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JACKSONVILLE
BEACHES
& WORLD GOLF VILLAGE
TO HOME
State road 13 crosses Julington Creek out of Jacksonville and into the town of Fruit Cove. From this fast-growing bedroom community in the northwestern-most corner of St. Johns County, the road heads south along the scenic, wooded east bank of the Saint Johns River. Along the way it passes under a dense canopy of water oaks and Spanish moss through a series of unincorporated hamlets like Switzerland and Orangedale, where giant secluded river estates intermingle with horse farms with very little sight of commercial development. It's hard to believe that just off the side roads between SR 13 and I-95 is an explosion of new neighborhoods and country club style communities that have made the quiet, wooded area around Fruit Cove one of the biggest boom areas in the state.
Giant, upscale, master-plan housing developments like Julington Creek Plantation, Palencia, Bartram Springs, and St. Johns Forest have rapidly made this area a popular place for families to call home. But Fruit Cove isn't the only emerging epicenter of development. Just head a few miles further down I-95 and you'll see the Hall of Fame observation tower and high-rise Renaissance Resort Hotel emerge from the trees. These are just the two most recognizable landmarks in the golf tourism inspired community of World Golf Village. Located about midway between Jacksonville and St. Augustine (the seat of St. Johns County), World Golf Village started as a project to build a hall of fame that recognizes the greatest players in the history of golf. Along with this World Golf Hall of Fame came a couple of hotels, an IMAX Theater, the St. Johns County Convention Center, professionally designed golf courses and a complex of shops and restaurants centered around a lake. Over the years, new residential developments, retail centers and office parks have taken shape in the surrounding farmlands and forests, giving World Golf Village an identity all its own. As the billboards suggest, between the city and the town lies a village.
Just east of I-95 and south of the Duval County (Jacksonville) line is the St. Johns Greyhound Park, one of three such dog tracks in the metro area. Across U.S. 1 from the dog track is a mostly wooded area stretching to the Intracoastal Waterway that is already earmarked to become an environmentally sensitive, self-contained city planned for about 30,000 residents. The largest of many residential developments of regional impact, the project, dubbed Nocatee, will create a new city along the county line.
Despite all of this residential development south and east of Fruit Cove, the area has comparatively little commercial development outside of the basic neighborhood conveniences. That means the people who live in Northwest St. Johns County have to make a lot of trips north to Jacksonville or south to St. Augustine for shopping, dining, entertainment and employment.
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