A circuit judge in St. Johns County upheld decades-old development restrictions tied to World Golf Village, rejecting the World Golf Foundation’s argument that the covenants no longer applied after the development’s original golf-centered vision ended.
Judge R. Lee Smith granted IT Land Associates LLC’s motion for summary judgment and denied the foundation’s motion, ruling the recorded use restrictions remain enforceable because the material facts are not in dispute and the law favors IT Land Associates.
A summary judgment motion allows a judge to decide a case without a trial when the material facts are not in dispute and the law favors one party.
World Golf Foundation CEO Greg McLaughlin said he was surprised and disappointed that the court ruled on summary judgment rather than allowing the case to proceed to trial.
“It was very disappointing for us that Judge Smith didn’t even allow for a trial to fully understand the situation,” McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin said the foundation believes a trial would have allowed the court to consider the broader history of World Golf Village, including the investment made by the World Golf Foundation and PGA Tour over more than two decades.
At the center of the dispute are use restrictions tied to portions of the former World Golf Hall of Fame complex that were created when World Golf Village was developed around a golf-centered vision.
The restrictions limit redevelopment to golf and entertainment-related and other “ancillary” uses like the Hall of Fame and PGA Tour Productions and an IMAX theater or similar entertainment attraction for 50 years from July 31, 1996.
World Golf Foundation Inc., which owns 36.7 acres in the core of World Golf Village, filed suit in Florida’s 7th Judicial Circuit Court on Feb. 19, 2025, against master developer IT Land Associates LLC. The foundation argued that land use restrictions placed on the property in 1996 were no longer valid after the World Golf Hall of Fame relocated to Pinehurst, North Carolina, and PGA Tour Productions moved its operations to PGA TOUR Studios in Ponte Vedra Beach.
In its filing, the foundation called the restrictions “unnecessary and unachievable” and argued it should be allowed to pursue other development options, saying the restrictions limited the property’s marketability for redevelopment or sale.
In its response, IT Land Associates argued the covenants remained enforceable despite changing circumstances and that the foundation remained bound by the restrictions governing the property.
A redevelopment years in the making
In July 2022, the World Golf Foundation announced the World Golf Hall of Fame would relocate to North Carolina. The museum closed Sept. 1, 2023.
By 2024, St. Johns County began evaluating what role it could play in determining the future of the property.
In May 2024, the county began exploring options for the World Golf Village site, including whether acquiring additional portions of the former Hall of Fame complex would provide greater control over redevelopment.
The county moved toward purchasing 36.7 acres surrounding the former Hall of Fame property from World Golf Foundation Inc. for $5.5 million.
The proposed acquisition included the former PGA Tour Productions building, surrounding parking areas, pedestrian pathways and the lake at the center of the complex.
St. Johns County already controlled portions of the World Golf Village core, including the former Hall of Fame building and IMAX theater buildings, as well as the convention center and associated parking.
The acquisition would have given the county a larger footprint to shape redevelopment.
But maintaining the existing facilities carried significant costs.
During a March 2025 St. Johns County Commission meeting, Deputy County Administrator Jesse Dunn told commissioners that maintaining the former Hall of Fame building as-is would cost about $369,000 annually, including utilities, maintenance and insurance.
Replacing chillers, which could be needed soon, along with pressure washing and painting, would require an estimated one-time investment of $762,000, Dunn said.
Operating the IMAX theater would add another $165,000 annually, including trademark costs, insurance and taxes. Replacing the theater’s screen, projector and other equipment could cost as much as $1.56 million, Dunn said.
The financial challenges of maintaining the existing facilities added urgency to the county’s effort to determine a future use for the property.
But in January 2025, the county’s effort to acquire additional World Golf Village property stalled after the restrictions became a central concern.
The county also was unable to secure an operator for the IMAX.
Attempts at a resolution
The legal battle was not the first attempt to address the restrictions.
Before filing suit, the World Golf Foundation sought a way to resolve the issue without litigation.
The foundation attempted to negotiate removal of the restrictions with IT Land Associates, including offers of $100,000 and $200,000, according to McLaughlin. Both were rejected.
That left the foundation pursuing another path: asking the court to determine whether the restrictions remained enforceable after the original World Golf Village vision had changed.
The legal fight over the future
The dispute moved from redevelopment discussions to court when World Golf Foundation Inc. filed a complaint for declaratory judgment against IT Land Associates LLC in February 2025 in the 7th Judicial Circuit Court.
The foundation argued the circumstances surrounding the restrictions had fundamentally changed.
In its complaint, the foundation pointed to the end of several key components of the original World Golf Village concept, including the county parcel lease, closure of the World Golf Hall of Fame and IMAX theater and relocation of PGA Tour Productions and the World Golf Hall of Fame.
“With the termination of the County Parcel Lease (027010-0020), the closure of the World Golf Hall of Fame and IMAX theater and the relocation of the PGA TOUR production facility and World Golf Hall of Fame, there has been a categorical end to the World Golf Vision, thereby rendering the Use Restriction unnecessary and unachievable,” the foundation stated in its filing.
The foundation argued the restrictions prevented the property from adapting to a new future.
“The Foundation contends that the Use Restriction is no longer enforceable and is an unreasonable restraint on alienation upon the Foundation Parcel,” the complaint read.
IT Land Associates disagreed. Jacksonville-based law firm Bishop & Page, which represents IT Land Associates, argued the restrictions were valid amid the changes on the property.
“First, merely claiming a lack of economic viability of the permitted use is insufficient to warrant this Court’s intervention,” its filing reads. “Second, and relatedly, Plaintiff is not entitled to rely on alleged changed circumstances when it is in control of those circumstances.”
IT Land argued the permitted uses remain possible, even if they are no longer financially advantageous.
“Those uses, though allegedly not financially advantageous, are still possible under the Use Restrictions (among other permissible uses),” the filing states. “It is not this Court’s role to relieve Plaintiff of the bargain it struck in 1996, regardless of how unreasonable Plaintiff now believes that bargain is.”
However, earlier in the case on July 28, 2025, acting as a magistrate, 7th Judicial Circuit Judge Kenneth Janesk II denied IT Land Associates’ motion to dismiss, allowing the declaratory judgment action to continue.
The ruling allowed the foundation’s challenge to proceed but did not determine whether the restrictions remained enforceable.
McLaughlin said at the time that IT Land needed to “move on” and allow a new future for the property.
Hotel sale, renovation plans reshape county approach
While the legal dispute continued, another major piece of the World Golf Village ecosystem changed.
The World Golf Village Renaissance St. Augustine Resort adjacent to the former Hall of Fame sold July 3, 2025, for $24.25 million.
Phoenix-based Riverstone Residential Group, through Atrium Finance IV, sold the property to Indianapolis-based SUN Development & Management Corp., through St. Augustine Lodging Associates LLC.
The sale introduced a new private-sector stakeholder with an interest in the future of the surrounding area.
The hotel remained one of the largest privately controlled assets connected to World Golf Village.
The changing dynamics, along with county staff confirmation that the hotel planned a $20 million renovation investment, prompted St. Johns County to reconsider its approach.
During a Nov. 18, 2025, St. Johns County Commission meeting, Commissioner Christian Whitehurst pointed to the hotel redevelopment as a reason for the county to reset its strategy.
Even with the legal dispute in motion, the county had been evaluating public-private partnership proposals that would allow the county to maintain oversight of the buildings while having some say in the property’s future.
“We have this $20 million private sector gift that just got dropped off in our lap,” Whitehurst said at the time. “So what we’re doing is we’re wiping the slate clean. We’re going to start from scratch with a strengthened position to negotiate.”
Commissioners unanimously rejected the two World Golf public-private proposals they had been evaluating — one from Capital Group P3 Developments of Florida in partnership with Alchemy Attractions and another from Ergisi Acquisitions and Cross Regions Real Estate — choosing instead to wait and see what the proposed hotel renovations could bring.
What happens next
The court’s ruling resolves the central legal dispute over whether the decades-old restrictions remain enforceable.
The ruling leaves the foundation with limited options as it considers the future of the property, including requesting a rehearing, pursuing an appeal or living with the restrictions as they are until they expire in 2046.
The foundation has 15 days from July 22, when the summary judgment was issued to request a rehearing and 30 days to pursue an appeal.
McLaughlin also criticized St. Johns County commissioners for not taking a larger role in resolving the dispute.
“The failure of this entire situation falls on St. Johns County and the county commissioners, who have done nothing to try and rectify the situation at all,” McLaughlin said.
McLaughlin said he believes the county was in a strong position to bring the parties together and negotiate a potential solution.
“They’re the only ones that can really solve the situation,” he said.
Commission Chair Clay Murphy, who said he had not yet reviewed the summary judgment, said he disagreed with the suggestion that the county should have played a larger role in the legal dispute.
“The county is very limited by statute about what we can do with personal property, so I’m kind of disappointed that people put it back on the county,” he said. “Our county administrators have been watching this and doing what they can as long as I’ve been in office. I trust their judgment. I trust our legal team’s judgment to make those calls. That’s what they’re there for. So we can certainly be disappointed together in the outcome and look forward to our limited options in the future. I share in (the foundation’s) frustration.”
Through its attorney, Frederick Page, IT Land issued a statement saying, in part, that it was “pleased” with the outcome while asserting the World Golf Village land could still be used in a manner compatible with the golf and entertainment-focused uses permitted by the current use restrictions.
“IT Land is also supportive of development within the WGV that deviates from the permitted uses as long as such development is compatible with the existing community. In developments such as the WGV, it is customary to approach the master developer with a development plan if an owner or new developer wants to deviate from existing permitted uses. To date, the Foundation has not done that.”
The statement goes on to say that IT Land remains willing to work with the foundation, the county and any new owners to “make this happen.”