Tampa's Jim Walter Homes calls it quits

After building more than 360,000 homes since World War II, Jim Walter Homes has gone kaput.

Jim Walter, known for building inexpensive homes on customer-owned lots, closed Tuesday. Though it built relatively few homes in Florida in recent years, the company's dissolution will cost 45 people their jobs at its Tampa headquarters.

The company lost money the past few years and even struggled to turn a profit during the real estate boom. Walter Industries, the home builder's $1.4-billion parent company, decided to focus on its more lucrative coal business.

"The story of Jim Walter Homes began as World War II ended and soldiers came home to pursue the American Dream. Regrettably, it ends at a time when the fundamentals of the home building industry have deteriorated in ways never seen before," Walter Industries chairman Michael T. Tokarz said in statement Tuesday.

Tampa entrepreneur Jim Walter founded the company in November 1946, using $395 in savings to buy and sell his first home. He went on to build a Fortune 500 conglomerate in fields as varied as mortgage financing, coal mining and iron pipe manufacturing. Walter died in 2000 at the age of 77.

But by the time the housing market turned red hot in 2004, Jim Walter Homes had a reputation for slow construction. As other builders were striking it rich, Walter sales fell nearly a quarter that year. Its president was sacked in 2005.

A restructuring in 2008 closed nearly half of its sales centers.

Home sales will cease immediately, but about 150 homes currently under construction will be finished, the company said. In all, 230 employees across more than 10 states will lose their jobs.