Stafford at Artisan Lakes Earns National Silver Award in NAHB’s 2025 Best in American Living™ Awards
Gainesville, FL – December 2025 | Stafford at Artisan Lakes, a community developed, owned, and managed by The Collier Companies located in Palmetto, Florida, has been named a Silver Award Winner in the 2025 Best in American Living™ Awards (BALA), presented by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), earning national recognition for excellence in multifamily design.
Stafford received the Silver Award for Best Garden Apartment Community (4 Stories or Less), a competitive national category recognizing outstanding achievement in multifamily development.
The Best in American Living™ Awards, sponsored by SMEG, celebrate residential projects that demonstrate innovation, thoughtful design, and elevated community living. This year, a panel of industry professionals reviewed more than 600 entries from across the country, selecting Silver Award winners as the top finalists in their respective categories. Silver Award recipients advance as finalists for the BALA Gold Awards announced February 18th, 2026 in Orlando, Florida. BALA recognizes outstanding achievement by builders and design professionals in all sectors of the residential housing industry including single-family production, custom, multifamily, affordable, remodeling, community and interiors.
Stafford at Artisan Lakes exemplifies The Collier Companies’ commitment to creating high-quality apartment communities that thoughtfully balance design, functionality, and livability. Located at 6210 Terra Lago Circle, the low-rise community offers a refined yet approachable residential experience, featuring screened-in patios and select homes with private backyards that seamlessly extend living spaces outdoors. Designed by Dynamik Architecture, engineered by Atwell, and complemented by landscaping from RVi, the community reflects a cohesive vision brought to life through collaboration with Verdex Construction and financial partner Texas Capital Bank. Together, the team delivered a thoughtfully planned community emphasizing architectural character, quality craftsmanship, and intentional site design—hallmarks of The Collier Companies’ development approach.
Now actively in lease-up, Stafford at Artisan Lakes offers a robust suite of modern apartment and lifestyle amenities, reinforcing its identity as a well-designed neighborhood that supports everyday living while fostering a strong sense of place.
Stafford at Artisan Lakes is one of The Collier Companies’ newest 2X communities, supporting the company’s long-term growth strategy focused on thoughtful expansion while maintaining a strong commitment to quality, innovation, and community impact.
About The Collier Companies:
Headquartered in Gainesville, Florida, The Collier Companies is a 50+ year old multifamily owner/manager with communities in Florida and Georgia that develops exclusively for its own account. The Collier Companies’ portfolio is comprised of over 13,000 apartment homes. Founded by Nathan S. Collier in 1972, The Collier Companies is unique in its dedication to its Communities, Residents and Team Members as evidenced by its distinctive long term hold period and its Mission Statement: Proudly making your home the heart of our business while proudly supporting Team Members to become their best selves.
Nathan S. Collier is best known for endowing the University of Florida’s Nathan S. Collier Master of Science in Real Estate Program, consistently ranked #1 for public universities. Nathan also founded the Collier Prize for State Government Accountability through the UF’s College of Journalism & Communication, making the largest gift ever received to the College to fund investigative journalism. The Collier Prize is awarded annually at the White House Correspondent Association Dinner in Washington, D.C. He also founded The Peter F. Collier Award for Ethics in Journalism, administered by the NYU Carter Journalism Institute’s Ethics and Journalism Initiative (EJI). In addition to being a CPA and a Building Contractor, Nathan S. Collier is a proud triple Gator, with a bachelor’s in finance, an MBA, and a JD. A devout believer in continuous education, Nathan S. Collier is a graduate of HBS’s OPM25 as well as having attended Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation and continues to annually take a week of ExecEd at HBS through CEO. Nathan S. Collier currently teaches both Leadership as well as Real Estate Finance, Development, and Investment at the University of Florida’s Levin School of Law and at the Warrington College of Business.
The Collier Companies continues its 2X journey to double in size in the coming decade with exciting developments in progress, each project designed to reflect our commitment to quality, innovation, and community. As part of this momentum, we are actively progressing toward the completion of 4,345 apartment homes. Of these, 2,904 homes have been completed, 832 are currently under construction, and 1,273 are in development. Upcoming communities include Monarch in Fort Myers, FL, Alon in Sarasota, FL, Verve in Wesley Chapel, FL, Elora in Vero Beach, FL, Azure in Pompano Beach, FL, Nova at One Nexton in Summerville, SC, a community in Wilmington, NC, and a community in Naples, FL.
For more information about The Collier Companies, please visit colliercompanies.com. Nathan Collier has blogged on personal and professional leadership twice a week for over 15 years at NSCBlog.com
