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Company Profile
Harvesting rooftops: Rayonier is in the development business
Rayonier identified 261 acres next to the I-95/A1A interchange for what Corr calls the company’s “pioneer project” — a master-planned community whose first phase will include approximately 600 single-family homes, ranging from $175,000 to $400,000, plus 280 apartments and some 500,000 square feet of commercial space. The company dubbed the project Wildlight.
To take on the master plan, Corr reassembled some of the team that helped design Celebration for Disney [“Disney Alumni,” right], and the Disney influence has pervaded the planning process. The planning team, for example, organized “plussing sessions” in which it brought in consultants from real estate, retail, hospitality and other market segments to offer feedback on its plans. The plussing session term comes from Disney Animation, where Walt Disney had animators present their scenes to other animators, who would suggest ways to improve the work.
In those sessions, the group discussed how the northeastern corner of Florida feels more like coastal Georgia and South Carolina than the rest of coastal Florida. A Disney-esque theme emerged — Wildlight: “A Place for Florida Lowcountry Living.” Commercial buildings use muted colors and architecture meant to evoke the feel of rustic fishing sheds. Homes, which will feature prominent front porches, are being built in one of three styles: Early settlement, cottage or bungalow. One of the first streets Raydient built in the development has been named Floco Avenue, shorthand for Florida lowcountry. Even the name Wildlight came out of those plussing sessions; Rayonier execs say it’s meant to call to mind the feel of the sun setting over salt marshes and coastal forests. “Floridians know you’ve got to head north to get to the real South,” a narrator croons in one early advertisement for the project.
Rayonier has also emphasized what Celebration and St. Joe alumni call the “software” of the project. The very first thing built in Wildlight was an elementary school on land Rayonier donated at the center of the development. The company has negotiated deals with UF Health to build a health care and wellness campus, with AT&T and Comcast to provide ultra-fast internet service, and Florida Public Utilities to build a facility for about 55 employees.
Most significantly, Rayonier spent $13 million to build a striking corporate headquarters in Wildlight, moving 160 employees who had previously worked at three separate leased sites in Jacksonville into the 55,000-sq.-ft. building.
Wildlight “is going to be a big bold stroke, and I think that’s what that area needs,” says Jacksonville developer Peter Rummell, a friend and mentor of Corr’s who hired him at Disney and then at St. Joe. Corr “is a big thinker. He can reach out and put things together that most people wouldn’t.”
Friendly governments have helped Wildlight get off the ground. The Florida Department of Transportation is spend ing millions on road improvements around the development. The Nassau County School Board built the elementary school, and the University of Florida is building the health care and wellness campus. Rayonier persuaded the Florida Legislature to create a stewardship district for Wildlight to help with financing, similar to districts created for other large mixed-use projects around the state, including Babcock Ranch in Southwest Florida and Tavistock’s Sunbridge community on Mormon Churchowned ranchland in Central Florida.
Butting heads
But not everything has gone smoothly. Raydient is locked in a fight with Nassau County commissioners over who should pay for the public parks inside Wildlight. County leaders accuse Raydient of back ing out of a deal to finance the parks; Raydient says it is only obligated to provide the land. During this year’s legislative session, a bill emerged that would have ensured Rayonier did not have to pay for the parks — only to be scuttled after Nassau County protested. Rayonier executives insist they weren’t involved in the legislation.
Justin Taylor, a Nassau County commissioner who said at a recent public hearing that “I’m still trying to pull the knife out of my back,” says the controversy is beginning to sour some residents on the project. “I hear there are people who are very concerned about the project altogether — whereas at one point it was all, ‘This is great; this is wonderful for the community,’ ” Taylor says. “It’s leaving a bad taste in people’s mouths.”
Rayonier seems unmoved. Altogether, the company says it expects to invest between $50 million and $60 million in Wildlight — far more than it has ever spent on a development project. The stakes are enormous — both for Rayonier and for Northeast Florida.
Wildlight could become the first domino that pushes many thousands more acres over into development in a county where the population only recently topped 80,000 people.
