The World Golf Hall of Fame and IMAX theater sit near St. Augustine. | Dan Scanlan, Jacksonville Today
Published on April 16, 2024 at 2:50 pm
The St. Johns County Commission greenlighted a $5.5 million plan Tuesday to buy a 37-acre chunk of World Golf Village in St. Augustine.
The agreement to buy the property from the World Golf Foundation did not include specifics about what could be done with the vacant or soon-to-be vacant buildings. County Administrator Joy Andrews said information about potential uses for the property will be brought to the County Commission in May.
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The purchase will beef up the amount of land the county already owns at World Golf Village while several tenants have either already left or are on their way out. The county owns the land hosting the IMAX Theater — which the World Golf Foundation has agreed to operate for now — the Renaissance Hotel, the convention center and the now-empty World Golf Hall of Fame Museum.
The World Golf Foundation packed up its museum and moved back to its North Carolina headquarters, and the PGA Tour will leave its World Golf Village property next March in favor of a new facility in Sawgrass.
Once the purchase of the village property is completed, the county will own the PGA Tour building as well as a substantial amount of green space, parking area and more.
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Other parts of the village also host several restaurants, golf courses and a church.
Without knowing how exactly the county could use the property, the purchase was a hard sell for County Commissioner Krista Joseph. She was the only member of the board to vote against the purchase. With the county staring down the barrel of spending millions on new parks and new fire stations, she doesn’t think it’s the right move.
Several members of the public expressed the same concern.
“Government money should be spent on a needs-versus-wants basis,” Ann-Marie Evans said. “If we need fire departments and roads, we shouldn’t be buying the World Golf Village.”
But it’s that uncertainty that led some of the others on the board to lean in favor of the purchase. County Commissioner Henry Dean pointed to surveys and public meetings that have been held in recent years to determine what residents would like to see of the village. Dean said he wants to ensure that the thousands of residents who could use the World Golf Village property get what they want.
“I see this as a great opportunity to have a blank canvas that we can work with the local residents, businesses and other stakeholders,” he said. “I’d like to be able to tell everyone today that that picture is complete and we know everything, but we’re still working with the input of the residents and the stakeholders of what is … the highest and best use for this property.”
In the past, the county has considered putting a public library in the village, and Manager Andrews said she and Dean even approached the University of Florida to see if it was interested in a campus there. What she learned, Andrews said, is that as long as the county didn’t own the bulk of the property, they weren’t in a good place to be negotiating.
If all else fails, county staff said, the current PGA Tour building would make for excellent county office space.
To fund the purchase, St. Johns County will spend $2 million of federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act, $2 million from the county’s capital improvement fund and $1.5 million from impact fees the county collects.
