Someone said there are three sports seasons around here: football, spring football and recruiting.
Probably not far from wrong. A golf tournament shows up at the TPC, a tennis tournament comes to Amelia, they kill a bunch of kingfish one week ... but what else? Not much else, because we don’t seem to care much about anything else.
There’s a lot of football in this edition. Our cover boy was a college star who became an announcer. We have photos of Jaguars’ Coach Jack Del Rio. There’s also a Showhomes of America visit to the home of Jaguar player Kyle Brady.
We all like football and people in our business should like it even more: these guys build and buy big houses.
Example: the Jaguars’ No. 1 draft choice, quarterback Byron Leftwich, bought a $1.1 million home in Queen’s Harbour BEFORE he signed a zillion dollar contract with the team.
The coach, Del Rio, plunked down $2.68 million for an Ortega riverfront house and ex-Gator (and now Washington Redskins) Coach Steve Spurrier reportedly has decided to build in Palencia.
The big buys aren’t limited to just a few.
The Jags will have 53 on their roster and few make the minimum of $320,000 a year; most are in seven figures. There’s also a bunch of well-paid coaches and front office staff.
Most of them have made some Realtor’s day (mostly Prudential agents, of course, as Pru co-owner Tom Petway also is a Jag co-owner.)
A number of coaches, mostly Spurrier pals, have condos in the Crescent Beach area. (One is Oklahoma Coach Bob Stoops, who most think will be the next Gator coach.)
So, even if you don’t like football, appreciate it.
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Plans are moving along for the annual Realtor-Builder Luncheon, which this year will be Oct. 9.
The speakers: NAR President Cathy Whatley of Jacksonville and NAHB President Kent Conine of Dallas. Not often do the presidents of those two organizations ever appear on the same stage.
Might be a good show. Well, it should be: it always is.
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Lots has been written and said about downtown Jacksonville housing and I wonder if the officials in our city wouldn’t be wise to look closer, rather than farther.
Jacksonville planners seem to model the city using an apples-to-apples approach. It’s a big place, so let’s go to Nashville, Charlotte and Richmond to see how they’re succeeding.
I ran into a guy the other day who works in Jacksonville and lives in downtown Fernandina Beach. Best of both worlds, he says, and the drive isn’t as bad as you think (Note: as a resident of Ortega, I think anything over 15 minutes is bad.)
Someone is doing it right in Fernandina and St. Augustine and Macclenny. People co-exist happily with businesses. The towns are smaller, but they have the same problems: homeless people, etc.
Sure would save travel money, too.
— Fred Seely is the editor of Realty/Builder Connection and editorial director of Bailey Publishing & Communications In. He can be reached at [email protected].