Charlotte-based luxury home builder Simonini Builders is announcing this morning that it is shutting down its homebuilding and renovation businesses because of “catastrophic changes” in the real estate market the past two years.

Simonini, which has built more than 700 homes in the Charlotte area ranging in price from $475,000 to $6 million, said it expects to complete the wind-down by the end of the year.

“The Simonini story is one of evolution from a family business to a dynamic builder of some of Charlotte’s finest homes,” chief executive Ray Killian Jr. said in a prepared statement. “Regrettably, that story will end as a result of general deterioration of the fundamentals of the homebuilding industry in ways never seen before.”

Said Alan Simonini, who formed the company with Killian in 1994, “The catastrophic changes we’ve seen in the overall real estate market over the past two years could not have been anticipated and are unlike anything I expected to see in my lifetime.”

The company intends to finish 14 homes now under construction, sell 21 homes it has in inventory and complete renovation jobs. “All neighborhoods in which our homes are located will continue to function,” the company said in a statement.

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