EVOLVE Business and Professional Magazine August 2018 | Page 41

HOMEBUILDERS MOVE IN
It’s not just commerce moving in. Homebuilders are
following, encouraged by the infrastructure already in place and
the abundance of undeveloped land available at lower prices
than in much of the state.
“If you want to build 7,000 homes, there are not many places
to do that,” said John Adams, president of Adams, Cameron and
Associates, a family-run realtor in Daytona Beach.
Minto Communities is building the 6,900-home Latitude
Margaritaville community for 55s and older. It’s working in
partnership with Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville Holdings, and
they’ve branded the community after the singer-songwriter’s
famed song, capturing the feeling of a casual tropical lifestyle.
Not far away, ICI Homes is starting a 2,500-home Mosaic
community for all ages near the Florida Tennis Center. Other
communities are earmarked for the area, including more homes
on LPGA International’s land.
In total, some 11,000 homes are poised for construction,
adding to 1,500 already fully built at LPGA International and
Bayberry Lakes across the street.
Adams said he’s not surprised by the growth, saying that
even his former high school has moved in.
Daytona Beach “has been a value buy for a long time,” he
said, explaining that it was largely ignored during the huge
expansion in South Florida.
With property prices trickling up the coast, Daytona Beach is
well-positioned for growth.
“We have never seen the value growth that has taken place
in the southeast around Miami or even in the southwest near
Naples and Sarasota,” Adams said. “Their prices have always
The Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach stretch has
been one of the 10 fastest-growing metro areas in the U.S. since
2010, faster than Los Angeles, Phoenix and Washington, D.C.,
with the 10.3 percent population growth led by a 508 percent
surge in foreign immigration, acc