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World Golf Village development

What World Golf Village is now, verified.

No area in Northeast Florida generates more confident misinformation than this one — half the internet says it’s dying, the other half says a Costco is coming. Both are wrong, in opposite directions. Here is the record: the branded attraction core, the court fight over its future, and the corridor building around it.

Krista Fracke - Broker Associate

By Krista FrackeBroker Associate, Christie's International Real Estate First Coast · 20+ years in Northeast Florida · 500+ closings · client reviews

Every item verified September 18, 2026 against the named source. Statuses are re-checked monthly; when one flips, this page changes.

Under construction

Permitted and physically underway — dates are milestones, not promises.

Under constructionpermit Jan 23, 2026

The Walmart-anchored restaurant row on International Golf Parkway

The Walmart Supercenter announced in late 2024 drew its $18.65M building permit in January 2026, and a restaurant row is assembling around it: Chipotle (permitted April 2026), Panda Express, Dutch Bros, First Watch, a Wells Fargo branch, a Tidal Wave car wash — and Northeast Florida’s first White Castle.

Source: Jacksonville Daily Record, Nov 20, 2024 – Apr 2026; Jacksonville Business Journal, Aug 14, 2026

Under constructionongoing, fall 2026

The roads are actually being fixed — with real money

County Road 2209 (St. Johns Parkway) opened in October 2025 with its final stretch open March 2026, relieving corridor traffic. The $25M SR-16 improvement program approved in June 2025 is underway — including a roughly $20M rebuild of the SR-16/International Golf Parkway intersection, with a new traffic shift starting this fall — and the Legislature funded redesign planning for the I-95 exit 323 interchange.

Source: JaxToday, Oct 28, 2025; First Coast News, Mar 20 & Jun 4, 2026 (2025 for I-95); News4JAX, Sep 9, 2026

Announced, not started

Real announcements from named developers — but timelines this early move.

Announcedruling Jul 31, 2026

The Hall of Fame building’s future: still undecided — and legally constrained

The county solicited redevelopment proposals in 2025, advanced two finalists (an entertainment concept and a medical/mixed-use concept) — then rejected both that November. In July 2026 a circuit judge upheld the recorded golf-and-sports-use deed restrictions on the 36.7 acres around the building, restrictions that run to roughly 2046. County officials say a path forward still exists; any specific named future use you hear is speculation.

Source: JaxToday, Sep 16, 2025 & Jul 31, 2026; St. Johns Citizen, Nov 19, 2025; News4JAX, Aug 3, 2026

Announcedplans filed Sep 2026

Trader Joe’s appears on the Legends Landing plans

Site plans for the Legends Landing retail center on International Golf Parkway — behind the Costco/Buc-ee’s/Bass Pro cluster — show a Trader Joe’s, which would be St. Johns County’s first. Important honesty: it appears on the developer’s plans; Trader Joe’s itself has not confirmed. Plans-stage tenants change.

Source: Jacksonville Daily Record, Sep 9, 2026; News4JAX, Sep 11 & 17, 2026

Announcedpermitting, 2026

Hospitals are circling the corridor

AdventHealth has signaled a hospital at World Commerce Center and is in permitting for a freestanding emergency department in the WGV area — planned, not built. Ackerman Cancer Center has announced a World Golf Village location. (Baptist’s campus down the corridor in SilverLeaf is already open — see the SilverLeaf news page.)

Source: Jacksonville Daily Record, Feb 24, 2025 & Jan 23, 2026; Jacksonville Business Journal, Feb 18 & Dec 16, 2025

The rumor check

Things buyers repeat that the record doesn’t support. Knowing what’s NOT true is worth as much as the rest of this page.

Rumor checkchecked Sep 19, 2026

“World Golf Village is dead” — the precise version

What actually closed: the World Golf Hall of Fame (September 1, 2023 — relocated to the USGA’s campus in Pinehurst, NC), the IMAX theater (December 2024), and Murray Bros. Caddyshack (June 27, 2026), along with the PGA Tour Stop shop and the mini-golf course. What operates today: BOTH golf courses — the Slammer & Squire and the King & Bear, each still nationally listed among Florida’s best public courses in 2025–26 coverage — plus the Renaissance resort and convention center (sold July 2025 for $24.25M to a new owner with renovation plans), the Laterra resort, the Walk of Champions, and every residential neighborhood. The visitor attractions died; the community didn’t.

Source: Jacksonville Daily Record, Aug 31, 2023 & Jul 8, 2025; JaxToday; Florida Times-Union, Jul 1, 2026; Golf Digest, Feb 2026

Rumor checkchecked Sep 19, 2026

“Costco and Buc-ee’s are coming” — they came years ago

The corridor’s two most-repeated “coming soon” rumors are stale by half a decade: Buc-ee’s opened at World Commerce Center in February 2021 (Florida’s first), and Costco opened its St. Johns County warehouse there in August 2022. Bass Pro Shops joined them in November 2024. No verified plan for a second Costco on this corridor exists.

Source: St. Augustine Record, Feb 22, 2021; News4JAX, Aug 3, 2022 & Nov 20, 2024

The part nobody tells you

This is two different stories wearing one name. The attraction core — the Hall of Fame building, the IMAX, the old visitor strip — is in genuine limbo, with recorded golf-use deed restrictions upheld in court in July 2026 that run to roughly 2046. Meanwhile the corridor around it is one of the fastest-building places in Northeast Florida: a Walmart-anchored restaurant row under construction on International Golf Parkway, a Trader Joe’s on developer plans, hospitals in permitting. The homes here ride the corridor, not the museum — and always did.

This is the work I do every week. I can tell you street by street which parts of this area trade on the golf core and which trade on the corridor — it changes what a fair price is. Ask me.

Work with Krista (904) 333-8595 Text

Broker Associate · Christie's International Real Estate First Coast · 20+ years · 500+ closings

Want to know what a project means for a specific home?

News is generic; your address isn’t. Tell me the street you’re watching in World Golf Village and I’ll tell you what this pipeline does to it — honestly, including “nothing.”