SUNBRIDGE HAS RANCHING ROOTS
The way Clint Beaty tells it, he thinks about his workday. Beaty, senior vice president of operations at Tavistock Development Company, is in charge of the company'ss newest mega-development.
By strict definition, his job calls for leadership in shaping Sunbridge, which is set amid 27,000 acres of native Florida landscape across the Orange County line into northwest Osceola County.
As such, those duties encompass everything from entitlements and planning for horizontal and vertical development to sales and leasing. Beaty’s job runs the gamut.
And by all accounts, there are big plans for this emerging region, which is being touted as a “place of woods, water and wildlife yet so close to Metro Orlando.” Tavistock, a visionary company, says it will explore ideas about the “meaning of home” along with the “importance of town” and the “power of nature.”
Yet, Beaty’s own view of his function is as a steward. Sunbridge sits on a portion of the more than 300,000 acres that make up Deseret Ranch — which for decades has been coveted by real estate developers.
The ranch spans acreage along S.R. 528, the St. Johns River and U.S. Highway 192 — all Central Florida landmarks. It’s part of the massive local holdings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
But it couldn’t remain a ranch forever, smack dab in the middle of one of the fastest-growing regions of the country. And, gradually at first, development began.
In 2016, Tavistock announced a plan that involved more than 4,700 acres off S.R. 528 in east Orange County plus more than 19,000 acres in Osceola County.
The opening-phase proposal: 5,720 single-family homes and 1,650 multifamily units; 9 million square feet of commercial space (mostly offices); and 490 hotel rooms as well as 1,700 acres of preservation wetlands and upland buffers.
A 2016 Tavistock press release promoted a “community focused on preservation and innovation, with diverse residential neighborhoods and employment centers with miles of connected trails surrounded by thousands of acres of preserved conservation network.”
At the time, of course, Tavistock was (and still is) riding a wave of unbridled success at Lake Nona plus a portfolio of other nationally acclaimed communities, properties and experiences. It was, and remains, an established and conscientious industry leader that’s widely expected to deliver what it promises.
A RANCH WITH MYSTIQUE
Deseret Ranch was founded in 1950. When much of the property that today encompasses the ranch was purchased by the Mormons, it consisted mostly of wiregrass and cut-over timberland considered to be of low quality.
With decades of effort, however, Deseret Ranch became a world-class operation for citrus, timber and beef cattle that was carefully managed for the long-term viability of wildlife populations. It’s a mosaic of pastures, citrus groves, wetlands and woodlands.
In his own way, Beaty, who was raised in Orlando, wants to maintain that integrity. He got started on Sunbridge in the spring of 2015. That, he says, is when he began “bringing birth” to the development.
“For me personally, having a hand in the development of the ranch is extremely special,” Beaty says. “I’m an old Florida guy, so looking at that landscape and being the caretaker of making sure that the development goes right and honors the heritage of that land — it really keeps me jazzed about the project.”
Beaty adds: “To have the primary influence on the development of the ranch, and to put the Tavistock label on it, is an honor. It’s like, ‘This is amazing. We’re going to get to do this.’”
He points to the allure of the property and the mystique behind it. “The land was always there,” he notes. “But, in some ways, unless you were on a hunting lease, it was always behind the fence. The public couldn’t see it. They didn’t know what it was.”
Not surprisingly, Beaty is perhaps most jazzed about three natural waterways on the property: Lake Nona, Buck Lake and Red Lake. They flow into Lake Tohopekaliga and the Kissimmee River Basin before eventually finding their way to Lake Okeechobee.
“What gets me really excited,” he says, “is to do development of this scale and protect the elements of nature, like the watershed and the water source.”
For Beaty, his work is the continuation of a legacy. “This is not just a random parcel of land that a company is taking to develop and bring to market,” he says. “I think it has a chance to be really special.”
TAKING THE LONG VIEW
Beaty isn’t alone in that assessment. Rob Adams, Tavistock’s vice president of residential development, shares Beaty’s belief in a deliberate, calculated approach to growth.
The key, adds Adams, is being correct in making “moving decisions” on targets that often are elusive. “We’re really thinking a few years ahead and trying to figure out what the market will be for what product,” he notes. “Also, where we think demand is going to be for those future places.”
As a case study, Adams cites Tavistock’s 17-square-mile community of Lake Nona and its now-thriving town center, located approximately five miles from Sunbridge. A few years ago, as the ambitious plans for Lake Nona Town Center were being rolled out, not every development pro thought the company’s thinking was wholly sound, given the project’s scale and density.
“Some people,” Adams says, “might have considered those plans a head-scratcher at the time.”
Today, however, the town center boasts some 4 million square feet of shopping, dining and entertainment space in addition to office buildings and hotel rooms. And Adams envisions the same promise at Sunbridge.
“Just to see what’s occurred there in the past 10 years [throughout Lake Nona] is super meaningful,” he says. “And we have a similar blank canvas in front of us with Sunbridge.”
Adams notes that Tavistock always takes the long view. “We’re going to be long-term owners of a lot of the commercial assets on site,” he says. “And so we’re really cognizant of trying to think ahead and be certain we’re not making a poor decision now that boxes us in on what we can do later.”
Much of that responsibility rests squarely on Beaty’s experienced shoulders. In 2007, he left as a senior vice president at CNL Financial Group in Orlando to join Tavistock as a vice president. In December, he advanced to senior vice president of operations.
Beaty has a proven track record of solving complex business situations, breaking them down and putting them back together — and then making them profitable. And, as a nod to his community spirit, his resumé also includes time as director of development and finance for Give Kids the World in the late 1990s.
Further, Beaty says he’s in good company, citing his Tavistock teammates. “It’s more about my team, because my whole career has been about having the right people around me and with me — and then empowering them to go do what they’re good at.”
Also, of course, there’s a plan. “This is a big Rubik’s Cube; you can’t take all of it at once,” Beaty adds. “There was a lot of planning and a lot of entitlement work that had to get done before you ever think, ‘Hey, I wonder what color we’re going to make the pavers around the first amenity?’”
PLANNING FOR WHAT’S NEXT
And, rest assured, there’ll be plenty of amenities in Sunbridge. For Beaty, though, that’s not the point — at least not yet, anyway. Instead, he hopes to “change the momentum of normal development” by striking just the right balance of building and environmental care.
“I want to make that difference; that’s what I’m really focused on now,” he says. “Being a steward of one of the most important land assets in the Central Florida area — and shaping it for the future in a way that hopefully will be viewed as the beginning of a new approach to development — that’s what gets me up in the morning.”
With Deseret Ranch’s land mass stretching more than 300,000 acres, there most assuredly will be a next for Sunbridge. The community’s initial 27,000 acres went through a comprehensive sector-planning process in 2010, even though development by Tavistock didn’t commence until half a decade later.
Following that process, another 130,000 acres, to the immediate east of Sunbridge, were segmented for planning purposes. Called the North Ranch Sector, that acreage isn’t scheduled for any development until 2040.
According to Osceola County’s North Ranch Sector Plan, the intent is to “proactively plan for and preserve regionally significant economic opportunities, natural resources and transportation corridors at a landscape scale.”
Preparation of the Sector Plan is being closely coordinated with existing and proposed regional planning initiatives, including the Governor’s East Central Florida Corridor Task Force, the Northeast District Conceptual Master Plan, the Osceola County Expressway Authority Master Plan and the Osceola Parkway Extension PD&E Study, among others.
All that can be said with certainty right now is that Sunbridge will continue to be one of the most significant master-planned communities in the region, if not the state, for many years to come.
“Most developers operate within a short window, say five to 10 years,” says Adams. “They can’t think about those big-picture things. They’re just really ready to move onto the next project. We’re not that here; we’re thinking about what it’s going to be in the future. And that’s very much the case at Sunbridge.”