Fort Lauderdale-based BTI Partners announced Dec. 20 that it bought the 3,300-acre Governors Park property in Clay County and intends to develop 4,000 homes there along with apartments, commercial and industrial space, hotel rooms and a golf course.
Governors Park is west of U.S. 17 and north and south of the First Coast Expressway. It is the former Gustafson family ranch property that was owned by the Davis family and The PARC Group.
BTI said it plans 4,000 single-family homes and 2,000 multifamily units for the site in Green Cove Springs.
Additional plans include 840,000 square feet of commercial/retail space, 700,000 square feet of office space, 400 hotel rooms, 2 million square feet of light industrial space and an 18-hole golf course.
“Our next step is to put the infrastructure in place and partner with home builders who will be looking to grow their housing inventory south of Jacksonville in the next two to four years,” BTI Partners CEO Noah Breakstone said in a news release.
It is expected to take two to four years to prepare the property for infrastructure to begin vertical construction.
According to the deed, the property was purchased Dec. 16 by Governors Park Property Holdings LLC through Westport Capital Partners of Stamford, Connecticut, for $85 million. The deal was brokered by Cushman & Wakefield.
“This transaction highlights BTI Partners’ strategy of acquiring large tracts of land to develop mixed-use communities in Florida’s high-growth markets,” Breakstone said.
Westport Capital Partners and BTI Partners have worked together on numerous projects in Florida, according to news reports. In December, BTI and Westport paid $28 million for 538 acres in Osceola County near Orlando for a future development site.
Governors Park is a Development of Regional Impact.
A 2019 Governors Park Planned Unit Development document described it as a mixed-use, master-planned community on 3,112 acres around the future interchange of the First Coast Expressway and the Green Cove Springs Bypass.
The Daily Record reported in August 2019 that residential use will account for the largest space, at 1,394 acres; followed by 800 acres for open space; 214 acres for golf course use; and the rest for light industrial; commercial; office; hotel use; and parks.
The PUD showed up to 4,000 single-family homes, 2,000 multifamily units, 840,000 square feet of commercial space, 700,000 square feet of office space, 400 hotel rooms and 2 million square feet of industrial space.
