Anthony and Associates, LLC was established in 2004, primarily to purchase land and build very high-end, custom homes in San Luis Obispo and Northern Santa Barbara Counties. This entity was established to serve as a shell company utilizing Steward Construction Company for speculative building. Steward Construction Company, same ownership, is providing custom design and building services on customer’s own sites, functioning as a custom home builder.
One of these developments, Los Palos Estates, was initiated in 2004 with the purchase of 26 acres with a tentative county subdivision map. Other purchases included lots in Arroyo Grande and Edna Valley. Los Palos, LLC, a separate company established to manage the subdivision, shares the same principals as Anthony & Associates, LLC. (The two companies share the same directors and management, Mr. G. Anthony (Tony) Steward and Mrs. Sheila Steward.) Los Palos, LLC was formed to execute the Improvement Plans, handed down by the County Planning Commission, which were required to be completed before a final map (with lots) could be issued. The list included items such as the completion and paving of Via Palo and Dawn Roads, construction of road drainage systems, construction of a horse trail, and the addition of quality water to the lots. Once the Improvement Plan was completed and approved by the County, Los Palos Estates was able to obtain a final map and individual parcel numbers and addresses for the five lots. Anthony & Associates will no longer operate as a speculative home builder, given the lack of demand for high quality spec homes, instead Steward Construction Company will concentrate on building custom homes for customers seeking the finest in the industry.
Mr. Steward has an unusual depth of business experience for a builder, especially with financial and legal matters. He served as a corporate officer for high-tech companies for a significant number of years and has applied his financial and computer skills to the design and control of his projects. This combination of business skills and a background working with professionals, makes him uniquely qualified to effectively manage complexity and to communicate with his customers. Jobs are organized to a detailed schedule and, as with every project completed to date, they will be completed on time and on budget. All jobs have detailed contracts, proper documented insurance coverages and other documentation from sub-contractors and are completed with the proper agency oversight and local government approvals.
In addition to Mr. Steward’s training and licensing in the fields of construction and real estate, he obtained his formal education in engineering from the US Military Academy West Point, and has undergraduate and graduate degrees in business administration from San Jose State University.
In 2008, Mr. Steward received his real estate salesperson’s license in order to better control the sales process. He joined People’s Choice Brokers, a new statewide brokerage focused on sales using the latest online tools. As an agent, Mr. Steward has access to all of the homes in the area and has previewed every home for sale in the above $1.0 million dollar range, to ensure that the Los Palos homes are competitive and to help prospective buyers find the best home. Mr. Steward is a member of the local real estate board and observes listings and changes to the market - daily.
Tony Steward is focused on the home buyer, and with an intimate knowledge of each home on the market and a custom building background, he is well suited to represent buyers during their search for a new upscale home. Mr. Steward understands that many buyers may be seeking a location outside of Nipomo or a house that is just not offered at Los Palos. In that case, he will focus his efforts on available properties to find the buyer a better fit. If a buyer is attracted to a particular property, but it does not perfectly suit the buyer’s needs, Mr. Steward is qualified to assist with design inputs, estimate costs and estimate the timing of the desired upgrades/alterations required to transform the property into the buyer’s dream home. The Steward Construction Company will, if requested, assist with the design and construction modifications.
In this difficult market, many choice lots have been listed on the MLS for very reasonable prices. If a buyer is ready to move to the area or upgrade within the area and cannot find an existing house that fits his/her needs buying a lot and building is at an all time low. The costs of construction are so reasonable that in many cases a custom designed house will be cheaper to design and build than most existing houses that are not quite right. (See Homeowner’s Guide on the Home Page).
Principals Background
Sheila and Tony Steward were raised in the farm community of Sunnyvale (it has changed a bit), in the 1950s and 1960s. They met while they both worked for Hewlett Packard and have been married for more than 30 years. They have two sons, one graduated from UCSB and works for a local civil engineering firm, the other is in law enforcement. Mrs. Steward worked for Hewlett Packard/Agilent Technologies for over 30 years, retiring from the prestigious Deer Creek Laboratories to move to the Central Coast in 2001. Mr. Steward worked for a number of Silicon Valley companies, including Ford Aerospace, Hewlett Packard, AMD, Cypress Semiconductor and Compression Labs. Over a 15 year period, he advanced through the ranks in finance to become a Corporate Controller, CFO and VP of Finance. In 1992, Mr. Steward co-founded CerOx Corporation, a high tech start-up commercializing a licensed technology for the destruction of hazardous wastes. For 10 years, Mr. Steward served as Chairman and CEO, and is the named inventor on the Company’s only patent for an electrochemical cell design. He left CerOx in 2003, to establish Anthony & Associates, after moving the company from the Bay Area to Santa Maria. This move was a well needed career change after 10 years of chasing a very difficult market with a new and difficult technology. In 2008, after building a number of homes as an owner/builder, Mr. Steward formed Steward Construction Company (after receiving his contractors’s license) and is concentrating on building custom homes.