August/September Business View Magazine

230 231 “If I had to describe St. Johns County in two words, they would be ‘growth and opportunity,’” says Direc- tor of Economic Development,Melissa S. Glasgow. “We remain busy at the county and there are no signs of things slowing down.We’re continuing to work at adding commercial development to an already strong residential base.” Some recent projects in St. Johns County include Durbin Park, a 1,600-acre property on its north- ern border, owned by Gate Petroleum.“It’s the first designated urban service area in the state,”Glasgow states.“It will consist of 1,600 acres–our largest concentration of urban development within the county.They anticipate having 2.8 million square feet of office; 2.4 million square feet of retail; 350 hotel rooms; and 999 multi-family units.Durbin Park is under construction on their first phase,which is entirely retail–nearly 700,000 square feet anchored byWal-Mart, opening later in 2018, and Home De- pot opening in the first quarter of 2019, along with 22 other stores that have also been announced. Another master-planned development is Twin Creeks, a 1,000-plus-acre,mixed-use project featur- ing over two million square feet of retail, commer- cial, office, and industrial uses, along with 3,000 resi- dential units.Twin Creeks will also feature a unique, 14-acre Crystal Lagoons amenity ringed by sandy beaches and mixed-use developments for retail ST. JOHNS COUNTY, FLORIDA shops and residents in an area they recently named Beachwalk.“It will be the largest lagoon in Florida,” Glasgow says.“They’re building them all over the world to provide amenities into certain residential and commercial developments. Even though we are along the water, the Atlantic, the St. Johns River, and the Intercoastal Waterway, they still felt they wanted to bring a unique water amenity to their community. Crystal Lagoon will be opening mid-2018, and they have a number of new homes under construction. They have not yet announced any of their new retail or commercial tenants, but they are actively working on a number of agreements, so that project is well underway. Dirt has been flying for over a year.” Another significant economic development proj- ect completed in the county is Northrop Grumman’s Aircraft Integration Center of Excellence.Their $80 million, 361,000-square- foot facility is complete and built to ultimately house 1,400 employees, including 400 new, high-wage manufacturing jobs. “We’re very proud of Northrop Grumman, our largest manufacturer and Top 5 major employer, and we’re very pleased to have them continuing to invest in our community,” says Glasgow. In addition to new housing developments and a host of commercial construction projects, over the last fewyears, the county has also embarked upon several key public-private partnerships.“Our current signature project is the PGATour,”Glasgow says. “PGATour is the organizer of the main professional golf tours played primarily bymen in the United States and North America, and they announced their new global home in St. Johns County.That was a significant project for us. PGATour is headquartered in Ponte Vedra and they are going to consolidate their operations from 17different buildings they