By Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Success seems to be following Mitch Montgomery, the president of Montgomery Land Company.
His past developments have worked well and now, with Magnolia Point getting ready to go into its second phase, history is repeating itself once again.
Montgomery bought the property, located just as you cross Black Creek at the end of Fleming Island, at the end of 2002.
“The opportunity presented itself,” he said. “As residential development areas became less and less available in that Fleming Island area, we saw Magnolia Point as an opportunity to develop lots in a really nice community with amenities and a lot of the infrastructure already in place. We were approached at a good value, so we went ahead and bought the property.”
Magnolia Point was previously owned by an international group of investors in Germany. It’s a gated community with a Mark McCumber-designed golf course that has 27 holes.
“Dr. Thomas Schad, the principal in the group, has a home in Green Cove Springs and spent considerable time here every year,” said Montgomery. “He kept a manager onsite to oversee the development, but as such he was not a developer and consequently he wanted to liquidate his interest here in the United States and be more retired than he was prior to making that decision.”
Montgomery Land bought all of the remaining undeveloped land.
The community is about 1,100 acres. It started in late 1986 and was slow to take off in popularity.
“The investors from Germany were pretty much pioneers,” he said. “By going to Green Cove Springs and doing a major golf course and community, they were in front of the curve on demand in that particular area. So, they were kind of slow for approximately 10 years. But now, the dynamics of the market have changed substantially since that time. Fleming Island Plantation is pretty much built out and Margaret’s Walk, my other community in that area, is sold out. Consequently, there is very little property in that immediate vicinity that is available to build homes on. We saw Magnolia Point as a real opportunity to fill a need from the time we bought it forward.”
The community has room for 960 homesites. The original developer only did 560, so when Montgomery bought it he had the potential to develop another 422 home sites on the remaining land. He has developed 145 of those sites and sold them.
“Existing and ongoing building programs are in place building homes on those lot,” he said. “We will starting Phase Two with 130 home sites in January.”
Builders in the community are Sid Higginbothom Builders, Goldcrest Builders, Cordele Builders and American Home Builders.
Amenities in the community include the golf course, clubhouse, pool and tennis courts.
The golf course has recently been sold to a Virginia investor and Montgomery is excited about that.
“The people who bought it are professional golf course operators and have hired a top flight pro for the club,” he said. “We are expecting the amenity of the golf club to really be a focal point.”
Montgomery said there has never been an organized building program with model homes in Magnolia Point and he wanted to fix that.
“We felt the development needed to be re-identified,” he said. “They had lost the right to use the property on U.S. 17 for their primary signage. I went to the owner of the property and re-negotiated a deal with him and was able to build some nice infrastructure out front. We have totally re-identified not only the entrance along US 17, but we have also re-landscaped the guard gate and the entrance coming into the development.”
Magnolia Point has security personnel on site 24 hours a day.
“We wanted to re-identify Magnolia Point as a development that would appeal not only to the empty nester or mature husband and wife who want to have a golf course available to them, but it is also a development for young families with children,” said Montgomery. “The schools in the immediate area are very good and there are restaurants and shopping are very close by.”
Other recent communities that Montgomery has developed are Margaret’s Walk on Fleming Island, White Oak Trail at the intersection of Dunn Avenue and I-295, Hidden Lake on North Main Street, James Island off of Gate Parkway and Ocean Cay at the beach.
“We have at least 10 developments going on all the time,” said Montgomery.
A new community in Amelia Island that Montgomery is developing is Amelia National, located on Amelia Concourse off of Amelia Island.
“We are doing the golf course, clubhouse and developing 750 lots around the golf course,” he said. “It will be a very exclusive upper-end community. We only have 750 home sites on 900 acres of land. Lot prices are going to be from $100,000 and $250,000.”
Amelia National golf course is being designed by famed architect Tom Fazio. It is 70 percent complete and the first phase of the residential lots, which includes 135 home sites, are being developed at this time and are already pre-sold. Montgomery said the gated community should be ready for builders to start building in about eight months. The community will have a 20,000 square foot clubhouse, a swim club, soccer fields, tennis courts and tot-lot and children’s facilities.
Montgomery’s newest venture is the Villages of West Port, a 2,000-acre multi-use community, which is under the zoning of a Regional Activity Center (RAC).
“All of the entitlements are in place and approved for the site on the Northside,” said Montgomery. “It will be located on the Northwest quadrant of Jacksonville between U.S. 1 and Braddock Road, just north of I-295. It will have 1,900 single-family homes, 500 apartment units, 1.7 million square feet of flex warehouse and about 600,000 square feet of retail and office space.”
Montgomery said the physical development would start in the next 90 days.
“We are building a huge amenity center which will be the first one of its kind on the Northside,” he said. “It will have Olympic-size swimming pool, soccer fields and other related activities for sports, children and families. It will be a major amenity package for that particular development.”
Montgomery feels the Northside will benefit from such a large community coming to the area.
“The Northside is growing and people want to live there,” he said. “There is still a good value still available in that area for pricing homes. And it is very convenient. It is only two minutes from I-295 and only 20 minutes from downtown Jacksonville.”
Montgomery’s history is pretty simple.
He graduated from Valdosta State University with a bachelor’s degree in business management and went to work for General Motors in their corporate training program.
Through his work, he met Amos Almand Sr. of Almand Construction Co., who approached him and offered him a job.
He had no previous experience in housing or land development but jumped at the chance to learn a new trade. He worked with Almand for four years, learning everything he could, and then opened Montgomery Land Company in 1976.
“I’ve been doing it on my own ever since,” said Montgomery, who is a past president of the Northeast Florida Builders Association. “We are in all five counties now including Duval, St. Johns, Clay, Nassau and most recently Baker. Macclenny is going to be a bedroom community, no question about it. Just as Orange Park was 20 years ago, Macclenny will be the same way for the Westside.”
Though things are and have been going well, Montgomery said things are bound to change in the future.
“I’ve been in the business long enough to know that there are definite cycles in our business and since 1992, we’ve been very fortunate to have a very good environment for home building and land development. I personally think it will continue for several more years, but sooner or later a cycle will come back and there will be a big slow down.”
As the president of the company, Montgomery is always out looking for new opportunities.
“I am the deal maker,” he said. “I’m constantly looking at land deals and putting together the financing of the acquisition and development loans. When I get those things done, I turn it over to our engineers in the company who work on the site and engineering designs. It goes into production at that point. I’m really kind of the financial arm and deal maker that puts together available land for development.”