The first-ever Tooele County Showcase of Homes exceeded organizers’ expectations, with hundreds of people spending a portion of last weekend viewing 22 homes from across Tooele Valley.

Melissa Collings, one of the organizers for the three-day event, said turnout was better than anticipated.

“Around 500 to 600 people went through the homes, and we pretty much outweighed every expectation we had for this event,” she said.

Carol Haddock, another organizer, said the strong attendance was a pleasant surprise.

“We were worried that with gas prices being high, people might not want to drive out here or drive around to all the homes,” she said. “We obviously did better than we thought, and we even had more builders than we thought we would have. Although we don’t have exact figures yet, we know that several of the homes went under contract, and that several of the builders got additional building jobs.”

Nicole Cloward, president for the Tooele County Showcase of Homes, said Saturday was the biggest day for the event, and that most of the home browsers were from Tooele County.

“We were lucky to have that great support from our local people, but we did have a good number of folks from the Salt Lake area and elsewhere,” she said.

Haddock said many of the attendees were potential buyers, not just window shopping.

“I think most were actually looking at buying some of these homes, because a lot of people out there were just holding off and waiting for the market to get better,” she said. “Our market has picked up again and we’re starting to get more showings. We also had quite a few lenders set up in the garages of the homes, and they were talking to people about how much better loans are this year.”

The showcase highlighted new homes ranging in price from $189,000 to $600,000. The homes — some of which were up for sale and others just for display — were selected for their design and architectural qualities.

Cloward said she was pleased that the showcase led to firm offers from buyers.

“It was found that the builders who stayed in the homes and talked with people coming through were the ones who had the most success,” Cloward said. “Just being there inside the homes proved to be a huge benefit, because the people were able to obtain more information.”

Grantsville builder B.J. Castagno showcased two homes — titled “The Hollywood” and “The Wrathall” — that were 4,200 square feet and 5,200 square feet respectively. The Hollywood is currently up for sale at $429,000, while the Wrathall is for sale at $499,000. Both homes are located in newer subdivisions in Grantsville.

“There were about 350 people who came and looked at my homes Thursday through Saturday,” Castagno said. “This was a good opportunity for people to see what new decor or construction trends were out there, and I will definitely sign up for it again next year.”

Cloward also said that next year’s showcase of homes will be an even bigger event with more attendees and more homes on display.

“The only complaint people had was that they wanted it to be two weekends instead of just one, so we’ll do that next year,” she said. “People also said they wanted to have awards for the homes, so we’ll also have awards for next year with categories like ‘best decor,’ ‘best design,’ ‘best interior,’ and ‘people’s choice.’”

Haddock said the majority of the homes for next year’s showcase will also be in the affordable price range.

“We won’t try to be like Salt Lake’s or St. George’s showcase of homes where only the most magnificent homes are the focus, and our prices will be similar to this year’s,” she said. “But we will have a combination of both luxury and affordable decorated homes for next year. A lot of the builders for this year want to participate again, as well as several new builders who had talked to us afterward.”

Cloward hopes to involve more industry pros next year, and put more emphasis on advertising, plus creation and distribution of maps, books and tickets. Collings said some of those preparations are already underway.

“We have been talking with a number of builders already, and there are possibly 11 homes that will be built for next year’s showcase of homes,” she said. “We feel that this event is going to be bigger and better with every year. There were some people who thought this couldn’t be done in Tooele County, but we overcame all of that and came out on top.”

Doug Radunich: dougrad@tooeletranscript.com