Creating a Sense of Place
Core Communities has been the leading master-planned community developer along Florida’s Treasure Coast for over 10 years. Unlike many real estate developers that simply build and leave, our long-term dynamic development strategies are designed to create thriving, self-sustaining communities with a “sense of place.” We work to build value for residents, local businesses, and stakeholders––from community necessities such as fire stations and schools to establishing key commercial partnerships that affect the economic health of an entire region.
Active Core Communities projects now encompass nearly 14,000 acres in high-growth areas of the Southeastern United States, offering tremendous opportunity for residential and commercial development.
[A complete time line of Core's history will be available soon]
Key members of Core Communities’ executive management team first began applying their dynamic development strategies in the early 1990’s with the acquisition and repositioning of the master-planned community St Lucie West. Originally conceived to contain 14,000 new homes over a 20-year period, the 7-square mile community languished from poor planning and execution as well as immature market conditions. Residential and infrastructure build-out greatly outpaced the economic development needed to support the community’s anticipated population base. Realizing the great potential afforded by St Lucie West’s strategic location, Core Communities began repositioning its development with a clear focus on building a community where people could live, work, shop, and play. Under Core’s leadership, St Lucie West has become a self-contained community set on 4,600 acres complete with luxury homes, shopping, parks, dining, fitness centers, banking, schools, even churches and a temple, all only moments away from every home. Other key Core developments include securing the New York Mets spring training contract, partnering with the PGA for world-class golf facilities, and the creation of 7,000 jobs. St Lucie West has become a benchmark in successful master-planned community development.
In 2006, Core Communities moved its focus south on I-95 with the first of four acreage acquisitions on the southwest boundaries of Port St Lucie. The initial acquisition of over 2,000 acres established the original footprint of the Town of Tradition, Florida, which celebrated its grand opening in 2003. 400 homes were sold in just two days.
Applying the lessons learned from its award-winning development of St Lucie West, Core has worked diligently with local and state governments to secure highest and best use entitlements for Tradition’s existing acreage. Tradition enjoys a preapproved, flexible 20-year plan designed to guide future commercial, retail, and residential development. Tradition is now the largest fully-entitled real estate development along the length of Interstate 95 from Florida to the Canadian border. The community encompasses more than 8,000 acres and includes a five-mile-long employment corridor, featuring room for 18,000 new residences and 13,000,000 square-feet of commercial space. Its prime location in South Florida’s largest growth corridor supports continued economic stability by answering a growing demand for services, jobs, and homes.
A key win for the region came in 2008 when Core and Tradition welcomed the Florida Center for Innovation –– a research campus environment with real estate ideally suited to the laboratory, office and production needs of fast-growing biotech and the life science companies. Many research organizations — the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies and the Vaccine & Gene Therapy Institute to name but two — have already chosen the Florida Center for Innovation at Tradition to be their East Coast home. FCI is expected to house approximately 30,000 jobs upon completion.
Tradition Hilton Head was welcomed into the Core family of communities in 2008 and is currently under development. Located on 5,300 acres of lakes and woodlands in the Carolina Low Country, Tradition Hilton Head currently features a championship golf course and homes ranging from town homes to luxury estates.
