Sandy Goodkin, former Executive Director of the Goodkin Real Estate Consulting Group of KPMG Peat Marwick, sums up The Lee Group best when he says, “The principals of The Lee Group have always shown great vision, social consciousness, and a magnificent sense of taste.” In 1990, the principals of The Lee Group received the home building industry’s most prestigious award when it won the 1990 Builder Magazine Project of the Year (of 700 applicants) from the National Association of Home Builders for the 176-unit Crossroads development in the City of Inglewood.

 The Lee Group’s philosophy is very simple -- “to build innovative development in a way which is sensitive to the environment while being responsive to our neighbors.” This philosophy has kept the principals of the company on the leading edge throughout the 50 years of its award-winning career, from luxury estates, entry-level homes, mixed use developments, to urban infill residential and affordable single family housing. The Lee Group philosophy carries over into forming partnerships with both for-profit and nonprofit entities in order to complete the most appropriate and successful partnerships possible.

This philosophy has put The Lee Group at the forefront of the burgeoning “Smart Growth” movement by local, state and federal officials. Smart Growth is a planning model, which seeks to link jobs, housing and economic development in order to revitalize urban areas and preserve open space. Most recently, Village Green was lauded by California State Treasurer Phil Angelides as a model Smart Growth development in his recently released Smart Investment Report, a guide for investing the billions of dollars of public funds by the State of California.

 In 1998, The Lee Group was selected by the White House Office of Science Technology Policy to participate in a new housing initiative by President Clinton named - PATH - Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing. At The Lee Group’s development, The Village Green, 186 new single-family detached homes adjacent to the Sylmar/San Fernando Metro Link Station and childcare center, The Lee Group in partnership with PATH have redesigned the homes to be some of the most energy efficient new homes in the United States, helping to reduce the utility bills for the homeowners by as much as 50 to 70 percent, including the installation of photovoltaic systems on 180 of 186 of the homes which will provide solar electricity for as much as 90 percent of the homes electrical needs. On May 4, 1998, President Clinton attended the ground breaking for Village Green to announce the national kickoff for the PATH program and designate Village Green as the first national PATH pilot site.