By Jack Witthaus  – Staff Writer, Orlando Business Journal

A Clearwater developer wants to build a mixed-use project near a Daytona Beach golf course to cater to the area’s fast growth.

Boos Development Group Inc. wants to rezone roughly 61.4 acres northeast of LPGA Boulevard and Tournament Drive for apartments and 11 commercial parcels for its Tymber Creek Village project, according to documents filed with the state. The site currently features woods and wetlands and is zoned for single-family homes.

Plans call for retail space to include an auto parts store, bank, coffee shop, medical offices and a drug store. A Boos Development representative wasn’t available for comment.

The estimated project cost and timeline weren’t known.

The area has seen “virtually no” development activity since the early 2000s, which makes it ripe for new construction as Daytona Beach grows, said John Albright, president and CEO of Daytona Beach-based CTO Realty Growth (NYSE American: CTO), who isn’t involved in the project. In recent years, new developments nearby such as Latitude Margaritaville and a Trader Joe’s distribution site has brought new homes and jobs to the area, which creates demand for more retail and apartments.

“It’s kind of like an oil well being drilled and hitting the mother lode,” Albright said of area’s commercial demand.

Developers continue to plan a slew of projects along Daytona’s LPGA corridor despite the coronavirus pandemic. Projects on both sides of Interstate 95 could bring more shops, eateries, hotels, homes, apartments and possibly a movie theater. Not to mention a whole bunch more traffic.

DAYTONA BEACH — A surge of development projects is heading for this city’s LPGA Boulevard corridor and not even the coronavirus pandemic can stop it.

Projects planned on both sides of Interstate 95 are poised to bring more shops, eateries, hotels, homes, apartments and possibly a movie theater.

Not to mention more traffic.

“Activity begets more activity,” said Carl Lentz IV, managing partner of SVN Alliance Commercial Real Estate Advisors. “Traffic is a good thing for retailers.”

“We got a little slowdown in momentum during the early stages of the pandemic, but all of the projects are still moving forward,” Lentz added. “As concerns over the pandemic are starting to subside, the momentum is picking up again.”

Since 2015, the I-95/LPGA area has seen the opening of three shopping centers — Tanger Outlets, Tomoka Town Center and Latitude Landings.

It has added regional distribution centers for Trader Joe’s and B.Braun as well as a last-mile delivery station for Amazon, the e-commerce giant.

Other recently completed commercial projects along the LPGA corridor include the new Sam’s Club, Stor-It Storage Center and Superwash Express.

The corridor has also seen the opening of two new residential subdivisions that have added more than 1,000 homes and three new luxury apartment complexes with more than than 900 units.

Also going up are more restaurants and shops at Tomoka Town Center.

Other tenants coming to Tomoka Town Center include a Rooms to Go store that will be built along I-95 just north of Tanger Outlets and an antique car-themed Ford’s Garage restaurant next to Chipotle.

Across the street on the east side of Williamson Boulevard, Orlando developer Unicorp is building a new shopping center called Shoppes at Williamson Crossing.

New luxury apartments are going up both along LPGA and Williamson boulevards that are expected to add more than 1,000 units.

And that’s just the beginning.

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Site work has begun on three new retail projects just east of the Interstate-95/LPGA Boulevard interchange in Daytona Beach: a highly anticipated Buc-ee’s mega-sized gas station/travel convenience center, a new shopping center called Williamson Crossing, and a pair of new retail buildings at Tomoka Town Center.

DAYTONA BEACH — When Pete Tavolacci decided to open his Dominic’s Deli & Eatery at Tomoka Town Center in February, he did so because of the tremendous growth both at the center as well as the surrounding area.

“We were looking for an expansion site and this was a perfect fit,” said Tavolacci, who also owns a Dominic’s Deli in Palm Coast.

The Interstate 95/LPGA Boulevard interchange area is home on its east side to both Tomoka Town Center, the neighboring Tanger Outlets and the new Sam’s Club that opened in July.

On the west side is the new Publix-anchored Latitude Landings shopping center that opened in November next to Latitude Margaritaville and is set to soon add more shops and restaurants.

And more commercial growth is on the way.

This past week, site work began on not one, not two, but three new retail projects in the area just east of the Interstate-95/LPGA Boulevard interchange.

Land is now being cleared for the highly anticipated Buc-ee’s mega gas station/travel convenience center, a new retail center called Shoppes at Williamson Crossing, and a pair of new retail buildings at Tomoka Town Center, across from, Tavolacci’s deli/restaurant.

Jeff Preston of North American Development Group, the developer of Tomoka Town Center, which welcomed its first stores just over a year ago, confirmed that his company has begun construction of two side-by-side standalone retail buildings. One will become home to a Verizon Wireless store. The other will be offer storefront spaces for multiple tenants.

A site has also been cleared up the street from the two future retail buildings for a planned antique car-themed restaurant called Ford’s Garage, which is expected to soon start vertical construction, Preston said.

Talks also are underway with the Miller’s Ale House restaurant chain which has shown interest in possibly building a new standalone eatery on the undeveloped lot immediately south of the new Sam’s Club.

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An Orlando developer has announced plans for a massive 2,600-acre mixed-use development along State Road 40 north of Latitude Margaritaville that could become home to 10,000+ residents as well as businesses. The developer also says Avalon Park Daytona will add more than $2 billion in tax revenues for the city and county.

DAYTONA BEACH — Latitude Margaritaville is about to get a big new neighbor.

An Orlando developer has agreed to buy 2,600 acres of undeveloped land directly north of the fast-growing Jimmy Buffett 55-and-older community here.

Plans call for creating a massive mixed-use development called Avalon Park Daytona, that upon completion in a decade or more, will become home to more than 10,000 residents as well as businesses.

Upon completion, the massive development will stretch along the south side of State Road 40/West Granada Boulevard just east of Interstate 95, from Tymber Creek Road west to Tiger Bay State Forest.

It will be across from Ormond Beach’s Breakaway Trails and Hunter’s Ridge communities on the north side of SR-40.

“The intention is to begin developing immediately, but until the site plan gets approved (by the City of Daytona Beach) we won’t be able to put a timeline on it,” said Stephanie Lerret, a spokeswoman for the project’s developers, Orlando-based Avalon Park Group and Switzerland-based SiteEx Properties Holding AG.

Beat Kahli, a Swiss national who is CEO of both Avalon Park Group and SiteEx, said his goal is to start infrastructure work late next year and begin construction of the first homes, along with a small “downtown” in early to mid-2021.

“We are not just developers, we’re town builders,” he said in a phone interview.

While plans for Avalon Park Daytona have yet to be finalized, Kahli said he envisions building a town that will have approximately 6,000 homes, including single-family houses, apartments and townhouses, as well as restaurants, shops, a grocery store, schools, medical facilities, churches, and offices.

Kahli said he is also planning to launch a global network of “co-use office” complexes called The 5th Floor that will include a location at Avalon Park Daytona.

For a membership fee, businesspeople can work out of and meet with clients at any 5th Floor location, including Orlando, Tampa, as well as in Australia, Singapore, and Switzerland.

Avalon Park Daytona, when fully built out, will add more than $2 billion in ad valorem tax revenues for the City of Daytona Beach and Volusia County, Kahli said.

Although the north side of State Road 40/Granada Boulevard is Ormond Beach, the land Avalon Park Group is buying from Consolidated-Tomoka Land Co. and Magnetar Capital is within the city limits of Daytona Beach.

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By LAURA KINSLER
GROWTHSPOTTER
DEC 10, 2019 | 4:19 PM 

This is an example of the type of mixed-use building that bidder Avalon Park Group plans to build in the town center of its new master planned community in Daytona Beach. (Avalon Park Group)

Orlando-based Avalon Park Group has signed a purchase agreement to developer over 2,500 acres in Daytona Beach for a new master-planned community that will likely exceed the size of its namesake community in Orange County.

The land is currently owned by Consolidated- Tomoka Land Co and is located on State Road 40, just west of Interstate 95, next to Latitude Margaritaville.

“This property gives us a great canvas to create a place where people can find everything they need in every stage of their lives,” said Beat Kahli, CEO of Avalon Park Group and its Swiss sister company, sitEX. “When complete, Avalon Park Daytona will be a destination the city and the area will be proud of.”

He told GrowthSpotter the company has already begun the master planning process for the site, while CTLC finalizes the entitlements. He met yesterday with Daytona Beach officials to begin the discussions for a transportation network that will link directly to the Margaritaville-branded retirement community on its southern border.

Avalon Park Group has a purchase contract for two parcels (yellow star) totaling nearly 2,600 acres in Daytona Beach. The master planned community will share a border with Latitude Margaritaville. (Consolidated Tomoka Land Co./staff edit)

Avalon Park Daytona will be designed using the company’s signature New Urbanist concepts, with thousands of homes and its own downtown city center. Kahli said he expects the build out period to extend beyond 10 years and eventually reach $2 billion in value.

Avalon Park Group began constructing its first master-planned community more than 20 years ago. The company is also currently developing Avalon Park-branded communities in Wesley Chapel, just north of Tampa, and in Tavares with the same design principals.

“We are long-term developers,” he said. “I’m still young enough to build another town.”

It was that long-term commitment, and strong financial standing, that led Consolidated Tomoka to approach Avalon, according to President and CEO John P. Albright. He told GrowthSpotter Avalon was recommended to him by a homebuilder because of its successful track record.

“There’s a demand for homesites from builders who need a developer to deliver a high quality community that will stand the test of time,” Albright said. “They’re the perfect kind of developer to build something that’s more holistic and has a long-term view.”

The master plan will be unveiled in the first quarter of 2020, but Kahli said one thing is certain: that APG would commence construction on its town center during the first phase of construction. That includes its typical 4-story mixed-use buildings with multifamily and commercial upstairs and ground-floor retail.

“That’s our forte,” he said. “We build a town organically. We built Avalon Park Orlando from scratch where before it was just cows. Now we have 60,000 people and our own downtown. There’s not so many people who build entire towns and stick with it for 25 years.”

Kahli said the Daytona site was attractive because it extends the company’s footprint further east along the I-4 corridor.

“We’re in Tampa, Orlando and now Daytona,” he said. “We’re excited that we now have that last piece of the puzzle. We believe it’s one of the most exciting economic corridors in the U.S. It gives us synergy because each site is far enough apart that they don’t cannibalize each other. ”

Kahli said he has invited Daytona Beach officials for a follow-up meeting at Avalon Park Orlando, so they can get a perspective of what the finished product will look like. Company executives and planners also will meet with Volusia County school officials to discuss planning for future school sites within the community.

“We want to invest in schools, no question,” he said. “I have 200 employees here in Avalon Park, and most of them moved here because of the schools. We will either do a partnership with the school board and offer them sites or do a charter school – or both – and hopefully even partner with a university.”

Kahli said APG will lead the initial planning with its in-house staff but will seek local consultants for environmental and transportation planning.

Albright said he anticipates the land closing in early summer 2020. This is the second time this month Consolidated Tomoka has partnered with an Orlando developer. The company sold 31 acres near the I-95/LPGA Boulevard interchange to Unicorp National Development for $4.6 million.

“We’re excited that Chuck (Whittall) has bought the property,” Albright said. “He’s planning to do multifamily, which we’re greatly in need of. We’re excited to get his expertise.”

DAYTONA BEACH — Latitude Margaritaville will hold an open-to-the-public grand opening celebration for the first phase of the new Latitude Town Center amenities complex at the Jimmy Buffett-themed 55-and-older community here next Saturday.

The June 8 event, from noon to 4 p.m., will include live music, dancing, food and refreshments, games, prize giveaways and model home tours.

The nearly 25-acre residents-only town center next to the gated-community’s entrance includes a Latitude Bar & Chill restaurant and Changes in Attitude Bar, a Fins Up fitness center, a resort-style community pool, a bandshell stage that includes a large-screen television and outdoor dance floor, pickleball and tennis courts as well as a multi-purpose sports court, and a walking trail with outdoor fitness stations.

“Latitude Margaritaville is redefining the approach to active adult communities with a no-worries lifestyle of fun, food and music for those 55-and-better who are growing older, but not up,” said Bill Bullock, president of Minto Communities’ Latitude Margaritaville division.

Minto is developing the planned 3,400-home community along the north side of LPGA Boulevard, west of Interstate 95, in partnership with Margaritaville Holdings, the global lifestyle branding company co-owned by singer-songrwriter Jimmy Buffett.

The sales center for Latitude Margaritaville is at 2400 LPGA Blvd.

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DAYTONA BEACH — Latitude Margarita helped propel housing starts in Volusia County last year to the highest level since 2005.

The Jimmy Buffett-themed “55-and-better” community in Daytona Beach, which welcomed its first residents in March 2018 sold an impressive 412 homes last year.

The 373 building permits issued last year for new homes at Latitude Margaritaville accounted for one out every eight new homes started in Volusia County, according to Volusia Building Industry Association statistics.

Latitude Margaritaville is off to an even stronger pace so far this year.

Through the first two months of 2019, Minto Communities, Margaritaville’s developer, has pulled 134 permits for new homes.

That’s an average of 17 a week for Margaritaville — one out of every three permits issued countywide.

“I would think that’s unprecedented in Volusia County,” said local observer Ronnie Bledsoe, an Ormond Beach developer who has worked in the local construction industry more than 40 years.

Helping drive the active adult community’s growth in new home sales has been the national attention it has received since its launch, thanks to its connection to singer-songwriter Buffett, whose tunes about laidback living in the tropics serves as the inspiration for Latitude Margaritaville.

The community’s strong start has also earned it a number of industry awards.

After being named earlier this year by Chicago-based 55Places.com as the nation’s top 55-plus community of 2018, Latitude Margaritaville in late February won several more awards from the National Association of Home Builders including “55+ Community of the Year.”

The Washington, D.C.-based trade association also named Minto the nation’s Builder of the Year and Latitude Margaritaville Daytona Beach won the NAHB’s gold medal for best sales/welcome center as well as awards for home design, landscaping and marketing.

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DAYTONA BEACH — The New York Times recently reported that “The Future of Aging Just Might be in Margaritaville,” but for residents of this fast-growing active adult community, the future has already arrived.

On Thursday, representatives of Chicago-based 55places.com presented the developer of Latitude Margaritaville Daytona Beach with an award as the nation’s most popular 55-and-older community in 2018.

The award comes on the heels of Latitude Margaritaville Daytona Beach’s inclusion in another industry ranking of the nation’s top 50 master-planned communities of 2018.

The community going up on the north side of LPGA Boulevard, just west of Interstate 95, last year sold 412 homes, with roughly half built to date.

“It’s more than we expected, which was around 350,” said Bill Bullock, president of developer Minto Communities’ Latitude Margaritaville division.

Latitude Margaritaville welcomed its first residents in March 2018 and is now home to more than 400.

“In the morning, I’ll wake up and pinch my husband to make sure we’re not dreaming,” said Donna Waryga, 62, who moved to Latitude Margaritaville from the Philadelphia area with her husband Walt, 66, in November.

“It has been way beyond our wildest expectations,” the self-employed travel agent who works out of her home said of living in the Jimmy Buffett-themed active adult community.

Waryga said the opportunity to live near the beach and the planned amenities, including a residents-only town center and private beach club were what initially appealed her and her husband.

But what they have found they enjoy most about living at Latitude Margaritaville are the other residents.

“The people, we love everybody on our street. We feel the camaraderie,” she said, adding that they typically wind up chatting extensively with neighbors whenever they pick up their mail and enjoy going on organized outings including bowling at Ormond Lanes or Happy Hour visits to nearby restaurants such as Bahama Breeze or 31 Supper Club.

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With island-inspired amenities, carefree luxury and a dreamy location, Latitude Margaritaville Daytona Beach is providing a new kind of ‘paradise’ when it comes to active adult communities. It’s no wonder, then, 55places.com, a leading resource for active adult communities across the country, named the Minto development as Best 55+ Community of 2018.

Like other awards bestowed from the company, website traffic, home sales, and offered amenities, are some of the factors considered before selecting a recipient. Latitude Margaritaville Daytona Beach, inspired by the music and lifestyle instilled from acclaimed musician Jimmy Buffett, is the first of its kind to take active adult communities to the mainstream, appealing to both “Parrotheads”—a nickname deemed for fans of the performer—as well as those who just appreciate they are growing older, but don’t have to grow up. This ingrained mindset is bringing the conversation about active adult communities to the forefront, and changing perceptions about retirement—and by extension senior living—by providing a new boat to sail on.

“There can be preconceived notions associated with aging, but Minto recognizes that today’s generation is different, and empowers its audience to redefine what living life to the fullest can mean,” said Bill Ness, CEO and founder of 55places.com. “The idyllic state painted by the Latitude Margaritaville brand is intentional, and to many of its residents, is depicted accurately.”

In addition to the engaging lifestyle and various collections of well-designed colorful homes, there is an abundance of social events, meaning camaraderie is alive and well.

“We’re focused on four pillars which is food, fun, music and escapism,” said William Bullock, president of Minto’s Latitude Margaritaville division. “Which, if you talk to our current residents, is what we’re already delivering. We’re attempting to offer as much fun and energy that you may want on any given day.”

Though doors opened in early 2018 and the 500th home was sold last October, the community is still in development, but will eventually offer unmatched access to impressive amenities, including the Latitude Town Square, Fins Up! Fitness Center, Latitude Bar & Chill Restaurant, Barkaritaville Pet Spa & Dog Park, and Paradise Pool, all of which is slated to open on schedule April of 2019.

Daytona Beach is just one of three current known Latitude Margaritaville locations—Hilton Head, South Carolina welcomed residents in November and Watersound in Florida, is slated to open in 2020. But that seems to be just the beginning. Bullock also shared there is intent to expand the brand’s footprint in 2019.

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Off a vacant stretch of highway in Daytona Beach, Fla., a line began to form outside the sales center for the first Latitude Margaritaville “55 and better” community. Those waiting dragged folding chairs, coolers, tents and dog-eared brochures featuring numbered sites that, in just over 24 hours, they could stake a claim to for a $10,000 deposit. The mood, shortly after 8 a.m. one Sunday last November, was festive, ecstatic even. Drinks flowed, pizza appeared, a steel-drum band played into the balmy night. Some neighbors in the 300-person queue liked each other so much that they decided to become actual neighbors, switching their site choices to live closer together. A sense of destiny seemed to guide many of their decisions. Karen Goodwin, 55, a homemaker, had won the exact amount of the down payment a few weeks earlier in a Domino’s sweepstakes. Matt Kelly, 62, a retired firefighter, had been chipping ice off his shingles in Orange County, N.Y., when a chunk broke loose in the shape of the Sunshine State, which he took as a sign.

“I never thought I’d be in a 55-plus community,” Ruth Kelly, 61, a former real estate agent and Matt’s wife, said the following September. The three of us were sitting at a table in the dining room of the home the Kellys had secured on Cool Breeze Drive, a single-family unit with the L-shaped lanai that Ruth had had her eye on. “Being in real estate, I didn’t think I would do what we did, wait in line for 11 hours. I always told my customers: ‘Never buy in Phase 1. Never buy sight-unseen.’ I did all of that. But I never once had doubt. Not once did I feel that way. It was meant to be, I really believe that.”

Outside, under an endless blue sky, a parade of trucks bore the trappings of former homes from as far away as Hawaii, Canada and El Salvador to sorbet-colored dwellings with emerald green lawns. At the entrance to the gated enclave, past a “Barkaritaville” dog park, beeping excavators moved dirt around what would soon be a town-square for concerts and dancing, surrounded by a state-of-the-art workout center, a restaurant and a walk-in pool with cabanas and a bar. It was impossible to stand on their cement foundations — which I had, in fact, done that morning — and not see a frontier settlement being carved into an expanse of subtropical wetland. The real frontier here, though, was not the surrounding wilderness but a hitherto uncolonized stretch of time: the multiple decades that more and more Americans can expect to live in better and better health after they retire. What will these pioneers do? Who will they become? And how will that, in turn, alter the course of human history?

Like all pioneer settlements, however, Margaritaville is not just a place but an idea — an imagined utopia, in this case inspired by a Jimmy Buffett song’s reference to a frozen cocktail. Historically, such extreme aspirational-lifestyle experiments have had an outsize influence on our cultural imagination: It would be hard to call Jamestown, one cradle of our democracy, a practical project; same goes for the squalid boomtowns of the Gold Rush, which helped define the American dream. What intrigued me about Margaritaville was the specificity of its promise — a retirement based on music Buffett has described as “drunken Caribbean rock ‘n’ roll” — and the fact that it is still under construction. I could actually meet the early colonists as they went about pursuing their vision.

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