32 communities, 29,000 new homes

Realty Builder

When it comes to new developments in St. Johns County, how can anyone keep track? Doug Davis has a spreadsheet to do so and it keeps changing.

In July, it listed 32 planned communities in various stages of development. At build-out, they’ll add more than 29,000 homes to the coastal county. And the analysis doesn’t include Nocatee, which will total 12,579 homes when finished.

Davis offered a comprehensive look at what’s coming at a lunch meeting of NEFAR’s St. Johns Council. He is president of Fletcher Management Co., the current developer of World Golf Village.

A spreadsheet used by Davis’ office provided the encyclopedia version. He hit the highlights in the discussion.

Look to Shearwater in the northern part of the county to build homes soon. Davis described the developers as “serious” about getting the 2,895-unit project off the ground, with an amenity center slated for completion by summer 2016.

A long-dormant project, Twin Creeks and its 3,680 homes, is coming back online, with new homes expected by spring 2016.

Further south in the “greater World Golf Village area,” three communities stand out.

Bannon Lakes, at 999 homes, is in the final stretch of re-zoning and permitting. Davis predicted dirt would move on that project by the end of the year, with homes following in late 2016.

Markland, the 345-home community by Palencia developer Hines, named its builders in June, just months after it announced the project.

And TrailMark, a 2,278-home community by Greenpointe Communities, is moving forward in a serious way. Davis said he understood homes had already been designed. Greenpointe intends to have models and spec homes available at the same time its amenity center is finished in spring 2016.

All these rooftops bode well for the future of retail development, Davis said.

Today, large swaths of conservation land make it appear to passers-by as though the area is still the middle of nowhere. Commercial developers won’t come until they see density. The new developments will help.

“There really is a lot of development going on everywhere,” Davis said. “It will bring those restaurants, retail and all the conveniences that we’ll all benefit from.”