St. Joe Company, the largest landowner in Northwest Florida, will now focus more on developing commercial property with recurring revenue and focus less on residential development, according to President and CEO Britt Greene, during an investor’s conference in Orlando on Tuesday.
St. Joe owns nearly 3,000 acres near the new Northwest Florida Beach International Airport, set to open May 23. The company plans to develop about 1,000 acres during the next three years for commercial and industrial developments. The company won’t give up on residential real estate, but Greene said residential property is transitory revenue while commercial developments will bring St. Joe revenue for 10 to 20 years. “This company has to have a sustainable future, and we’re going to do it through commercial development around this airport,” he said.
The new airport represents decades worth of development and St. Joe already has begun a marketing campaign to catch large companies’ attention. FedEx and UPS have already visited prospective sites, according to Greene.
To take advantage of the opportunity presented by Southwest Airlines being the low-cost carrier for the new airport, St. Joe must create jobs that will attract a professional work force and St. Joe is targeting the aerospace industry do to Bay County’s work force being best suited for that industry — thanks to thousands of military defense contractors along the Gulf Coast. Ideally, the property surrounding the new airport will draw private companies to repair or maintain planes. Local and state officials are working to build an aerospace corridor in the Northwest Florida Panhandle, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi.
