by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Commercial Realtors and developers take heed - Palencia wants your business. As the community has grown, it has a growing need for office and retail services on location.
Walter O’Shea, project manager for Hines Development, has 37 acres ready for office and retail developers to come in and bring those services to the residents of Palencia as well as the traffic along US 1.
“We have about half of a mile of frontage along US 1,” said O’Shea. “We are actively marketing and selling the land. We are not actually going to be developing any of the vertical buildings themselves. We are looking for the commercial developers to come in so they would be leasing to the individual tenants.”
A traffic light at the entrance to Palencia will be operating by July.
“So, long before any retail actually comes here, there will be a traffic light which will help facilitate retail services because travelers will be forced to stop and look,” said O’Shea.
O’Shea said some of the commercial will tend to be more community-oriented by providing services that the residents would want to see including a grocery store, dry cleaners and a video rental store.
“In addition to the residents of Palencia, if you think about the greater area here, US 1 is the prime commuter corridor for people who live in St. Augustine and work in Ponte Vedra Beach or Jacksonville or people who live in Ponte Vedra Beach or Jacksonville and work in St. Augustine,” he said. “There really aren’t any services nor any planned along this corridor for those folks as well. So, I think the benefit to the larger community is there also and I think that is important for the demand aspect.”
O’Shea said what they see in office-type commercial would be office condominiums or smaller scale office buildings to house medical services, professional services geared towards people who live and work in the area including accountants, financial services or interior decorators.
“Basically, people who would service the residents living in the community or the people traveling along US 1,” he said. “It would be perfect for a business that wants to be centrally located between St. Augustine and Jacksonville.”
Retail-wise, O’Shea sees the gamut of neighborhood shops in a boutique or retail center or individual upscale retail out parcels.
“Uses will probably include a grocery store, bank, convenience station, dining which will range from upscale fast-food to sit-down casual dining and a range of smaller tenants.”
Though none of the parcels available have been sold, O’Shea said it’s just a matter of time.
They are in the process of putting in a commercial access road so potential buyers can get access to the parcels. O’Shea said they should be complete in the next four months.
He feels that the first developer to come in will be sort of a pioneer setting the stage for the rest to follow.
“If you are going to open a retail shop, you want to know that when you open it, you will have enough people there in your store to make it viable,” said O’Shea. “The first person in will be a little bit of a pioneer. I feel it will be viable, given the volume of traffic, given our demand for services from the residents and the 500 people working here every day. I think when the first person comes here, others will see that they are successful and they will follow. Once we have the first person over the hump, then the rest of it will go.”
O’Shea anticipates he will have some land sales this year with a completion of commercial about 2-3 years out.
There are 250 families living in Palencia as well as constant traffic along US 1 to support office and retail development at Palencia.
“Retailers need a certain population base to support their store and the fact that US 1 does have a lot of commuter traffic on it will help to support that retail,” he said.
O’Shea also noted that south of Palencia all the way to St. Augustine is completely developed, so those residents would also benefit from commercial development at Palencia.
Currently, the Palencia staff is bringing in services to the residents such as a dry cleaner and a car wash.
“There are entrepreneurs that are bringing the services to the community because the community so desperately needs them,” he said.
Having commercial readily available at Palencia would make it more convenient to live there.
“Part of that convenience would be if you want to go to Starbucks, dry cleaner, drop off the children at daycare or get gas for the car, you can,” said O’Shea. “I mean those are the reality of life as we live it today. You need those services. As those services grow here and are available here, it will enhance the attractiveness of the residential.”
Palencia does retain covenance and restrictions over what commercial development will be built there.
“We will review the tenant base and make sure that they are appropriate for the area,” said O’Shea.
O’Shea would like commercial realtors to come and visit Palencia.
“A lot of commercial Realtors and developers say that they have driven by it, but what I would encourage them to do is turn off US 1 and take a drive through the community to get a sense of what this place is all about,” said O’Shea. “I think if people do that, their level of interest will increase dramatically.”
Almost all of the amenities for the community are completed. Residential activity is steadily growing with new sections opening up for more growth within the community as well as several multi-family units under construction near the entrance of Palencia.
The Village Center will also be available soon for some commercial development.
“We have an exciting thing happening on Market Street in the Village Center,” said O’Shea. “We are close to having a contract with a developer to come in and build 22 live-work units at 3,600 square feet each. It’s an exciting new concept in Jacksonville. Nothing has been done like this in this area before.
“It is a three-story building attached like a town home. You would own the whole thing, but the bottom level is zoned not only for residential use, but it could also be office or retail. These are on the main street so if someone wanted to, they could live in the top two levels and have a business in the ground floor. Or you could buy one and open a business on the bottom floor and then rent out the top two levels.”
Currently, a wide range of housing and home location options including a selection of large, wooded estate lots, golf course or marsh-view lots, and a broad array of single-family homes designed by the area’s finest homebuilders. Home prices at Palencia range from $250,000 to more than $3,000,000.
The property spans 1,450 acres, with more than two miles of property bordering the tidal marshes of the Intracoastal Waterway and Marshall Creek. The community enjoys entitlements allowing up to 2,642 residential units and 900,000 square feet of retail and office space.