RiverTown is scheduled to be sold to Mattamy Homes for $43.6 million dollars, according to an article in the Jacksonville Business Journal today. 4,057 acres of the 4,170 acres owned by the St. Joe Company will be sold to Mattamy Homes, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
RiverTown sits on land that has been owned for years by the St. Joe Company. During the Great Depression, Edward Ball traveled around Florida buying up land for Alfred duPont, who wanted to own a million acres of land in Florida. The St. Joe Company has managed the land and Arvida, their development arm, has developed many Florida communities. The St. Joe Company moved its headquarters from Jacksonville to the Panhandle a few years ago, and now they are selling most of the land in the RiverTown community.
RiverTown began development just as the market was slowing down and sales were painfully slow during the downturn, as there was no momentum and even the original sales office was off site on County Road 210. The location is also not convenient to shopping and restaurants yet and that was a difficult obstacle to overcome when there were so many homes on the market.
St. Joe has revived RiverTown by spending the money to build the Clubhouse and Amenities, along with a very attractive entrance on State Road 13, and a Riverfront Park with a community dock.
Currently there are three builders in RiverTown, including Mattamy Homes. David Weekley has been there since the groundbreaking in 2008 and Dennis Homes came on board in 2011.
It will be interesting to see if Mattamy continues the original plans for RiverTown, which were to include distinctly different neighborhoods, including one with estate-sized lots and one with small farms with several acres. The original RiverTown neighborhood is built in the new urban style of Celebration, Baldwin Park and Seaside. A new neighborhood called The Landings is scheduled to open soon.
Eventually RiverTown will have commercial, retail, office and industrial space to round out the development. Stay tuned to see what Mattamy Homes has in store for RiverTown.
Comments(2)