Margaritaville Daytona rated No. 1 55+ community in nation

Article Courtesy of The Daytona Beach News-Journal

By Clayton Park

Published June 3, 2018

  
DAYTONA BEACH — Latitude Margaritaville made national headlines last year when it was first announced.

Now, the planned Jimmy Buffett-themed 55-and-older community has earned another national accolade: it has been named the nation’s most popular active adult community of 2018.

 

Chicago, Illinois-based 55Places.com gave it a No. 1 ranking in its list of the country’s 100 Most Popular Active Adult Communities.

Of course, Lana Byer could’ve told you that.

The 71-year-old retiree originally from Pittsburgh became one of the first residents to move into Latitude Margaritaville Daytona Beach in April. The community, which has been steadily adding residents since March, is now home to several dozen people, both singles and couples.

“I absolutely love it. I know I’m going to be very, very happy here,” said Byer. “My neighbors are wonderful. We’re already socializing all the time.”

 

Other Florida communities to make the 55Places.com’s top 10 included Ocala’s On Top of the World at No. 2, The Villages at No. 7 and Kissimmee’s Solivita at No. 8.

“After Minto Communities and Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville Holdings announced in February 2017 that Latitude Margaritaville would be the first active adult community to be inspired by Buffett’s music and lifestyle, interest skyrocketed quickly,” stated 55Places.com in a news release Thursday. “No active adult community received more page views on 55Places.com during this time frame and it received four times as many inquiries as any other community.”

55Places.com describes itself as the No. 1 resource for information about active adult communities in the United States, offering “unbiased information and reviews,” as well as photos, videos, descriptions, floor plans and listings of homes for sale.

Latitude Margaritaville Daytona Beach welcomed its first residents in March. More than 330 homes have been sold so far, with two dozen now occupied, said Bill Bullock, president of Minto’s Latitude Margaritaville division.

The community already has an activities director on duty who has been organizing group outings, including trips to see Daytona Beach Tortugas baseball games, free concerts at the Daytona Beach Bandshell and meals at area restaurants.

“We just got together at Stonewood (on LPGA) and there were so many of us, we took over the entire sports bar area,” Byer said.

“This is a completely different culture,” Byer said of life at Latitude Margaritaville, compared to living in Lakeland, where she lived the first 12 years of her retirement. “People really want to get to know each other and mingle. In Lakeland, people tended to keep to themselves.”

The top ranking by 55Places.com “reinforces what our prospective buyers have been telling us and what our current residents are enjoying,” Bullock said. “We are honored by this recognition.”

Minto is currently starting construction on an average of nine new homes a week, Bullock said.

Latitude Margaritaville, upon full buildout, will ultimately extend north to State Road 40.

Each of the two phases will have its own Latitude Town Square complete with resort-style amenities, including a Paradise Pool, a Latitude Bar & Chill restaurant, Changes in Attitude poolside bar, a Fins Up fitness center, an amphitheater for live music, arts-and-crafts and wellness programs, a Last Mango Theatre for dances and banquets, a Barkaritaville dog park and pet spa, a Workin’ N’ Playin’ center, a workshop for golf cart maintenance and repairs, pickleball, tennis and bocce ball courts and walking trails.

It will also offer a private oceanfront club in Ormond-by-the-Sea that will be accessible to residents via a continuously operating loop shuttle.

The initial phase of the town square is expected to open in spring 2019, said Paula Robertson, a spokeswoman for Minto.

Sutton Properties also plans to break ground this summer on a Publix grocery store-anchored Latitude Landings retail center at the south entrance to Latitude Margaritaville, on the corner of LPGA Boulevard and the new partially completed south extension of Tymber Creek Road. The road extension will eventually be built out to connect with where Tymber Creek Road currently ends just south of State Road 40.

Minto and Margaritaville Holdings also plan to build Latitude Margaritaville communities in Hilton Head, South Carolina, and in the Florida Panhandle, near Panama City Beach.

For a complete list of 55Places.com’s 100 most popular active adult communities, go to 55places.com/blog/100-most-popular-active-adult-communities-for-2018.

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