Pulte Home Company Offers $14 Million for DuPage Water Site

One of the nation’s largest homebuilders is looking to acquire a heavily wooded surplus site from the DuPage Water Commission, with plans for a residential development.

Pulte Home Company offered $14 million for the 34-acre site along 75th Street near Naperville, a property the agency deemed no longer necessary for water utility use, the Daily Herald reported. The offer pencils out to about $412,000 per acre.

The land lies about a mile west of Route 53 and is mostly unoccupied, aside from a small water storage facility.

The commission recently solicited bids and selected Pulte’s offer over others; an appraisal valued the site at $10.8 million. The deal includes an escalator clause: if Pulte receives approval for more than 60 residential lots, the builder will pay an additional $233,000 per lot.

The water commission never developed the land with water systems, and it has remained largely untouched for decades. A tornado swept through the Naperville area two years ago and damaged a lot of trees on the site, said Jim Zay, chair of the commission’s board.

“It’s just been sitting there… it’s been costly to maintain it,” he said

Wetland issues may limit density, but the property sits within a popular school district and is attractive to developers, Zay said. A representative for Pulte declined to comment to the outlet, noting the firm is conducting due diligence.

The builder’s parent company, Pulte Group, is based in Atlanta, led by CEO Ryan Marshall. Bill Pulte, the 37-year-old grandson of the company’s founder who is the Trump administration’s director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and chairman of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, hasn’t had an official role with the company since 2020, but he is an influential shareholder.

The water commission site is unincorporated, and annexation would be a key next step. Zay said it could potentially be annexed into Woodridge or Naperville, or it could remain under county jurisdiction, a decision left up to Pulte as zoning discussions begin. Naperville officials said they have not yet been contacted by the builder.

The DuPage Water Commission would retain a small portion of the property for utility purposes. Commissioner David Russo, a developer by trade, led negotiations on behalf of the commission.

Pulte has been active across the western suburbs in recent years, developing subdivisions like Naper Commons in Wheaton and Trillium Farm in Winfield. The company is among a wave of large builders chasing infill and near-suburban sites in high-performing school districts amid ongoing housing demand in DuPage County.

— Judah Duke