Why client relationships play a central role in Cedar Pointe Custom Homes’ approach
As Southern Utah’s premier custom home builder, Cedar Pointe Custom Homes (Cedar Pointe) brings elevated living to life through personalized design principles and meticulous attention to detail. Recognizing that building a home is a deeply personal and often stressful process, Cedar Pointe’s mission is to create seamless, positive homebuilding experiences that lead to high-quality, well-crafted homes.
With Cedar Pointe approaching its tenth anniversary in early 2026, we sit down with President Kaelen Gulbranson to hear about the company’s latest projects and developments. “We’re a small, family-owned, luxury custom homebuilder operating across Southern Utah,” Kaelen begins. “Prior to establishing Cedar Pointe, I lived in Canada, where I worked alongside family as a logging contractor and gained some construction experience, including infrastructure projects and working for some private clients.
“Cedar Pointe began in 2016 with a focus on building custom homes. There’s a lot of competition in the market, so we knew we needed to differentiate ourselves, and we do that by not only delivering high-quality homes, but also creating a positive experience driven by honest and communicative client relationships. When building a home, there are several parties involved and lots of decisions to be made. We aim to be the team in the middle of all of this on behalf of our client, allowing homeowners to focus on the areas and decisions that matter most to them.”
Destination community
Elaborating on the company’s portfolio, Kaelen continues: “I wouldn’t say we specialize in a specific style, but the region of Southern Utah has several desert landscapes. Although we build homes in all types of styles, many of our projects tend to be lower profile, single-story homes that spread across a larger lot. From a design perspective, desert homes feature flat roofs, earthy materials, and colors that mimic the surroundings. Also, many of the areas in which we work have design review committees that must approve designs to ensure the proposed homes don’t detract from the beautiful desert landscapes.
“Designing a home to sit on a desert plot is super fun but it can also be very challenging, as although most lots are fairly flat, we sometimes run into rocky ground or areas with lava flows. We consider the design implications at the very start of a project before construction begins, as these homes require extensive planning for proper heating and cooling systems, and we also carefully analyze the best positions for all the windows. Due to the desert’s hot conditions and scorching sun, we are very strategic on the placement of windows. However, clients often want to maximize the views, so we must balance their requirements with functional elements like HVAC to create the right system for each home. Some of our clients also install solar panels and water pump systems to maximize the Earth’s natural resources.”
On the topic of projects, Kaelen is keen to share more details about Cedar Pointe’s recently completed homes. “We’re currently working on a range of exciting projects, including a destination community where most properties will be used as holiday rentals, as well as a beach community with a large lagoon,” he shares. “We recently completed a vintage style home, where we merged two smaller lots to create a large home with a courtyard pool in the center. We designed this house so that every room interacts with the courtyard in some way, which emphasizes it as a central gathering place. One side of the home is an entertainment space featuring a large kitchen, dining, and living area with huge sliding doors, as well as a games room, sports bar, sauna, golf simulator, and theater room on one side. The bedrooms are on the other side of the house to provide a calm and relaxed living environment, and the entire home was designed as a vintage throwback beach house.” 
Wellness trends
As we look to the future, Kaelen shares that Cedar Pointe is seeing new trends and home concepts emerge. “Today’s homeowners typically want three things: wellness, technology, and connections to the outdoors,” he states. “We’re experiencing an increased focus on wellness, whether it’s addressing wellness in the design and amenities of the home or focusing on building science throughout the process. One of the most crucial factors of embedding wellness in the home is considering the way air enters the house and is treated and maintained to ensure it is clean and healthy.
“Many of the houses we build are situated within communities that connect with the outdoors. This ties in with the wellness mentality, as it encourages homeowners to embrace nature. While we’re seeing an increase in demand for more technology, we’re careful not to detract from the theme of wellness and the outdoors.”
With Cedar Pointe on track to complete between ten-to-12 homes in 2025, Kaelen plans to expand this figure in the coming years while maintaining the company’s focus on providing exceptional homebuilding experiences. “Cedar Pointe will continue to grow, and I’d like to see us building 15-to-22 homes per year,” he explains. “I not only want to grow in terms of the number of houses we build but also in terms of improving our process and growing in influence among our clients and the local area.
“We’ll continue to build strong relationships across the community and I’m a member of the board of the Southern Utah Home Builders Association, which works closely with the local government,” Kaelen concludes. “Overall, I’d like Cedar Pointe to increasingly play a leading role in Southern Utah’s building landscape, especially as we continue to deliver unparalleled homebuilding experiences and strengthen the ways in which we work with our clients.”