Healthcare Campus With Focus On Aging, Senior Living Tech Coming Together Near Latitude Margaritaville Community 

A healthcare campus is coming together near a Latitude Margaritaville community in the Sunshine State – all part of a bid to meet future demand from residents for wellness and aging in place.

Real estate company St. Joe (NYSE: JOE) is developing a new healthcare campus with partners Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare and Florida State University’s College of Medicine“minutes” away from the Latitude Margaritaville community in Panama City Beach, Florida. Already, the project planners have opened one building offering urgent care, primary care, cardiology and pulmonary services on the 87-acre campus, with more facilities including orthopedics, obstetrics, gynecology and a four-room ambulatory surgery slated to open in the next few months. Florida State University also plans to use the site “for research focused on successful aging and senior living technology.”

St. Joe, Minto Communities USA and Margaritaville Holdings first announced the Margaritaville property in Panama City Beach in 2018. As of early December, the master-planned community had just sold its 2,000th home. Floor plans at the community range from about 1,200 to 4,000 square feet and pricing that starts north of $300,000.

The healthcare campus is all part of the partners’ larger plan to create the kind of dwellings and supportive services that older adults will want and need in the years to come, according to William Bullock, who heads up planning for Latitude Margaritaville as division president at Minto Communities USA.

“Creating a master planned community built around quality aging in-place is of huge importance to us,” Bullock told Senior Housing News.

While the Latitude Margaritaville Watersound community is the first to bolster healthcare services for future older adults, it won’t be the last, according to Bullock. Latitude is looking to partner with local medical facilities to “integrate professional wellness into the community level,” he said.

Outside of the health care campuses in the works, Latitude Margaritaville is also adding new “town square” amenities, such as a “Workin’ N’ Playin’ Center” with a theater for movies, shows and concerts, a woodworking workshop, sports courts and a pet spa. The communities already have amenities such as a terraced amphitheater, live music programming, jumbo screens for live streaming and a two-story bar and restaurant, and Bullock added that “socialization and friendship have become very important design themes.”

“Active adult buyer feedback indicates health and wellness as their number one most sought after element within the community,” Bullock said. “Future phases of Latitude Watersound will enjoy many of the same aspects as listed above but they will not be carbon copies. We are already on the drawing board with even more engaging town center concepts.

In total, there are three Latitude Margaritaville properties across the U.S. Another Latitude Margaritaville property is planned for Guadalajara, Mexico, although Minto is not involved in that project.

Current residents at Latitude communities are made up of a “very energetic” 55 and up population. Bullock said the brand also has plans to expand to Houston and Dallas with “novel concepts” that will be revealed in the near future. He added that the company is exploring active adult rental models as opposed to for-sale.

“As our communities continue to grow in size, we definitely see an opportunity to include active adult rental as a product segment,” Bullock said.

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