A New Home Concept Shattered Records on Bainbridge Island

Lucía Torres · 2026-09-25

Well, this got everyone's attention. The first Camphomes property ever listed—a custom-built residence on Roberts Road on Bainbridge Island—sold in just five days. It wasn't just a quick sale, either. It went for over its $3 million asking price with multiple offers battling it out. And get this: it's now the highest price-per-square-foot new-construction sale on acreage in the island's history. For a debut project from a completely new building concept, that kind of demand is, frankly, wild. Mark Middleton, the listing agent and Managing Partner of The Agency Bainbridge Island, has sold real estate there for over twenty years. He called the interest unprecedented. ### The Unprecedented Response “I have never seen such a response in terms of buyer and community interest in a new construction home on Bainbridge Island,” Mark said. “The two open houses I held were the most highly attended I have ever conducted in my entire career at any price point!” The buyers themselves were a telling story. They're a couple with a design-forward eye who had been planning a major renovation of their Lake Washington waterfront home with the famed Olson Kundig Architects. But that project, they realized, wouldn't ultimately deliver the home they truly wanted. When they saw the craftsmanship and design of the Roberts Road property, they changed course completely and decided to make it their full-time residence. ### The Philosophy Behind the Build So what *is* a Camphome? It's built around a "campus" design philosophy and a level of craftsmanship that's become rare in new construction. Let's talk specifics on this first home. - It was engineered almost entirely from FSC-certified, plantation-grown teak. - It features exposed post-and-beam construction and hand-crafted millwork. - Marble surfaces and walls of glass are found throughout. Completed in 2025, the home offers 4,192 square feet of living space, plus 932 square feet of covered outdoor living, and a fully appointed bonus suite above the garage. That's more than 6,000 square feet of total covered space, all nestled on a private, forested 0.75-acre lot. Chris Marlett, who co-founded Camphomes with architect Matthew Falkiner, explained the simple idea behind it all. “We reasoned from first principles: every element of a Camp Home has to make sense—structurally, environmentally, and in how it makes a family feel,” he said. “Roberts Road had no comparable in the market, so we had no way to predict how it would be received. Honestly, we were terrified. The speed and the price of this sale were the market telling us that a home built this way is worth more than one built the old way.” ### What Comes Next That market response has clearly fueled some big ambitions. Camphomes is already looking beyond Bainbridge Island, with new markets in development from Costa Rica to Idaho to North Carolina. Closer to home, they're currently taking presales for two more Bainbridge Island properties, including what they call a once-in-a-generation waterfront site. The vision, according to Marlett, is about scaling without compromise. “What comes next is more Camp Homes in the Puget Sound, and a manufacturing platform precise enough to deliver that same quality anywhere a family wants to live,” he says. “We're building a company meant to last generations, the same way the homes are.” It's a bold statement, but when your first project shatters local records in less than a week, people tend to listen.