Kyle Henry started working for PBC Design + Build more than 20 years ago as a carpenter before branching into multiple aspects of the business, including management.

Fast forward to 2023, and Henry (pictured below) is now president and owner of the custom homebuilding firm, with his wife, Sonya, after buying out founder and developer Dave Spetrino in a deal that closed in July. The financial details were not disclosed.

As a result of the change, Spetrino will turn his sole attention to development projects, and Henry said PBC won’t be undertaking apartment projects anymore.

“Now it’s going to just be custom homes, and this gives us the opportunity to really focus on that,” Henry said.

Despite a bit of a slowdown, PBC’s high-end houses remain in demand, he said.

“People don’t seem to stop moving to Wilmington,” Henry said in mid-August. “We just had somebody on Friday who’s moving here from Baltimore … They’ve lived there their whole lives and Wilmington seems like a much better place to live.

“They’ve been here a couple of times and they’re ready to move here. I see that continuing to happen. I don’t see that slowing down.”

The company currently has 14 employees, Henry said.

Meanwhile, Spetrino has been fielding calls from potential collaborators on future development projects. At first, he’s going to focus at least half of his time during the coming months on Mid Castle, an apartment project planned for 1110 Castle St., he said. 

The 1.5-acre lot previously held a dilapidated bus maintenance facility. Spetrino and partners bought the site from the city of Wilmington for $867,500 with plans to build residential and commercial space.

Spetrino said he feels PBC is in good hands.

“Kyle is just so good at so many situations, and I was just really mainly good at finding the deals and putting them together … and I just really like that,” Spetrino said. “Kyle has been running this company for 10 years. It’s a change, but he’s been doing this. Now he’s got the title.”