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According to their website, Homewood Homes was founded in 1963 by George Skestos. Mr. Skestos has become a very influential person in our community. He has served on the Board of Trustees of The Ohio State University, including a term as the Chairman.
In August of 2004, Mr. Skestos was reported to have been part of a group of wealthy individuals who sought to use a $1.5 million gift to force the Board of Directors of the Columbus Symphony to rehire the fired musical director. Sounds like a man who is willing to use his money to get his way.
Mr. Skestos also lends his financial support to political candidates, such as Ken Hagan in Tampa, FL. This candidate was supported by other builders and developers such as KB Homes, Bill Bishop, Leslie Land Corporation, AN Development, M-Tampa, MJB of Florida, Willis & Associates, West Meadows, D.G. Guido, M-St Pete, Mobley Homes (a former employee, and partner of Mr. Skestos in other enterprises), Krusen-Douglas, Bradford Yates, Floyd & Lopez, and Alfieri Realty. One must conclude that this candidate is supportive to the real estate development industry in Tampa.
He has also made numerous political contributions in central Ohio.
The June 1, 2000 edition of The Lantern, the student newspaper of The Ohio State University, published the following comment: "Current Chairman of the Board, University of Michigan graduate George Skestos of Bexley is on the Board of Directors at OSU’s current health care provider, Central Benefits, as well as at Huntington National Bank and Midland Financial Corp."
Homewood Homes owns two substantial parcels of land in the Hilliard School District, occupying most of the ground between Alton-Darby and Walker Roads. One can observe that an efficient way to route sewer and water service to the new high school site on Walker Rd is traverse the Homewood property.
UPDATE: Big Surprise: a route across the Homewood Property was indeed selected for the water and sewer lines. Our School Board voted to spend $834,000 to install this water line, and in exchange for the easement across their property, Homewood gets to tap off this line -- FOR FREE -- to build hundreds of houses on their land. Mayor Schonhardt has already announced the development plan. Another interesting thing about this easement agreement is that the School Board agreed to annex the Bradley High School property to the City of Hilliard if and when Homewood annexes its land to Hilliard. Why would Homewood want this in the contract? It think it's because it would create a path for further annexation that might otherwise be impeded (which is another way of saying that the current annexation path might be blocked by someone who wants a premium price for their land).
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