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FOOD, FUN, MUSIC, ESCAPISM St. Joe Company, Minto Communities building project of municipal proportions BY STEVE BORNHOFT
AFTER SUCCESSFULLY UNDERTAKING the development of agerestricted, active-adult communities in Daytona Beach and Hilton Head, South Carolina, the master builder Minto Communities USA commenced looking around for its next large-scale opportunity. “We have learned that there are four or five elements that every successful active-adult community must have,” said Bill Bullock, a Minto division president. Enumerating them, Bullock touched upon the need for sufficient land, proximity to an airport, a coastal location, convenient retail and service businesses, and a nearby medical facility. Inevitably, one might suppose, Minto found itself sizing up the vast land holdings of the St. Joe Company, now headquartered in Panama City Beach, and especially its real estate along ı5 miles of the Intracoastal Waterway close to the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport. Minto approached St. Joe with an interest in buying some dirt, but a relationship that might have been transactional became a partnership instead. Today, the parties are united in a joint venture — the third Latitude Margaritaville community in the United States — a project of a scope so large it is not easily comprehended. The hook-up represented a merging of like visions. St. Joe had been considering an active-adult component as part of its Bay County plans for more than ı0 years. “They had the land asset teed up, they had done their strategic research and believed in the concept,” Bullock said. “And we already had grabbed a tiger by the tail in teaming up with Margaritaville Holdings.” Margaritaville Holdings, in which the beachy balladeer Jimmy Buffett has an ownership interest, is the brand licensee and brand steward for what will be known as Latitude Margaritaville Watersound, currently in development on ı00,000 acres north of Panama City Beach and west of State 79. The project’s first phase will encompass 3,500 homes, most all of them ranging in price from
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WINTER/SPRING 2021
EXPERIENCE MAGAZINE
“That’s pretty eyeopening, to have that level of interest at this stage. At Daytona, we’re in our third year of home sales. We sold 60 homes last month (November), and we expect to do even more volume at Watersound.” — Bill Bullock, Minto Communities
