ESPN analyst and basketball commentator Steffi Sorensen wants to rezone a St. Johns County site for a health and fitness facility.
The project, called Dark Horse, requires a land-use rezoning from Open Rural to Planned Unit Development.
The county is reviewing plans. A date has not been scheduled for the next step, which is a meeting with the Planning and Zoning Agency.
Dark Horse is planned as a 20,000-square-foot fitness center featuring open-air amenities, sports performance facilities, and recovery and wellness programs on about 11.8 acres.
The site is on the north side of Greenbriar Road, east of Florida 13 North, about 1.2 miles west of Longleaf Pine Parkway and the Shoppes of Rivertown. It is west of Brambly Vine Drive.
Sorensen hosted an informal community meeting June 9 at Bartram Trail High School to discuss the project.
“We wanted to give the neighborhood a general feel about the project,” Sorensen said after the meeting.
About 40 people attending the meeting. Some expressed concerns with potential noise, traffic and disruptive lighting.
“We wanted to give them the opportunity to voice concerns and see how we can address them instead of just plowing the property down,” she said.
Sorensen said she hopes to open the facility by 2027 and employ 15 to 25 people, including high school students.
“I definitely want to tap into the high school kids and give them a job, then have really smart, innovative coaches and people that I can trust,” she said. “I’m not going to sacrifice quantity for quality. I’m willing to have a small team if we have the best team.”
The center is designed to offer classes, personal training, two floors of specialized equipment, group recovery sessions and amenities such as sports-specific training for athletes. There will also be space for meditation, recovery and reflection.
Sorensen, a former University of Florida basketball player, is the daughter of Firehouse Subs co-founder Chris Sorensen.
The 11.8-acre property is owned by the Chris R. Sorensen Family Trust, which bought it in 2022 for $1.5 million from Michael R. and Heather C. Styduhar.
Southeast Engineering Group, based in St. Johns County, is the project’s civil engineer.
Sorensen walked on at UF as a junior in 2008, became team captain within a year, and started every game. In her first season, she set the school’s single-season 3-point shooting percentage record at 39%. After graduating, she played one season in France’s top women’s league.
“Coming back from overseas, like every athlete, I’ve spent my entire life doing something and didn’t really get a lot of job experience, because our job is that sport, right?” she said. “So I felt like, naturally, my progression was to go into training.”
According to a spokesperson, the name Dark Horse reflects Sorensen’s career.
“As an ESPN college basketball analyst, Steffi and her colleagues often chose a ‘dark horse’ team or player that you might not expect to upset a ranked team. Or someone that isn’t being talked about,” the spokesperson said.
“Steffi felt that the name encapsulated her career — being a walk-on at Florida, for example, and then graduating as team captain and having started every game. Nobody ever expected that she could do that.”
“There’s not a place like this that exists — not in the county,” Sorensen said.
A native of St. Johns, Sorensen was named Miss Florida Basketball in 2006 and scored 2,147 points at Bartram Trail High School.
“They hung up my jersey, so I think it’s really cool to be two miles away from the high school,” she said.
“I want to build something that will affect the entire county. My lifelong dream has always been to own a gym. I just didn’t think it would be possible.”
