by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Queen’s Harbour Yacht & Country Club originally was started on paper in 1989, but didn’t start building homes until 1992.
“It took over four years to get the harbor permitted and dug,” said Carol Veal, an on-site agent at Queen’s Harbour, which is located off of Atlantic Boulevard on the Greenfield Peninsula surrounded by marshes and the Intracoastal Waterway. “It was all man-made. In 1992 there were 35 homes. Now we have around 750 residents. A lot has happened in a short period of time.”
Queen’s Harbour was developed by Fred Bullard, who still owns the residential gated community today. You’ll also remember the Clearwater-based developer as a jacksonville native and owner of the old Jacksonville Bulls pro football team.
Tom Dodson, the president of Queen’s Harbour, is in charge of the sales and development within the community. Max Long is the broker over the six onsite sales agents: Gary Adams, Judie Devall, Bill McCloud, Tom Knight, Linda George and Veal.
Even though they have their own agents, co-brokerage is welcomed.
“We have a lot of co-op sales,” said Veal. “So many agents bring their customers to us and we sell the lifestyle at Queen’s Harbour. We have a presentation that we do explaining all of Queen’s Harbour and the lifestyle. Then we assist and help them make sales here. So, a large volume of our sales are co-op sales.”
Any builder is welcome in Queen’s Harbour as long as they meet the strict architectural guidelines.
“We have numerous builders who build in here with a variety of price ranges,” said Veal. “Certain builders have a niche in a certain range. You will have custom builders who prefer to build $1 million homes and then you will have the other builders who prefer to build in the $400,000 range. We have a nice variety.”
Bryan Lendry and Arthur Rutenburg have model homes in Queen’s Harbour. Other builders keep an inventory of spec homes built for the agents to sell.
The development has a total of 1,400 acres, 200 of which are natural preserve.
“What makes us most unique is the harbor being fresh water,” said Veal. “Residents can keep their boats in the harbour in their back yard year round.”
The harbor is accessible to the river by a lock system; it’s a mini-Panama Canal.
In addition to the boat docks at homes, Queen’s Harbour also has a mooring that has 59 boat slips for those who do not live on the water to store their boat.
Amenities at Queen’s Harbour include a yacht club, a Mark McCumber-designed golf course, clubhouse, a sports center wits a junior Olympic pool, soccer field, tennis courts, basketball and volleyball courts.
“The sports center belongs to all the homeowners,” said Veal.
The golf course is owned by Club Corporation of America; there’s a clubhouse where people can be a social member, a full member or not join at all.
Events that are held at Queen’s Harbour include charity golf events, swimming events and tennis events.
At completion, there will be around 925 single family homes in Queen’s Harbour.
Build out is anticipated to be in two or three years with about 60 homes being added each year.
“We offer a wide variety (of lot sizes,)” said Veal. “Our price range is from $350,000 to over $4 million.”
In addition to the variety of lot size and price, Queen’s Harbour has several different views to offer future residents including wooded sites, golf course, marsh, Intracoastal and harbour views.
The Wonderwood Expressway will go right over a portion of Queen’s Harbour, but Veal says it has not affected their sales.
“We have done a wonderful job of creating wall and tree buffering,” said Veal. “Very large trees and nice landscaping block the Wonderwood. There is no access to Queen’s Harbour from the Wonderwood, so it has not deterred the sales. We’ve done everything we could do.”
They recently opened a new section called Bella Riva, 18 large wooded lots that overlook the marsh. The homes have Mediterranean/Old World design and sites range from $245,000 to $425,000. Home and site packages start in the $800,000 plus range.
Another new release was The Island, eight lots along the Intracoastal. Home sites start at the mid-$500,000s and home and site packages will start at $1.3 million. These homes will also be Mediterranean/Old World design.
Queen’s Harbour sells lots, resale homes, new homes and custom homes.
“We are heavily in the resale market right now,” said Veal. “We are getting the turnover of the relocation market now since we have been here long enough. We have 14 new homes and 42 resales up for sale right now.”
Veal said they have quite a bit of renovations on existing homes.
“People love their lots and they could not replace the lot with these type views,” said Veal. “Their needs are greater now so instead of selling, they are remodeling. We also have a large amount of homeowners who are scaling up or down who want to stay in Queen’s Harbour.”
Veal said the homeowners association is very active and makes it easy for new people moving in to meet others with similar interests.
Buyers in Queen’s Harbour have included football players, business owners, doctors and attorneys.
“It truly is a wonderful blend of young professionals, families and retirees,” said Veal.