GlobeSt.com UPDATE: St. Joe Taking a Retail Flyer in Boondocks

ORLANDO-Undaunted by a sparse population base in northwest Florida, locally based St. Joe Commercial plans to enter the retail arena for the first time with a bulging one-million acre inventory and develop eight high-traffic sites that could house up to 800,000 sf of new product in Bay and Walton counties. The sites are 250 miles northwest of Downtown Orlando.

No ground-breaking dates on specific locations have been set but the company already is scouting sites in the Tallahassee area for a second-phase retail development. St. Joe officials are banking on the five million annual visitors to newly developed resorts and tourist destinations in Florida’s Panhandle to support the new retail.

“Based on recent growth rates, it is projected that population in Florida’s Great Northwest will double over the next eight years,” Craig Buchanan, St. Joe Commercial’s director, retail development, Orlando, tells GlobeSt.com. “More than 11,000 homes are currently in development or under construction, including WaterColor, WaterSound and other residential projects by St. Joe Commercial’s sister company, Arvida Realty Services.”