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Call Linda Pankake Wallenfang - Your Real Estate Expert!
St. Johns County: Communities Hastings
Since that birth in 1890, Hastings has been known as the "Potato Capital of Florida" with 21,000 acres of potato farmland. The area is also known for its cabbage, onions, eggplant and ornamental horticulture. The small-town closeness of Hastings coexists peacefully with the progress the town has made in recent years..The Al Wilke Recreation Field, just across the street from the town office, provides a venue for children's fun and organized sporting events. In addition, St. Johns County has built a new fire station in Hastings; replacing the town's all-volunteer firefighting force with paid firemen. Hastings Elementary /Middle School serves as another focal point in the community, providing recreational and educational opportunities. Although the tough economy has affected the area, it has new hope with the completion of a four-lane extension of State Road 207 and the completion of new developments. The new subdivision of Flagler Estates is a 10,000-plus-acre development with more than 700 residents.
Bordered by the St. Johns/Duval County line to the north, the St. Johns River to the west, County Road 208 to the south and Interstate 95 to the east, the northwest sector has grown more than 55 pecent in the past 10 years alone. The area is home to Julington Creek Plantation, which encompasses 4,119 acres, with over a dozen distinctive neighborhoods. Among the top master-planned communities in Florida, Julington Creek Plantation offers recreational facilities, a large selection of homes and price ranges and a great location - 30 minutes to downtown Jacksonville and 30 minutes to downtown St. Augustine. Many recreational opportunities exist, including golf courses, such as The Champions Club in Julington Creek. The Julington Creek Marina offers wet and dry storage for boating. The St. Johns County School District is the highest-rated school district in Northeast Florida. The Julington Creek area also has received a new postal designation; instead of a mailing address of Jacksonville, the 32259 ZIP code is now in St. Johns, FL. Palm Valley
In the beginning of the 20th century, the Intracoastal Waterway allowed easier access to an area once home only to Indians and later Spanish settlers. The plentiful palms prompted residents to change the name from Diego to Palm Valley in 1908. Farmers, loggers and moonshiners during Prohibition all worked the marshy, heavily treed lands. More recently, Palm Valley was filled with smaller homes and manufactured homes - some used as year-round residences, others used as second homes or hunting lodges. Many of those old lodges and undeveloped lots are for sale, and some include an entire acre of property. Some new residents are demolishing the old lodges to make room for mansions or are finding untouched land ready for development. River Marsh is a small gated community on the Guana River bordered by the Guana River State Park and Preserve. It will offer access to the river and preserve for fishing and hunting. Next for Palm Valley is learning to co-exist with its soon-to-be neighbors in Nocatee, a 15,000-acre community with homes, offices, parks and preserves. Ponte Vedra Veach and Sawgrass
Years of conflict between Timucuan Indians, the Spanish, the French and the English persisted until around 1821, when Spain sold Florida to the United States and it became a territory. Nearly 100 years later, in 1914, two young chemical engineers, Henry Holland Buckman and George A. Pritchard, discovered that Ponte Vedra's beaches contained industrial minerals, including components necessary for the production of titanium and zirconium. The National Lead Co. bought out the partners in 1916. The mining settlement, named Mineral City, played a crucial role in World War I, as titanium was a key component in the manufacture of poisonous gas. In 1928, the National Lead Co. rechristened Mineral City in honor of what was believed to be the birthplace of Christopher Columbus - Pontevedra, Spain. City founders later learned that Columbus was actually born in Genoa, Italy. The name Ponte Vedra stuck and today has come to symbolize sophisticated beach-style living. Modem-day Ponte Vedra Beach began to take shape when National Lead built a 9-hole golf course for its employees along with a log clubhouse and polo field in 1922. In 1928, the complex became the world-famous Ponte Vedra Inn & Club. With the post-war mineral market gone and production at a standstill, National Lead used its clubhouse and golf course as the base from which to launch a resort community. Road construction in the 1940s through the 1960s brought further development and, in 1972, developer James Stockton Jr. broke ground on the 1,100-acre development known as Sawgrass. Today, Sawgrass is home to The Players Championship golf tournament and is world headquarters for the PGA Tour, thanks to a now-legendary 1978 deal in which developers Jerome and Paul Fletcher sold PGA Tour Commissioner Deane Beman 415 densely wooded acres for $1. Although synonymous with luxury, Ponte Vedra Beach does have affordable. housing away from the ocean. St. Augustine & St. Augustine Beach
St. Augustine, 35 miles south of Jacksonville beside Matanzas Bay, was established by Spanish Admiral Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles on Sept. 8, 1565. The city is the center of the action in St. Johns County. St. Augustine is the host of over 50 annual events, many revolving around the city's historic role. The Fort Castillo de San Marcos, built between 1672 and 1695 by the Spanish, dominates the city's tableau. Its massive gates draw tourists and longtime residents to explore the city's past. More than 85 historic sites lie within the city's confines. Numerous museums detail an aspect of the city's development, while archeological digs proceed throughout the year, unearthing further information on St. Augustine's heritage. Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum, the St. Augustine Alligator Farm and Potter's Wax Museum are among the popular attractions. With an average temperature of 70 degrees and mild winters, St. Augustine allows for year-round recreation. Boating, swimming and surfing take a high priority in leisure activities as does golf, with championship golf courses, including those at the World Golf Village. St. Augustine is a shopping experience with more than 35 antique shops, 25 art galleries and an abundance of specialty shops, many located on the brick-lined streets of the city's historic district. Two outlet malls off Interstate 95 - one an outside center, the other indoor - are visited by locals and by visitors on the way to Disney World and other points south. The city is also known for its fine eateries. More than 100 restaurants, some ranked among the highest in the state, offer everything from authentic French cuisine to eclectic new world fusion cooking. Higher education is provided by Flagler College, a private four-year liberal arts school, and St. John's River Community College. More than 40 religious affiliations are represented in St. Augustine and St. Johns County. Many of the city's churches, some of the oldest in the country, have histories dating back hundreds of years. Palencia, a 1,450-acre master-planned golf course community, will have 2,642 residential units and 900,000 square feet of retail and office space when built out. Vilano Beach
The main catalysts to this revitalization are the new Usina Bridge connecting Vilano Beach to the mainland and the upscale Serenata Beach Club development on State Road A1A. One thing is for certain: interest is growing, and housing and lot prices are rising in response. Vilano Beach is a peninsula bordered by South Ponte Vedra Beach to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, St. Augustine Inlet to the south and the Intracoastal Waterway to the west. Construction of the Usina Bridge spurred the area's revitalization as it replaced an undependable drawbridge that deterred people from buying homes in Vilano Beach. The Vilano / Surfside area was primarily a summer beach community, but more and more people are living there year-round. Vilano Beach also has one of the few red shell coquina beaches in the state. World Golf Village
He had a proposal for golf's officials: take the hall of fame concept, combine it with the future of the sport and the technology of the industry, then build into it a sense of place that would celebrate that concept. That sense of place would incorporate the roots of the game in Scotland and the architectural details of the St. Augustine area in which it would be located. Bermuda grass was planted to the roadbed of the winding entrance, bordered on either side by the greens and fairways of The Slammer and Squire course, designed by golf giants Sam Snead and Gene Sarazen. Street signs became monuments of stone, reminiscent of the ancient stonework of St. Augustine. More than 4,000 trees were planted, induding more than 1,000 live oaks lining the roadways. The Arnold Palmer-Jack Nicklaus King and Bear golf course was also completed. The 75,000-square-foot Hall of Fame with its historical artifacts and interactive displays, an IMAX theater, restaurants (actor / comedian Bill Murray and his brothers now have one there), boutiques, hotel and resort soon followed and World Golf Village opened in May 1998. Residents of various neighborhoods who would make it truly a village began moving in, starting with the Davidson family. With homes in every price range - custom homes, condominium homes, patio homes, even a life-care community for retirees, World Golf Village blends many different ages, incomes and lifestyles. Besides the golf courses, amenities indude a swim and tennis center, several parks, resort hotels, nature preserves and picnic areas. There are baseball, softball, and soccer fields, basketball courts, sand volleyball, shuffleboard, play-grounds, barbeque grills and a full-time activities director. The Neighborhood Fitness Cottage also is planned. Laterra, a resort community indudes a world class PGA Tour spa. And, thanks to Davidson Development Inc., about 44-percent of WGV is in its natural state as wildlife and environmental preserves, never to be developed. Coming Attractions
The largest, Nocatee, with about 2,200 acres in Duval County and 12,800 acres in St. Johns, includes 14,200 housing units along with retail and commercial space, parks, schools and playgrounds. Full development will take 25 years. Just west of Nocatee, Twin Creeks, a 3,050-acre development will have 2,000 single-family homes, 3,000 multi-family homes, three schools, 300,000 square feet of office space and 600,000 square feet of retail space as well as industrial space, parks, a hotel and fire station. It is scheduled to begin in 2006. RiverTown's plans call for seven distinct "neighborhoods", including one devoted to building farms. The 4,170-acre project along the St. Johns River north of the Shands Bridge near Orangedale will eventually have 4,500 homes along with parks, schools and an 18-hole golf course. And, the developer behind OakLeaf Plantation in Clay County plans to create the second-biggest residential development (next to Nocatee) in the county. SilverLeaf Plantation will be a mixed-use development between 210 and International Golf Parkway with County Road 16A to the west and I-95 to the east. Developers hope to break ground in 2006. SilverLeaf would contain 10,700 residential units besides offices and retail shops. In its three neighborhoods, SilverLeaf also would feature athletic fields and recreation areas.
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