Thursday, October 12, 2017

Another Story on the Same Lagoon-Development -- No Investigation, Just Partisan Pro-Developer Fluff From St. Augustine Record

Another gee-golly-willickers story full of gauche louche goofy gooberishness from developer fanboy STUART KORFHAGE.  In his years since moving from Sports to "Development" reporter, STEWIE's not gotten a clue about developers.  Or is not allowed to report what he knows.  Never reports the identity of beneficial owners.  Never investigates.  Never uses his critical thinking skills.  Waste of a paycheck.   A mind is a terrible thing to waste.   We expect better from GateHouse.  MORRIS COMMUNICATIONS' 35 year legacy of covering for corruption must end.  Now.



Posted October 12, 2017 05:52 am
By STUART KORFHAGE stuart.korfhage@staugustine.com
Splashy development plans to ‘raise the bar’ along CR 210 corridor



PETER.WILLOTT@STAUGUSTINE.COM John Kinsey developer of the Beachwalk community stands on a view platform next to a 14-acre lagoon being constructed in the center of the development on County Road 210 between Interstate 95 and U.S. 1 on Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2017.


PETER.WILLOTT@STAUGUSTINE.COM A 14-acre lagoon is being constructed in the center of the Beachwalk development on County Road 210 between Interstate 95 and U.S. 1.


Beachwalk might be the most audacious (sic) new development in St. Johns County. Developer John Kinsey makes no apologies for that.

“We feel like we’re kind of raising the bar for other communities,” Kinsey said. “And if they don’t want to meet this bar, that’s fine. They have their business model. They have to understand there may be customers who would rather come buy from us.”

Kinsey can be confident in the appeal of the community, which is off County Road 210 between Interstate 95 and U.S. 1, as he watches its major amenity take shape: the Crystal Lagoon.

Despite delays from a wet summer followed by a major hurricane and nor’easter, workers are making progress on the man-made, swimming pool-like lake. Next week, they are expected to begin what will be about a six-week process of putting in the liner.


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Soon after that, it will be time to start filling the 14-acre lagoon, which is the main draw for this upscale development. It should be finished and filled in time for late spring swimming.

Builders in the development are less than two weeks away from signing contracts with buyers. And those buyers should start moving in by the spring.

Americrest Luxury Homes is building 116 twin villas, priced from about $450,000 to $690,000, on the waterfront or near it and another 119 larger homes in another section of the development. Lennar and Vintage Estate Homes are also building in Beachwalk.

Kinsey acquired the property in 2004, sold off pieces of it to another developer that dropped out during the recession and reacquired it in 2013 with the intention of doing something big.

“When we conceived of Beachwalk, we didn’t want to create the same type of community that everybody else was building,” he said. “We said if we do that, we’re just chasing everybody else, chasing the same customers. We decided to come in with a totally different look, totally different architecture and landscaping.”

It takes a lot to stand out when developing communities off C.R. 210. There are several successful developments out there still adding homes.

But there’s nothing like what Beachwalk will offer with just fewer than 1,000 homes and a 175,000-square-foot retail village that will provide waterfront dining and shopping in the 1,000-acre development.

Neil Eisner, the managing principal for Americrest, said there’s no doubt Beachwalk will stand out, even in the popular C.R. 210 corridor.

“We’re very much bullish on it, and I think that the market has responded in kind by the fact that over the last few months since we have done these campaigns about our grand opening and pre-grand opening we’ve had over 1,000 registrations,” Eisner said. “The community will be successful. The question is just how successful.”

With so many quality communities just opening or starting to establish themselves, Kinsey said it’s vital that a new project be of the highest quality in order to compete.

“I don’t expect everyone to be doing a Crystal Lagoon and as much as we’ve done here,” Kinsey said. “But the days of being able to come in and put a little Tinkertoy entry feature, slap in a swimming pool and maybe a water slide or two and say, ‘Hey, look at us!’ — those days are gone.”

Kinsey is backing up his words. Between what should be a lavish entry, palm tree-heavy landscaping and a widening of C.R. 210 to six lanes — not to mention the lagoon — Kinsey said his company will have spent $50 million in preparations before the first resident moves in.

Even with such a huge investment, Kinsey is confident there will be a pay-off.

Looking at the current housing market, Kinsey said stable interest rates, stable unemployment rates and just a stable economy in general all point to healthy real estate market.

That’s especially true in St. Johns County, which is in the midst of what could be a record year for home building. In the most recent building report from the county, September saw permits issued for 305 single-family homes. That was 50 more than September 2016 despite the fact that Hurricane Irma disrupted work for a week or two.

Just this calendar year, there have been permits issued for 3,145 homes in the county.

“From what we’ve seen from communities around here and interest that we’ve gotten both at the event that we had a month ago and from all the brokers that are coming and buyers that are responding to stuff on our website, we think we hit this just right,” Kinsey said.


10 Comments
Ruth Hope · 

lowering the bar for preservation of the tree canopy
UnlikeReply521 hrs
Richard Crooks · 

Great idea till someone drowns in it. Then watch Morgan and Morgan descend on the place like flies. I say skip the pond, we're surrounded by water. Save some trees. This place (St Johns County) will look like the Bronx in twenty years.
UnlikeReply56 hrsEdited
Matthew Zimmerman · 

Seems to me Morgan and Morgan would desend on any community with a pool then. Especially those with slides. And there are plenty. So not a very intelligent argument against this community.
LikeReply18 hrs
Richard Crooks · 

Matthew Zimmerman Intelligent enough. You of all people should know we live in a litigious society. Without safeguards, without wildlife mitigation, without insurance, there will be a problem down the road. The problem with development itself is that it's not paying for itself. Not enough schools, not enough fresh water, too much noise and traffic, now overcrowded everywhere, and "new home consultants" such as yourself laughing all the way to the bank at our expense.And the developers don't even come from here. They just buy a politician and set up shop changing the future land use map to suit their needs and start lining their pockets. Pigs I say. Did I mention we are surrounded by water?
LikeReply312 hrsEdited
Edward Adelbert Slavin · 

1. How did this get approved?
2. How weak is the text and enforcement of the St. Johns County tree ordinance, compared to St. Augustine? In St. Augustine and St. Augustine Beach, prospective tree killers must comply with the law -- watch the hearings of developers seeking permission from PZB, in which our full participation is essential to saving our tree canopy. (Note to GateHouse: investigative reporting is urgently required in our community. Thank you!)
3. Is St. Johns County Administrator Michael David Wanchick hosting a pig's breakfast for greedy developers? Who is responsible for all the tacky homes, bad draingage and shoddy planning?
4. St. Johns County a/k/a "God's country" is at risk of becoming a clear-cut, ugly, unreasonable facsimile of Broward County Florida or Richardson, Texas (where Wanchick worked before 2007).
5. Enough flummery, dupery and nincompoopery in St. Johns County.
6. Developers' not-so-subtle corruption of our government is indefensible, and must be ended at once. It's up to us.
LikeReply418 hrs
Davidson Lance · 

Right now, we're paying the price for all the rezoning banditry that occured in the 00's (that saw one county comissioner off to prison). A few voices spoke out loudly against it and what the consequences would be, but nobody cared. Now that those consequences are here, people care, and sob about how terrible things have gotten, yet they're often the same people who ignored the prescient voices who warned of this, back when the looting was taking place. Buy a silvaculture parcel, rezone it into a PUD and viola, you just made millions. The Bert Harris Act (masked as a 'landowner rights' law but in reality, the protections of which are essentially only available to large scale developers) is responsible for all this, but just like everyone ignored the good Mr Wiles 15 or so years ago, people ignore any inquiry into the Harris act, too, and instead, just kvetch about change and all the annoying traffic. The problem, ladies and gents, is the Bert Harris act. Untill we have this conversation in those terms, we're barking at the moon.
LikeReply211 hrsEdited
Antoinette Baker · 

I bet Wanchick gets first pick of the "litter". rasing the bar? who's bar? Geesus help us. Wanchicks gotta go.
LikeReply418 hrs
Carmelo Russo · 

Formerly a licensed aquatic applicator, so I'd say that without a pool liner and a regular schedule of a dump truck load of chemicals, the swimming lagoon will eventually fill with aquatic weeds, trash fish, water moccasins, and gators. But, hey, have a nice swim.
LikeReply513 hrs
Tom Reynolds · 

CAN YOU SAY OVER PRICED!

CAN YOU SAY WAY OVER PRICED!

SAY HEY .................the BEACHWALK is going to FLOP!

SAY HEY .......the BEACHWALK is a SHORT WALK to the POOR HOUSE!

SAY HEY ........ the BEACHWALK is the FORCLOSURE CAPITOL of SJC!

SAY HEY ... the BEACHWALK is the FUTURE in Low income HOUSING!
LikeReply212 hrsEdited
Will Duer · 

Sounds like more crap we don't want or need. Look at this guy. Where is he from??? "Home sales consultant"? sounds like balderdash to me. Get a real job.
LikeReply212 hrs
Will Duer · 

Go back where you came from, unless it's here. Carpet baggers.
LikeReply212 hrs
Andrew Crawford
Vibrio vulnificus
LikeReply18 hrs
Richard Crooks · 

That's right Andrew. Cholera. Swim anyone? Don't pee in the pool signs posted every hundred feet. How posh, how quaint, how elegantly upper class!
LikeReply18 hrs

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