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