The Hutson Companies, one of Northeast Florida’s most active residential developers, has acquired roughly 1,089 acres west of Jacksonville International Airport, a move that sets the stage for future residential and commercial development in a rapidly evolving corner of Jacksonville. Here’s what we know about the deal:
Where did the Hutson Companies buy land in December?
The land sits along Lem Turner Road, between Terrell and Braddock Roads, in a corridor that has seen less investment than other growth nodes across Northeast Florida despite strategic transportation access.
What is the Hutson Companies land zoned for?
The acreage was rezoned in 2022 to allow up to 2,300 residential units and 125,000 square feet of commercial space. The zoning approvals, already in place before the acquisition, enable a mix of housing types supported by neighborhood-scale commercial uses.
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The Hutson Companies has not announced specific plans, phasing, or timelines. Public filings will provide the first indications of buildout priorities once the developer initiates engineering work.
What does this mean for Jacksonville’s Northside?
The Northside has long been viewed as a next-cycle growth market but has developed at a slower pace than the Southside, Westside, and St. Johns County. This acquisition places a large tract under a single developer with extensive experience executing multi-phase communities.
The potential impacts include expanding housing supply in an undersupplied market and commercial options where gaps currently exist.
Given its size, the project could influence long-term land-use patterns on the Northside rather than only meeting near-term housing demand.
SilverLeaf is one of the Northeast Florida communities Hutson Companies is responsible for. Others include OakLeaf Plantation and Johns Creek.
What is the Hutson Companies development track record?
Based in St. Augustine, the company has delivered master-planned communities at scales large enough to influence county-level growth dynamics. Notable projects include SilverLeaf in St. Johns County, OakLeaf Plantation in Clay County, and Johns Creek.
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Those developments incorporated schools, parks, commercial amenities, and road improvements. Planners often cite them as examples of community-scale planning and long-horizon infrastructure coordination.
What comes next for the Hutson Companies land?
Several procedural steps typically precede visible construction, including engineering studies and preliminary site design. Those filings — along with traffic and mobility assessments and environmental and infrastructure permits with the city — will provide the first insight into the outlook for a housing and commercial footprint mix.
Why hasn’t this area been developed sooner?
Historically, the land west of Jacksonville International Airport has been viewed as development-ready but has lagged behind other growth markets.
Unlike Southside and St. Johns County, which benefited from early infrastructure investment and public-private coordination, the Northside lacks some utility and roadway capacity.
A patchwork of private ownership historically discouraged master-planned proposals as well since large-scale community development generally requires land assembly or the acquisition of contiguous acreage.
This is a portion of the newly opened segment of County Road 2209 that connects Silverleaf Parkway to International Golf Parkway in St. Johns County.
What makes this purchase more than just another land deal?
The Hutson Companies’ purchase stands out for several reasons, not the least of which being that the land is already zoned for large-scale development, so it can move toward planning and construction rather than sitting idle as a long-term investment.
The location is also unique as there are very few remaining sites this large still available in Jacksonville city limits.
With zoning approvals already in place, the Hutson acquisition positions Jacksonville’s Northside for the kind of phased, long-horizon development that has already taken root across Northeast Florida.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Where did Hutson Companies just buy land in Jacksonville?