Less than a month after Minto Communities paid $51 million for a 3,800-acre citrus grove in western Palm Beach County, the Coconut Creek-based homebuilder unveiled plans to build 6,500 houses and a baseball spring training facility on the site.
The plan for Callery-Judge Grove also includes a 150-room hotel, retail, offices and space for aerospace research and development. The site will retain some environmental qualities, however, Minto Vice President John Carter said.
“Much of the development will be dedicated to lakes, natural preserve areas and miles of natural hiking, biking and walking trails,” Carter said in a statement. He did not specify which baseball teams would train at the facility.
Minto paid a little under $13,700 per acre, or a scant 32 cents per square foot, for land that has been citrus groves for nearly 50 years. Previous attempts to develop the site into a master-planned, mixed-use community failed, but the state has since loosened growth-management controls. [Palm Beach Post] — Mark Maurer