Two companies vie for World Golf Village development

Two companies have competing visions for the future of World Golf Village, and St. Johns County is looking for more info before it selects the property’s next developer.

With some of its core tenants shut down — like the World Golf Hall of Fame and the IMAX theater — the county is seeking a public-private partnership to breathe new life into the property in the heart of the county.

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The two companies are:

A South Florida developer that wants to revitalize World Golf Village as a theme park-esque space with mini golf, a virtual reality driving range and retail space.

A local developer that sees World Golf Village as an opportunity to build a mixed-use campus with medical facilities, senior living, shopping, restaurants and more.

A golf village …

The first proposal, nicknamed Golftopia, comes from several companies affiliated with South Florida real estate developer Mario Caprini.

Speaking before the County Commission on Tuesday morning, Caprini said he believed his company had the knowhow to “solve the puzzle” that the World Golf Village property represents for St. Johns County.

… or dining, shopping and medical care

The second developer in the mix is Cross Regions Real Estate, run by Jacksonville businessman David Ergisi.

If the county selects it, Cross Regions’ proposed Fountains at World Golf Village would be its second major project in St. Johns County. The company previously built the Fountains at St. Johns, a mixed-use development near Durbin Park and Nocate that includes a hospital.

In its World Golf Village proposal, Cross Regions notes, “The plans include a surgical center, an Independent Living community, retail, restaurants and commercial space leveraging on the name recognition and existing layout of the World Golf Village.”

The company says that the “upscale” dining, shopping and health care offerings would be in line with the “integrated health and wellness platform” based on the TyMe Institute, a cancer research institute founded by Ergisi after his son died of a rare form of bone cancer.

How the plans differ

Scope of the plans: Both proposals for World Golf Village include plans for the portion of the property that St. Johns County already owns and leases to private entities, as well as the 36-acre chunk of the property — including the lake at its center — that still belongs to the World Golf Foundation.

St. Johns County had previously planned to purchase that property itself, but those plans fell through earlier this year.

Cross Regions, however, told the County Commission that it is under contract to purchase part of World Golf Village, and that Caprini’s not owning the entire property could stand in the way of Golftopia’s largescale plans.

IMAX’s future: Another noted difference between the plans is for the future of the shuttered IMAX theater. Golftopia includes plans for a fixed-up IMAX theater, while Cross Regions’ plans did not explicitly mention whether it would reopen the theater.

“We do plan on keeping that building … but we have not finalized our uses,” Cross Regions COO Doug Smith says.

Last year, St. Johns County conducted a survey and found that the IMAX was one of the more popular aspects of World Golf Village.

In January, St. Johns County Cultural Events Inc., the nonprofit organization that operates the St. Augustine Amphitheater, the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall and the Sing Out Loud festival, proposed a plan to turn the IMAX theater into a multiuse community theater.

That plan is shelved for now, Jerry Wilson, one of the nonprofit’s board members, told Jacksonville Today. But it could be back on the table if St. Johns County expresses an interest.

Next steps

Each of the proposals presented to the County Commission this week was just the first phrase of a two-pronged process that St. Johns County requires for public-private partnerships.

With little discussion, all present members of the County Commission agreed to move both Golftopia and Fountains at World Golf Village to the next step, where each developer will return to the County Commission with in-depth plans for their World Golf Village proposals.