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MUMBLINGS January 27, 2005
"Just call me Joe."
If you're going to talk about the panhandle and Florida,
you've got to talk about Joe…. St. Joe Paper Company, that is, all 999,999
acres, just one acre short of 1,000,000.
St. Joe Paper Company is a huge part of
Florida. If you include every acre of land they own, it would run over
1,000,000 acres. In comparison, if you put it down on top of Baldwin County, it
would completely cover our 1,015,000 acres. It's huge, just to put it
mildly.
Unlike Baldwin's International Paper, with
some 200,000 acres, Joe has developed its acreage into all kinds of homes,
commercial outlet industries, and roads. Everything imaginable that is, as they
say, "first class."
IP does not develop their land. Its land
is for growing timber. However, they are selling off some 60,000 acres in three
or four South Alabama counties, including Baldwin at the present time.
Beginning somewhere about ten miles east
of Destin and going east to Panama City and on farther to Apalachicola Bay is
acre after acre of Joe's property.
Sea Side is a project developed east of
Destin next to the Water Color Inn, where we stayed two or three weeks ago. It
is a 500-acre plus complete village from houses, apartments, condos,
restaurants, etc. It is a beautiful place. When it was first built several
years ago, the cottages were selling from anywhere between $50,000 to $60,000.
Now you can't touch one for less than $1,000,000. One official told me that a
30-foot strip reaching to the Gulf of Mexico from Hwy 30-A, sold for
$1,600,000. What can you build on 30 feet of land?
West Florida is similar to the development
in Baldwin County except it's larger and as of right now more expensive. But
Baldwin seems to be catching up rapidly so far as land prices are
concerned.
Joe is even building five-lane highways
through its property and has several divisions, one of which is to attract new
industry to the area.
Their main thrust seems to be development
of new towns, housing projects, condos, apartments, etc. Why are their
developments so successful?
One answer is the rapid growth of retirees
who want to either buy a second home or a retirement home. For example, in 1990
there were approximately 36,000,000 American citizens between the ages of 45
and 60. By the year 2003 this number had grown to 55,000,000 and by the year
2023 they estimate it will be even higher. These figures are according to the
Census Bureau of 2000.
Thus, I think it is reasonable to expect
the housing boom to continue for many years. Maybe not at this same rate but we
will continue to have a substantial growth. This will help bring prosperity
because it gives work to a lot of people.
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