Why the Middle of World Golf Village Is Frozen Until 2046 While Everything Around It Keeps Breaking Ground

On June 27, the lights went out for good at Murray Bros. Caddyshack. Co-founder Andy Murray posted the news on Facebook the same day, thanking a quarter century of regulars and inviting them to stop by for one last round. "Come on by today, have a drink, and say goodbye," he wrote. The restaurant had opened in June 2001, when co-founder Mac Haskell remembered the site as land "surrounded by cow pastures." Twenty-five years later, it was World Golf Village's longest continuously operating tenant, gone with no reason given and no announced successor.

If you drive International Golf Parkway often, it's tempting to fold that closure into the bigger, older story everyone already half knows: the Hall of Fame moved out, the IMAX went dark, the place has been stuck for years. But that's actually two different situations sharing the same half mile of road, moving at completely different speeds. One is locked in place by a court ruling that runs through 2046. The other has a Walmart under construction, a Home Depot that opened last year, and outparcels working through county review right now. Residents who treat World Golf Village as a single stalled property are missing the part that's actually changing under their feet.

Two Addresses, One ZIP Code, Different Clocks

The frozen half is the original core: the World Golf Hall of Fame building and the IMAX theater, both already owned by St. Johns County, and the former PGA Tour Productions building, owned separately by the World Golf Foundation along with 36.7 surrounding acres. The Hall of Fame closed in 2023 and relocated to Pinehurst, North Carolina. The IMAX, once the largest screen in North Florida, went dark in late 2024. In April 2024, commissioners voted to pay $5.5 million to bring the Productions building and the acreage around it under county ownership too, which would have put the whole core under one roof. That purchase never closed. The same developer now at the center of the lawsuit, IT Land Associates, declined to lift the use restriction the deal depended on, and the sale fell apart.

That restriction traces back to 1996, when the land was first sold to the World Golf Foundation for $100 with a condition attached: golf and sports related development only, for 50 years, running through 2046. The World Golf Foundation sued to have that restriction lifted, arguing the original vision no longer made sense with the Hall of Fame gone and the buildings sitting empty. On August 3, 2026, St. Johns County Circuit Judge R. Lee Smith ruled against them, siding with IT Land Associates and upholding the restriction as written. One resident quoted in the coverage put it bluntly: "It is literally a ghost town."

That ruling didn't create a new problem. It just confirmed the old one has a legal floor under it that won't move on its own.

The Corridor Nobody's Confused About

A few minutes away, on the same World Commerce Center tract, none of that ambiguity applies. Buc-ee's opened in 2021. Costco followed in 2022. Bass Pro Shops brought more than 100,000 square feet of retail. Home Depot pulled its building permit in April 2024 for a 135,653 square foot store and opened April 17, 2025, about twelve months from permit to open doors.

Walmart is the next domino, and it's already moving. The county issued an $18.65 million building permit on January 21, 2026, for a 179,708 square foot Supercenter at 150 Foundry Lane, roughly two miles from Buc-ee's, Costco, and Bass Pro, directly across from Tocoi Creek High School. Construction is underway. No opening date has been announced.

The Signal Most People Are Watching Is the Wrong One

If you're trying to gauge how fast this stretch of road is actually changing, the Walmart building itself is a distraction. Nine outparcels are planned around the Supercenter, with Chick-fil-A, Chipotle, Panda Express, Chase Bank, and Wells Fargo named as the proposed tenants. Big-box retailers coordinate outparcel construction with their own opening timelines, because parking, signage, and traffic patterns all depend on the anchor store being functional. Site work on those smaller parcels, not press releases about the Supercenter, will likely be the first real sign that Walmart's opening is close.

There's a second tell that shows how confident the market already is in this corridor, even before the Supercenter opens. In July 2026, the ground beneath the still unbuilt Walmart went up for sale for $22.9 million, a 24.49 acre parcel with a new 20 year ground lease under which Walmart covers its own property taxes, insurance, and maintenance. Whoever buys that listing isn't buying a Walmart. They're buying the right to collect rent from one for the next two decades without setting foot inside the store. That's not a sign of a corridor still finding its footing. That's a sign investors already treat it as settled.

The $20 Million Gift That Reset the Whole Conversation

Here's the part that only shows up if you were following the county commission meetings closely. In September 2025, commissioners advanced two competing proposals for the frozen core: Golftopia, a golf and entertainment concept from Capital Group P3 Developments and Alchemy Attractions, and The Fountains at World Golf Village, a senior living and medical campus from Cross Regions Real Estate and Ergisi Acquisitions.

Then, in December 2025, the county rejected both. Not because either proposal failed on its merits, but because staff had just learned the new owner of the Renaissance Resort, sold earlier in the year for $24.25 million, was planning a $20 million private renovation of the hotel. Commissioner Christian Whitehurst argued that changed the county's negotiating position entirely. "This is private sector, not taxpayer money," he said, framing the renovation as leverage rather than a reason to rush. The board chose to reset talks with property stakeholders instead of locking in either plan.

So the frozen core's next move isn't waiting on residents, or on the lawsuit alone. It's waiting on how the county chooses to use a hotel renovation it didn't ask for and doesn't own.

What Else Is Actually Under Construction Right Now

Two more projects are worth putting on your radar, both outside the immediate WGV core and both already moving.

AdventHealth bought land from World Commerce Center in February 2025 for $13.4 million, with plans for an 88 bed hospital and adjacent office space. And in August 2025, the county broke ground on a $25 million widening of State Road 16 between International Golf Parkway and CR-2209, taking SR-16 from two lanes to four, adding sidewalks, drainage, and a new signal. Completion is anticipated around late 2026, which means residents driving this stretch this fall should expect the construction to still be visible before it clears.

Two Stories, One Road

None of this changes what happened to Caddyshack. The restaurant's closure was its own story, unrelated to the lawsuit, the 2046 restriction, or the Walmart timeline. But it's easy to see why residents lump it in with the rest. The building sits close enough to the shuttered Hall of Fame that both read as symptoms of the same stalled property.

They're not. One half of World Golf Village is legally frozen until 2046, waiting on negotiations between the county, the World Golf Foundation, and a master developer that has already won once in court this year. The other half has cranes, permits, and a hospital under contract. Knowing which half you're looking at is the difference between assuming nothing is happening here and knowing exactly what to watch next: outparcel groundbreaking near the Walmart, a county announcement on the Hall of Fame within the window the county itself floated after the August ruling, and whether SR-16 actually wraps up on schedule.

If you're thinking about what any of this means for property values, timing, or whether this stretch of St. Johns County fits what you're looking for in a home, that's a conversation worth having with someone who tracks it closely. Traci Crawford works this market daily and can walk you through what's actually changing here versus what only looks that way. Schedule a Strategy Session to talk through it.