by Michele Gillis, Staff Writer
The Villas at Bartram Lakes, a new Standard Pacific community, has joined the building boom on the south end of Duval County.
Standard Pacific Homes paid $5.4 million for 43.6 acres of timberland on Bartram Park Boulevard, just north of Race Track Road. They are now in the engineering phase.
After they get all of their approvals from the community authorities, they will go through the development process and build a model. Plans to have the model up and running with a full sales effort are slated for April or May of 2014.
Division president Jim Birkholz said the development will include about 170 luxury homes for the move-up buyer and empty nesters. Prices haven’t been determined just yet.
Though the availability of new luxury homes has not been as readily available in our market, Standard Pacific says their buyers want them, so they are going to provide.
“In our history with Standard Pacific, we have been targeting the move-up buyer who is looking for luxury homes in an ‘A’ locations and that buyer in particular has fewer choices than they may have had,” said Birkholz. “With that, they are coming to us demanding a new design of home for the ways that they live today. We are providing that and we are finding a lot of acceptance in the market as a result of that.”
The new homes are considered luxury because of the design elements that are brought into them and specification level.
“As far as the community, we will have first-class amenities, the community will be gated and this is an absolute ‘A’ location,” said Birkholz. “If you combine those three elements you come up with a true luxury offering in the Jacksonville area.”
Some of the design elements that make these luxury homes are the focus on outdoor/indoor living.
“Our overall belief and design component is that we have to build homes that people fall in love with and dream of owning,” said Birkholz.
Standard Pacific likes to incorporate outdoor living areas in their homes, which extends the livable square footage of the home.
“It creates an outdoor retreat,” he said. “We have a lot of focus on large windows, particularly transparency in the great room which creates a feeling of outdoors in through those windows. We spent a lot of time on the great room and the kitchen. We found that the kitchen is the number one place that people congregate and the great room is really where they entertain and spend time with their family. We also like to put together spa-style master bathroom because we found that is sort of a retreat for individuals and gives them kind of that luxury bathroom with a spa feel. We believe people in the luxury or move-up category are very interested in that design element.”
By doing research on what buyers want, Standard Pacific has discovered that buyers today really want more connectivity to the outside. They want a more open, connected space.
“That whole concept of the connectivity is really what underlies the new home design along with the outdoor living area,” said Danielle Tocco, director of communications for Standard Pacific. “It is much more than a covered patio; it is an extension of the home. Also, the added storage and spa-style bath are components that haven’t been offered in the market in the past.”
Birkholz said there are customers looking for luxury living today.
“Our focus is on that luxury buyer and I can absolutely tell you that we’ve had success here and across the country that if you can combine ‘A’ or ‘A plus’ locations, great communities that are designed for communal living and cutting edge products, that kind of combination sells and sells well,” he said.
If past successes are any indication, The Villas at Bartram Lakes should be a viable product on the market. Currently Standard Pacific is building luxury homes in Nocatee and Palencia and says it is having great success there.
“We understand this buyer and we believe we know what this buyer desires and with our history of knowing this buyer and being focused on this buyer, we have a high comfort level providing communities to that buyer in Jacksonville and across the country,” said Birkholz.
Though they don’t have a price range just yet, they will be focused on the move-up buyer and partially on the empty nester component of the move-up buyer who are looking for the right product, right community and the right location.
Birkholz said the square footage will most likely range from 1,800 to 2,600 square feet.
They are not an “on your lot builder” so they will build showcase homes in advance of need for those who sell their house and need to move in quickly.
“We will also sell ‘to be built’ homes which allow for a high degree of personalization,” he said. “Customers can come in and pick their homesite, the home they want to build, pick their own structural options and regular options. It will be a very high degree of personalization with these homes for that buyer.”
There will only be 170 homes.
“It’s a come and get them and when they are gone, they’re gone,” said Birkholz.
As far as amenities, there will be a pool and a cabana, but they are still in the planning stages as to what else they will put in as amenities with the land they have available.
“We believe the surrounding area is a great amenity itself,” he said. “There is great access to walking trails, services and restaurants. That is one of the reasons we believe it is an ‘A’ location and that people will want to live there. The other interesting component to this is that we are going to do full yard maintenance for all the homes in the entire community.”
Standard Pacific decided to make this community a gated one because they feel the buyers want it that way.
Birkholz said many empty nesters or move-up buyers own more than one home or like to travel, so the ability to have that lock and leave capability is of interest to a segment of that type of buyer.
Birkholz said there will be CDD fees for the community, but did not know what they will be at this juncture.
There will not be any commercial product in the community, only residential.
“We are extremely excited about the community and particularly excited about the homes we are offering,” said Birkholz. “These homes have never been offered in Jacksonville and are being designed specifically for this community. We are thrilled to be there and think we will have a great offering for the Jacksonville area through this community.”
Standard Pacific is based in California but has buildings in eight other developments in Northeast Florida.