Seagrove Villas & Motel Back on Market

[SHELLY]

Seagrove Villas and Motel back on the market



By Andy Meinen

Monday January 28th, 2008

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SEAGROVE BEACH ? Nearly 300 feet of Gulf-front real estate once touted as a private club for the residents and guests of NatureWalk at Seagrove is now on the market.

A for sale sign stands in front of the Seagrove Villas and Motel on County Road 30A just east of County Road 395.

The office at the motel was closed, and a sign directed people to the Seaside Cottage Rental Agency in Seaside. Jon Ervin, director of public relations and marketing for the agency, said the villas are still open. The agency will accept reservation through the summer, but Ervin couldn?t comment on the future plans for the site.

Messages left for Olson and Associates of NW Florida Inc., the developer behind NatureWalk and the proposed beach club, along with H2O Properties, the real estate company listing the villas, could not be reached Monday afternoon.

The gravel parking lot at the villas was empty, but a few outside lights were on and the pool was still heated.

The beach club would have been an extension of NatureWalk, which is a 155-acre subdivision about a mile and a half north on County 395. A shuttled was planned to ferry residents and guests to the club. The villas would have been razed to make way for 18 condominiums, a restaurant, underground parking and the private beach club.

 

[Matt J]

Any other info Shelly? SJ looked on MLS and couldn't find a listing.

 

[Franny]

I saw the same today and checked mls and found no information which is not unusual for commercial listings, the big hush hush...

 

[Smiling JOe]

Brokers have 48 hours from the time the listing is taken, to enter it into the MLS.

 

[Chickpea]

Brokers have 48 hours from the time the listing is taken, to enter it into the MLS.

Are we to assume now that Naturewalk Beach Club is dead as a project???

 

[wrobert]

Are we to assume now that Naturewalk Beach Club is dead as a project???

Could they not just sell the concept and approval to the next guy or will someone have to start over to do another club?

 

[TooFarTampa]

Could they not just sell the concept and approval to the next guy or will someone have to start over to do another club?

As far as I know it never got final approval, since the design very clearly violated the county's land development code. If the Villas are torn down, the property reverts to SF residential according to code, so it should be marketed as four gulf front lots. Who knows if it will be ...

 

[NotDeadYet]

If they got a development order, they can sell that along with the property. If they can sell it before the DO expires, that is.
IMHO, in Walton County you can never assume a project is completely dead until something else is actually built there.

 

[scooterbug44]

Are we to assume now that Naturewalk Beach Club is dead as a project???

I hope so, means Santa thought I was a good girl this year, so I get my wish!

 

[Smiling JOe]

As far as I know it never got final approval, since the design very clearly violated the county's land development code. If the Villas are torn down, the property reverts to SF residential according to code, so it should be marketed as four gulf front lots. Who knows if it will be ...

As I understand the Code, one other way it would revert back to four single family lots is if the commercial use ceases for a period of six months. So, even if they tour it down to rebuild, which would violate the Code, they would have to rebuild it and open it within six months, as I understand it.

If they got a development order, they can sell that along with the property. If they can sell it before the DO expires, that is.
IMHO, in Walton County you can never assume a project is completely dead until something else is actually built there.

ditto

Are we to assume now that Naturewalk Beach Club is dead as a project???

Never assume anything, especially around here. In my opinion, Nature Walk is far enough away from the beach that the shuttle Club thing wouldn't work well anyway. They do have a problem with public access for all of the owners, are aren't as likely to have strong rentals in NatureWalk, due to the distance to the beach and lack of decent public access. However, I think NatureWalk is a nice property, and I could see it being a success in the future, if it doesn't go down first. I see that Olsen also has another big chunk of commercial land on the north side of 98, across from the Chevron, so I'd guess he is hoping to sell something. No sales in a major development like NatureWalk has to be disheartening. I can see it being successful, if the price was right. The Seagrove Villas purchase was a major screw up IMO, but I can see why they want beach access.

We really need to address the parking transportation issue around here, and the BCC seems to refuse to do so in a manner which makes sense. With so many people needing beach access, and cars/suvs/trucks taking up so much expensive property if building parking lots everywhere, I think we really need to be thinking of some sort of transit system, maybe paid for by the TDC and some of the taxes/fees already being collected from developer projects. With a good system in place, and plenty of public accesses with restrooms, along the length of 30A, developments like NatureWalk wouldn't have such a hurdle to jump, and everyone could benefit. We really need to create a subcommittee to brainstorm and research viable options.