St. Johns Is The Place to Be!

by George L. Ballou, II
Menton & Ballou Group
​Watson Realty Corp.

     St. Johns is the place to be! Home of the #1 Rated School system in the state of FL & Ranked In Top 10 In The Nation by Forbes Magazine; Rated the Healthiest County In FL by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; 3.6% Unemployment rate / 3.7% Growth Rate In Population According to U.S. Census Bureau Durbin Park to be the largest shopping area in all Northeast Florida: Featuring Wal-Mart, Home Depot and Bass Shops
    Even though I am in the real estate business 24/7, like many Realtors and fellow residents, the totality of what is going on in our county sometimes escapes us all. When you add up the numbers of just the major new projects under way and some about to begin the number of new homes coming on the market in the next few years is staggering. Where are all of these new owners going to come from? New residents from outside the county and state? Will St Johns County residents be selling their existing homes along the 210 Corridor, WGV, Julington Creek and Palencia for the new, state of the art developments with exciting new floor plans and amenities? What will be the impact on the re-sale market in these areas? If the last 10 years of growth is any indicator there seems to be room for everyone in this mix of new versus old!
     Although it will take many years for all of this to become a reality, a quick look at what is on the horizon in new home starts;

• 7,000+ Nocatee which has been underway for well over 10 years still has between 6-7,000 homes to be built and there is no sign of that area slowing down
• 2,600+ Shearwater located on the south side of CR 210 down to 16A and projected to have 1,919 single family/714 multi-family/ 250,000 sf retail / 30,000 sf of office
• 3,100+ Silverleaf consisting of 7,500 acres NW of WGV from CR 2209 to SR 16: Phase 1 w/2,109 single fam/1,100 multi-family/ retail/ office/ industrial (Future Phases take the total up over 10,000 res. units / 1,140,000 sf of retail / 300,000 sf office)
• 2,900+ Creekside at Twin Creeks consists of 3 distinct developments; Creekside/Beach Lake/Beach Walk plus retail and commercial development on both the north & south sides CR 210 between I-95 & Rt 1
• 345  Markland east of the WGV & I-95
• 999   Durbin Park located on 1,700 acres near Racetrack Rd. & I-95 will have 999 multi-family/2,795,610 sf of office / 2,397,130 sf of commercial / 350 hotel rooms
• 4,500+ RiverTown located on 4,000 acres stretching from the St. Johns River to Bartram Trail High School
• 2,278 TrailMark is located along Pacetti Rd. between CR 208 and Rt 16 just south of the WGV 

​23,722  -Total Residential Units

* Many of these developments have been on the drawing board for several years but they all seem to have gained their stride in a major push to make their plans a reality.
     The investment being made by developers is enormous, county funding for roads and infrastructure is in the hundreds of millions of dollars, the need for more schools is already evident and running behind! Job creation could be enormous to service this growing population. It looks like everyone is “All In” when it comes to St Johns County!

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