- April 24, 2024
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Stilt walkers from Flipside Entertainment welcomed the crowd. Photo by Wayne Grant
The sales center for Latitude Margaritaville has a Key West atmosphere. Photo by Wayne Grant
After decades of singing along with the song, “Margaritaville,” Baby Boomers are finally going to be able to possibly find their lost shaker of salt. Or at least that’s what the crowd must have been thinking that showed up for opening day of the sales center for the new 55-and-over community called Latitude Margaritaville off LPGA Boulevard, west of Interstate 95.
The parking lot was full, and people were parking seven minutes away and taking a shuttle to the center located next to Halifax Humane Society.
Vice President William Bullock was expecting the large crowd, saying about 100,000 people have signed up for email notifications. Bullock is with Minto Communities, which has partnered with Margaritaville Holdings, a company that has built resorts and restaurants all over the country with the Jimmy Buffett vibe. This is the first housing development.
MORE TRAFFIC?
The company has started building near LPGA and will extend northward along the planned extension of Tymber Creek Road from LPGA to State Road 40 at full build-out. The company is paying for the extension, now started at LPGA, and it will be a public road.
Full build-out will be 6,900 homes, and half of this number will be single-family homes with the rest villas. Bullock said they will build the villas in pairs, called “pair villas.”
Building 350 homes a year would mean 3,500 homes in 10 years, and full build-out would be complete in 20 years. But Bullock said it would be possible to increase the construction to 600 a year and complete the project in about a decade.
In regard to adding to traffic, Bullock said they are emphasizing mass transit and neighborhood shopping. They will have a retail area including grocery store that residents can reach in their golf carts. They also plan shuttle trips, such as the one that takes residents to the beach lot in Ormond-by-the-Sea owned by the community.
He also expects most residents to be retired, and will not be leaving during rush hours.
Traffic studies were done by a third party to get approval from the city of Daytona Beach and Volusia County, and the company also had to pay traffic impact fees.
LPGA Blvd. is a county road in the city of Daytona Beach, and any plans for improvements to the road would come out of planning by the county, city of Daytona Beach and Florida Dept. of Transportation.
DAYTONA DREAMING
“It’s the perfect concoction.”
WILLIAM BULLOCK, vice-president, on the partnership between companies
The Daytona Beach area was selected because it has all the things the company seeks: space for building, convenient shopping, major roads and healthcare. The beach is another plus for this area.
There are apparently parrot-heads all over the country interested in Latitude Margaritaville. California ranks in the top five states where people have expressed interest. Bullock said the high cost of real estate in California is probably a factor.
Others hale from New York, New Jersey, Chicago and at least 20% are from Florida.
“It’s the perfect concoction,” Bullock said, speaking of the partnership between Minto, which has been building adult communities for 40 years and Margaritaville, a company that has been appealing to Baby Boomers.
“It fits like a glove,” he said.
