenebaum received approval from the Howard County Zoning Board to build more than 1,100 residential units at Maple Lawn — later increased to 1,340 — and to develop 1.8 million square feet of commercial space on 500 acres of land.

The development had provoked heated opposition from some Fulton residents,  concerned about increased traffic and other issues.

So far, slightly fewer than 200 homes have been completed, as builders wait for the housing market to rebound.

Last year, prices for most of the residences at Maple Lawn ranged from $400,000 to nearly $1 million. But today, with decreased buyer demand, Maple Lawn’s builders have made adjustments in their prices.

“Our sales started to slow down a year ago and we reduced prices to some extent and gave buyers additional concessions,” said Linda Ellington, vice president of sales and marketing for Rockville-based Mitchell & Best, one of three builders at Maple Lawn.
 
Ellington said her company has built and sold 110 single-family and attached homes at Maple Lawn, and 47 more are under construction.

Price tags for the earlier, single-family homes, which went for nearly $710,000 last year, dropped at the end of February to $660,000, Ellington said. Similarly, their townhouses were reduced from $630,000 to $570,000.
 
In addition, she said, there are no closing costs and Mitchell & Best has added some options, including hardwood floors.
Bozzuto Homes of Greenbelt, another Maple Lawn builder, plans to build 144 single-family homes and condominium-style townhouses over the next four years at the development. When sales began slowing last fall, company officials said, Bozzuto  upgraded the appliances in all new homes to stainless steel, and also lowered prices.

“We reduced prices from $569,000 to $479,000 on homes and from $400,000 to $339,990 for our smaller units,” said Kristin Herlson, Bozzuto’s Maple Lawn sales manager.

Triple-figure reductions

McClean-based Miller and Smith, which plans to build 176 single-family homes and townhouses at Maple Lawn, also dropped its prices.
 
“Our homes were ranging from $550,000 to $700,000, but we did make adjustments due to the economy, (reductions) of anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000,” said Kelli Myers, a Miller & Smith sales manager at Maple Lawn.

According to Lauri Payson, vice president of marketing for Miller & Best, the strategy is working and they have sold over 50 homes at Maple Lawn.

“The single family (and) town(house)s are still selling at a good pace,” she said.

Builders at Maple Lawn also said they are constructing fewer homes on spec since the economy went south and lender requirements tightened. Ellington said they are not doing any, and Herlson said Bozzuto did not begin construction on a 14-unit building until half of the residences had been sold — a goal she said the company met.

Some of the acreage at Maple Lawn has not been parceled out to builders, but those there now, such as Mitchell & Best officials, said they hope to build homes in the as-yet undesignated sections.

Meanwhile, down the street from the residences in Maple Lawn’s commercial district, most spaces are occupied with restaurants, boutiques and other types of businesses. On March 12, Looney’s Pub opened at  Maple Lawn in the former Trapeze restaurant site, which closed a few months ago.

“We’ve had some turnover, but Looney’s opened with a bang and Harris Teeter (supermarket) is opening the first of October,” Greenebaum said. “We have 1.8 million square feet for commercial spaces and we’ve already built a half million, but we’ve slowed down with the recession.”

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