The Hutson Cos. are planning to give area Realtors a lot more inventory.
The giant homebuilder will almost replicate OakLeaf Plantation with what they’ll call SilverLeaf Plantation, a 7,500 acre development in St. Johns County that is planned to have more than 10,000 residential units.
Some will be apartments and Vestcor, which is the area’s largest apartment developer, is also involved.
SilverLeaf will be to the west of I-95 on two irregular pieces of property. The northern piece almost extends to SR 210 and the southern portion reached down to the World Golf Village. Both will touch SR 16A, which runs from I-95 past the outlet mall and eventually connects with US 13.
It will be similar to the 6,400-acre OakLeaf Plantation which the company is developing on the Clay-Duval county line. Like OakLeaf, most SilverLeaf homes will be in the $200-300,000 range.
The development will include a substantial amount of land devoted to retail as well as schools, parks and community common areas.
Hutson will build about 700 homes a year starting in 2006 with the first occupancy expected in 2007.
The initial infrastructure will start soon. Hutson will start constructing roads including a $55 million six-lane highway parallel to I-95 running from International Golf Parkway to SR 210. It is being called the North-South Road.
The permitting process is underway and several county officials have said they expect the project to be fully approved. It will take about a year to get all the approvals necessary.
The company is betting on a surge in jobs in the county, particularly in the industrial parks that are being developed around the World Golf Village.
The jobs will need to be there if all the planned developments in the area come to fruition. In addition to the Hutson-Vestcor project, The Parc Group is still working on approval for Nocatee, which may have up to 15,000 units, and the World Golf Village has plans for over 7,000.
In addition, the St. Joe Company has announced the Rivertown community along the river, which will have as many as 6,500 homes, and Bartram Park on the Duval-St. Johns line will have about 6,000.