Emerald Glenn changed some things. I think they were originally approved to have 1/2 acre lots, but then they shifted to large estate size lots roughly 4 acres each, reducing the total number of lots. Town Center, also near Emerald Glenn has somewhere around 700 lots approved, and at the last BCC meeting, another project, only a 1/4 mile from Emerald Glenn, which has been in the works for 4 years, was asking approval for high density (for a rural area) 1/4 lots. I cannot recall exactly, but I want to say they were hoping for about 600+ lots.
In addition to those, there is Owl's Head which sits on a couple thousand acres, Plantation at Freeport which sits on about 4000 acres, Hammock Bay which is about 3500 acres, Windswept Estates (~450 lots), another project (west of business 331 near the Plantation at Freeport) which has roads, sewer etc in place but went back to bank, with somewhere around 400 lots, there are also two newer townhome projects, The Palms and The Verandas on business hwy 331. Then there is Lagrange Landing which has one house built, and just south of there is RiverWalk (very nice, but not sure what happened with it after Colonial Bank was turned over to the feds. I think there is another project across Lagrange Bayou from RiverWalk called Marina Village or something like that. All in all, I would guess there is somewhere in the neighborhood of 3000 home sites in recent developments which have been approved in the Freeport area. Some are actually selling and homes are being built, as is the case with Hammock Bay and Windswept Estates. The Plantation at Freeport has only a handful of homes which have sold. Owl's Head has a nice home under construction, but looks like they haven't worked on it for a while. It is a very nicely designed house.
There is just way too much inventory in Freeport for the number of buyers in that area. Freeport is expected to grow substantially over the next twenty years, but it will take a while to go through all of that inventory. What happened to the people who bought those lots? They are letting them go back to the banks in many cases, and others are trying to short sell or sell at substantial losses. Want to buy a $8,000 lot which someone else paid $100,000? They exist. I can see potential for major players stepping in and buying entire developments for pennies on the dollar.
Only time will tell if these communities come back. For the boating community, finding deep water lots will continue to be a challenge in the future, so those developments with docks on Lagrange Bayou should be very attractive. I looked closely at RiverWalk when it was coming together, and I can tell you that it looks to be a fantastic place, with huge oak trees, high elevation, wide community boardwalks leading to the deep water docks, is tucked away from the busy traffic, and will feature architecture similar to the homes in WaterColor. Hammock Bay seems to draw a fair number of people, with quite a few who are stationed at Eglin AFB. Eglin is getting prepared for about 2200 soldiers and 4000 family members from Fort Bragg as part of BRAC by Sept 2011, so that may be a slight boost to sales on the west side of Freeport. To the east, the new Panama City Beach airport and surrounding future industries may be a strong source of future Freeport buyers. Freeport is one of only a few places in the state of Florida which is deemed an "economic zone" where they expect great increases in population. This opens up opportunity for businesses to have major savings on labor, up to 40%, in the form of tax credits, so that will definitely compete with the West Bay sector to some degree.
