Paradise Found

Flagler County at a glance

LAND AREA: 485 square miles
PERSONS PER SQUARE MILE (2000): 102.7
POPULATION (2001 ESTIMATE): 54,964
POPULATION INCREASE, 1990-2000: 73.6%
COLLEGE GRADUATES: 21.2%
MEAN TRAVEL TIME TO WORK (MINUTES): 25.9
MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME: $40,214
FACTOID: In the early 1930s, both Charles Lindbergh and Amerlia Earhart landed airplanes at the Flagler Beach Airport.

For decades, even most Jacksonvillians regarded Flagler County as significant only because of the monolithic blue water tower at Palm Coast, which served as a convenient milepost indicating that the journey to Disney World was roughly halfway complete.

Today Flagler County is the fastest-growing county in the nation on a percentage basis, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The raw numbers don't sound that impressive-6,309 new residents in 2004-but that's a 10.1 percent increase since 2003.

And people are coming from everywhere, attracted by subtropical forests, freshwater lakes, unspoiled beaches and resort-like housing developments.

Visitors who leave the interstate and explore the real Flagler County will be surprised to find upscale subdivisions along the Intracoastal, lavish condominium towers along the ocean and world-class golf courses designed to accentuate the area's natural splendor. Quite a change for a place once regarded as little more than a handy pit-stop for southbound tourists.

But Palm Coast, which was marketed heavily in the Northeast and Midwest, was an idea ahead of its time. By the early 1980s there were only a few thousand residents, most of them retirees.

ITT, the tech conglomerate that had tried to create a bustling city in this once remote stretch of coastal Florida, phased out its development division in the 1990s and sold its Flagler holdings.

Palm Coast became an incorporated city in 1999 and today is the population center of Flagler County, with some 44,568 residents. And because every city needs a clearly defined downtown, the city council last year approved plans for a 1,550-acre project called Town Center at Palm Coast, located just south of Palm Coast Parkway.

Developed by Palm Coast Holdings, it will ultimately contain 2,500 multifamily residential units, 1.4 million square feet of office space, 3.4 million square feet of commercial space, 640,000 square feet of institutional space as well as a movie theater, a hotel and a nursing home.

City Hall may also relocate to Town Center, where a nostalgic ambiance will be enhanced by traditional storefronts and parallel street parking. Construction will be completed in three phases over the next 15 years.

Although Palm Coast is Flagler's fastest-growing, highest-profile city, three other municipalities lie within the county: Flagler Beach (population 3,850), known for its 656-foot fishing pier and boardwalk; Bunnell (population 2,156), a sleepy inland city that serves as the unlikely county seat; and Marineland (population 10), a tiny city that encompasses a venerable dolphin-themed tourist attraction.

Built in 1927, the Flagler Beach Pier still lures serious anglers who catch tarpon, snook, bluefish, whiting and snapper.

Other local attractions include a Friday farmers' market, a wonderfully picturesque historical museum and such ecotourism treasures as Flagship Harbor Preserve and the Gamble Rogers Memorial State Recreation Area, named in honor of a quirky Florida folk singer who immortalized the state's colorful characters and turbulent history in his songs.

Flagler Beach is the only municipality on The Hammock, a sparsely populated barrier island where sand roads front upscale beach houses and mobile homes. Residents there fear eventual annexation by land-hungry Palm Coast. If that happens, they say, the island's laid-back way of life would be endangered by too much growth.

At the northern edge of the county, Atlanta-based developer Jim Jacoby is moving ahead in his effort to remake Marineland, which opened as the world's first oceanarium in 1938, into a thriving multi-use community in which the attraction and its performing dolphins will play a central role.

Residential development will include about 100 condominiums, 80 single-family homes and 25 mixed-use buildings. An 80-room hotel with retail shops and a restaurant will overlook the marina.

Flagler County residents don't mind commuting to work; fully 40 percent have jobs in Jacksonville, St. Augustine or Daytona Beach. That's fine with county economic development officials, who aren't focused on attracting huge employers. Instead, they woo small operations with 10 to 25 employees that provide products and services for larger companies headquartered elsewhere.

WHATS NEW IN FLAGLER COUNTY

The first phase of Wild Oaks Estates at Grand Haven in Palm Coast is under way. Discovery Homes, David Weekley Homes, Arthur Rutenberg Homes, Howell Homes, Red Carpet Construction, ICI Homes and Wayne Homes by Centex Homes are building in the community, where homesite/ home packages start in the $600s and climb to the $700s. Some homesites are as large as an acre. ...

The amenity center for oceanfront Cambria at Hammock Dunes is now complete. In addition to a spa, swimming pool and top-of-the-line fitness center with massage room, the facility has an indoor state-of-the-art golf simulator, wine room and humidor. Prices at the WCI Communities' project start in the $900s. .

River City Homes has opened a gated, 42-home community in Beverly Beach called Shelter Cove, which will feature canals offering direct access to the Intracoastal Waterway as well as ocean views. Homesites are priced from the $390s to the $820s. .

D.R. Horton has opened Riviera Estates, a 63-home community in Palm Coast. Homes are priced from the $240s to the $320s.

Nassau County at a glance

LAND AREA: 652 square miles
PERSONS PER SQUARE MILE (2000): 88.5
POPULATION (2001 ESTIMATE): 59,830
POPULATION INCREASE, 1990-2000: 31.2%
COLLEGE GRADUATES: 18.9%
MEAN TRAVEL TIME TO WORK: 28.2 minutes
MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME: $46,022
FACTOID: The neighborhood just north of Centre Street in Fernandina Beach was dubbed "the silk stocking district" in the late 1800s because people who lived there could afford to buy the uncommon luxury item. The stockings fell out of style, but the name has endured.

Everybody, it seems, wants a piece of Amelia Island. Florida's northernmost barrier island, 32 miles from downtown Jacksonville, has been ruled under eight different flags since French explorers first came ashore in the mid-1500s.

In addition to the French, Spanish and English, past conquerors have included Mexican rebels, Scottish mercenaries, local insurgents and the Confederate Army.

Nowadays the Stars and Stripes are firmly entrenched in this Nassau County oasis, which has more in common with Key West than with West Jacksonville.

Of course, the 13.5-mile-long island still endures invaders, but they're generally friendly tourists seeking pampering at posh resorts, relaxation at pristine beaches and good times at frolics and festivals held in funky Fernandina Beach, the historic city that anchors the island's northern edge.

Fernandina's 50-block downtown district, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is packed with intriguing shops, incomparable restaurants and inviting taverns that occupy charming 18th-century buildings. Victorian mansions, many of them built between 1870 and 1900, front the brick-lined residential streets.

The heart of the historic district is Centre Street, which stretches the width of the island from the Intracoastal Waterway to the ocean. There you can stop for breakfast at the Marina Seafood Restaurant or a cup of coffee and a pastry at Amelia Island Gourmet Coffee and Ice Cream.

Then take a stroll to the junction of Centre Street and the Intracoastal, where Fernandina's docks bring in nearly 80 percent of Florida's sweet Atlantic white shrimp-nearly 2 million tons per day.

Amelia Island is definitely a cool place to live-but space is running out.

Massive Amelia Island Plantation, a 3,500-acre luxury resort and residential community at the island's northern reaches, is finally nearing buildout after more than 30 years. Although resales are available in the environmentally friendly community, the only new construction consists of luxury condos.

Elsewhere on the island are several infill residential projects, but the bulk of Nassau County's growth is inland. The U.S. Census Bureau projects the county's population to grow by as much as 50 percent over the next decade. Most of that growth will occur around Yulee, at roughly 10 square miles the county's largest unincorporated area.

The residential boom around Yulee, especially in the vicinity of S.R. A1A and Chester Road/Amelia Island Concourse, has already sparked plans for a 150,000-square-foot expansion of Trevett Construction Group's Lofton Square shopping center. The expansion will be anchored by the county's first multiscreen movie theater.

Facilitating more growth is a planned extension of Amelia Concourse from its current terminus at LandMar's successful North Hampton community to S.R. 107. Several new subdivisions are slated along that 3.5-mile, four-lane corridor.

In fact, county planners expect that of 10,000 new homes to be built in Nassau County over the next 20 years, 7,000 will be in and around Yulee.

Fortunately, state- and federally protected wetlands make up huge tracts of Nassau County, ensuring some breathing room between developments. Commercial pine forests buffer the towns of Hilliard and Callahan in western Nassau, where one can still find working family farms.

WHATS NEW IN NASSAU COUNTY

Mattamy Homes expects to have four models available at Hickory Village in Yulee by April. The homes will range in size from 1,512 square feet for a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home to more than 2,000 square feet for a four-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom home. Prices start in the $200s. .

Allegiance Development has begun construction of Cape Sound, a luxury condominium project on Amelia Island, with prices ranging from the high $500s to the mid-$600s. Three floorplans are offered, ranging in size from 1,992 to more than 2,780 square feet. Allegiance also has opened sales on The Tuscany at Marsh Lakes, another luxury condominium community, with units priced from the $800s. Two floorplans are offered, ranging is size from 2,220 square feet with three bedrooms and three bathrooms to 2,500 square feet with three bedrooms and three-and-a-half bathrooms. .

North Hampton continues to be a much-sought after community, thanks in part to Morrison Homes and its Buyers' Choice Manor Home collection. They're selling quickly, but a few remain available for immediate move-in.

St. Johns County at a glance

LAND AREA: 609 square miles
PERSONS PER SQUARE MILE (2000): 202.2
POPULATION (2001 ESTIMATE): 131,684
POPULATION INCREASE, 1990-2000: 46.9%
COLLEGE GRADUATES: 33.19%
MEAN TRAVEL TIME TO WORK: 26.3 minutes
MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME: $50,099
FACTOID: During World War II, four Nazi saboteurs carrying cash and explosives paddled to shore from a German submarine off Ponte Vedra Beach. Their mission, dubbed "Operation Pastorious," was to commit acts of terrorism in large cities. However, all were captured when two of the Germans alerted federal authorities.

NORTHERN ST. JOHNS COUNTY

County Road 210 meanders across the top of St. Johns County, connecting the Atlantic Ocean with the north-flowing St. Johns River. In many places, it remains a quiet country road dotted by marshes and bays stretching inland from the Intracoastal Waterway and flanked by open fields where horses graze.

But those views are changing. Now huge master-planned developments, some the size of small cities, are springing up in this once rural setting south of Jacksonville.

The most recent data available from the U.S. Census Bureau indicates that St. Johns County is the ninth-fastest growing county in the nation, with a 6.7 percent population increase between 2003 and 2004.

Much of that growth was in the county's northwest sector. According to county records, St. Johns officials in 2004 approved developments encompassing about 61,000 single-family homes, mostly slated along the burgeoning C.R. 210 corridor.

The infrastructure required to support these massive developments is being funded largely by the developers themselves. For example, county officials expect to collect some $198 million for road construction from the developers of a half-dozen major projects approved since 2001, while others will chip in based on forecasts of their traffic impact.

Still, St. Johns County officials and residents are concerned about maintaining quality of life amid ongoing, rapid growth. In 2004, a 180-member task force called St. Johns Vision released a strategic plan for the county pinpointing six "foundation areas," including education, economic development, infrastructure, quality of life, government and private sector leadership.

Vision committees identified problems and set goals, and groups continue to meet to come up with ways of implementing the plan. Civic groups from Palm Valley and Ponte Vedra Beach have joined the effort. The overall goal, according to Vision executive director Jim Sutton, is "to make St. Johns County the No. 1 place in the country to live and work."

The "work" part isn't quite there yet. About three-quarters of taxable real estate in the county is residential, according to the St. Johns County Chamber of Commerce. That's why about 40 percent of residents commute outside the county to work.

But county leaders are working hard to lure more jobs, and point to the success of the rapidly growing World Commerce Center, a 973-acre business park located off I-95, as an example of what's to come.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH

The home of The Players Championship golf tournament and some of Northeast Florida's most expensive real estate was a mining camp in 1914, when two young chemical engineers discovered that the dunes along the ocean contained more than a dozen industrial minerals.

What is now Ponte Vedra Beach was called Mineral City in those days, when the National Lead Company began producing titanium and zirconium during World War I.

But when the war ended and demand for minerals slackened, National Lead ceased its mining operation and converted the property into the region's first golf and country club-the precursor of today's Ponte Vedra Inn and Club-for the exclusive use of its executives and directors.

Jacksonville developer Telfair Stockton bought 800 acres from National Lead in 1942 and began building homes and expanding the golf course.

In the early 1970s half-brothers Paul and Jerome Fletcher bought 6,000 acres from a company that had planned to develop a manufactured home community and began selling off tracts for such upscale developments as Sawgrass. The Fletchers also started their own luxury community, Marsh Landing.

In addition to luxurious living, Ponte Vedra Beach has become synonymous with golf and is home to the international headquarters of the Professional Golfers Association as well as The Players Championship, held each March at Sawgrass.

The PGA Tour was attracted to Ponte Vedra Beach by a now legendary 1978 real estate deal in which the Fletchers sold PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman 415 wooded acres for one dollar. Beman certainly got a bargain, but the presence of the Tour and its signature tournament also vastly increased the value of the Fletchers' holdings.

Sometimes overlooked is the fact that Ponte Vedra Beach is also home to the Association of Tennis Professionals, which holds its Pro Tennis Classic here each October, as well as various exhibition matches and tournaments throughout the year.

Oceanfront or Intracoastal lots in Ponte Vedra Beach can command seven figures, although an occasional condominium farther from the water can offer the panache of a Ponte Vedra address for as low as the $200s.

There is little room for large new developments in Ponte Vedra Beach or neighboring Palm Valley, but smaller projects are popping up. Last year, St. Johns County approved five developments along Palm Valley Road, ranging in size from 14 to 61 single-family homes or condo units.

ST. AUGUSTINE

The aspect of St. Augustine is quaint and strange, in harmony with its romantic history...It is impressive from its unlikeness to anything else in America. It is as if some little, old, dead-and-alive Spanish town, with its fort and gateway and Moorish bell towers, had broken loose, floated over here and got stranded on a sandbank.-Harriet Beecher Stowe

That circa-1872 description of the Oldest City remains accurate, at least physically. But the St. Augustine Stowe visited was a sleepy, isolated place where, she noted, "The current of life has an indolent, dreamy stillness."

If you've ever visited St. Augustine on a weekend, the words "indolent" and "dreamy" are not likely to come to mind. This is a bustling place, teeming with shopping, nightlife and some of the state's best restaurants.

And there's always a festival of some sort going on, including Founders Day, Menendez Day, Greek Landing Day, the Minorcan Festival and the Gamble Rogers Folk Festival, held to commemorate the folk singer who celebrated Florida's heritage through his music.

Located 35 miles south of Jacksonville beside the Matanzas Bay, St. Augustine was founded in 1565 by Spanish Admiral Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles. That makes it the nation's oldest continuously occupied city.

Fort Castillo de San Marcos, completed in 1695, still overlooks the bay, while more than 85 other historic sites, including the oldest schoolhouse and the oldest jail, line the cobblestone streets alongside intriguing Spanish- and Victorian-style homes.

Because the downtown historic district is built-out, living in St. Augustine proper means buying and renovating an older-and we do mean older-home. Prices near downtown are now topping $400,000, although fixer-uppers can be had for less.

Most new development bearing a St. Augustine address, including the massive Palencia and World Golf Village projects, is occurring on the vast open tracts north and west of the city.

WHATS NEW IN ST JOHNS COUNTY

Morrison Homes is building 65 homes in Phase II of Taylor Woodrow's St. Johns Forest. The company is offering six designs ranging in size from 1,908 square feet with three-bedrooms and two bathrooms to 2,520 square feet with four bedrooms and three bathsrooms. Prices start in the $340s. Other builders in St. Johns Forest- Toll Brothers, ICI Homes and David Weekley Homes-are also reporting rapid sales in the amenity rich community. Prices in St. Johns Forest range from the mid-$300s to more than $1 million. .

Mercedes Homes has introduced Paloma, a new town home community in St. Augustine. More than 190 homes, with two- and three-bedroom floorplans, will be built with prices starting in the mid-$100s. Three models, all with Craftsman-style architecture, are open. .

Envision Custom Homes has selected Prudential Network Realty's Builder Sales & Marketing division to market Istoria, a new community south of U.S.1 and International Golf Parkway. Homes, which boast marsh and private lake views, will feature classic coastal architecture with off-grade porches, brick chimneys and optional metal roofs. Prices start in the $500s, and a model is under construction. .

West Indies-style architecture will highlight Sage Beach at Guana Preserve, a gated, 28-home community in Ponte Vedra developed by The Waterway Group and Cronk-Duch Partners. Custom homes, priced from $1.1 million and up, will offer views of the ocean and Guana Prerserve. .

Engle Homes is building 81 homes in Heritage Landing at World Golf Village with prices starting in the mid-$200s.

Estate-sized homes are being offered by Beazer Homes in South Hampton. There are just a few a 90-foot homesites available on the Mark McCumber-designed championship golf course. Beazer's Estate Home Series offers designs ranging in size from 2,371 to 3,573 square feet. Homes are priced beginning in the $500s. .

W.G. Pitts Company has just completed construction of the entrance and the amenity center at Kensington, a new community developed by The Alterra Group. Other builders in the 299-home community are Mattamy Homes, CornerStone Homes, Ryland Homes and Lennar Homes. The amenity center consists of a clubhouse, a free-form swimming pool with play equipment, tennis and basketball courts, a multipurpose recreation field, a beach volleyball court, two playgrounds, two covered picnic pavilions and a large covered cabana. .

Antigua at St. Augustine, a condominium community and the last new riverfront development in the Oldest City, is now taking reservations for units ranging in price from the mid-$400s to $1.2 million. The project is loaded with amenities and nearly all units have marsh or river views. Homesites are also available.

Camden County at a glance

LAND AREA: 783 square miles
PERSONS PER SQUARE MILE (2000): 69
POPULATION (2001 ESTIMATE): 44,061
COLLEGE GRADUATES: 15.5%
MEAN TRAVEL TIME TO WORK: 22 minutes
MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME: $41,056
FACTOID: Camden was one of the eight original Georgia counties, established in 1777. It was named for Charles Pratt, the Earl of Camden.

More than 250 years after it was chartered, Camden County was discovered. Or perhaps rediscovered is a more appropriate word. After all, prior to the Civil War, this heavily forested corner of southwest Georgia was dotted with plantations growing rice and sea-island cotton. And St. Marys, then the southernmost city in the United States, was a lively seaport parish.

The Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base and Gilman Paper Company later relocated to Camden County, spurring growth and helping to diversify the local economy. But in 1996, when Money magazine placed St. Marys at No. 1 on its list of "America's 50 Hottest Little Boomtowns," relocators took notice.

Since then, St. Marys and neighboring Kingsland have emerged as bedroom communities for Jacksonville, located just 35 miles to the south.

But in addition to resort-style real estate developments, buyers are drawn to the St. Mary's area because of its natural splendor. Camden County is home to the Cumberland Island National Seashore, the largest southernmost barrier island in Georgia and an erstwhile getaway for turn-of-the-century industrialists.

There is no more majestic sight than watching the island's population of wild horses gallop along the 17-mile shoreline as the sun sets. And it's positively eerie to wander through the ruins of Dungeness, the once-opulent Carnegie estate, and its forlorn outbuildings.

Also on the 36,415-acre island is the circa-1901 Greyfield Inn, a Carnegie property still owned by the family, offers luxurious accommodations and a wonderful restaurant.