Location: Sandestin, Florida

Roberta Cruger

03/01/2007

Velvety-soft sands line the beaches of Florida’s Emerald Coast, as bright as snow and as cool underfoot as talcum powder. These sugary-white quartz crystals are not dredged from pristine Caribbean coastlines. They were deposited by a glacier from the Appalachian Mountains some 20,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age. Though renowned for those miles of exquisite sand, northwest Florida earned its name from the brilliant green hue of the Gulf of Mexico’s waters.

Before Spanish explorers landed in 1698, American Indians had appreciated this area for centuries, and in the 1860s, the inlets became strategic forts during the Civil War. Since then, it has been home to "the world’s luckiest fishing village," Destin, drawing Southerners from Nashville to New Orleans, and Northerners escaping winter at its resorts. Today, the western panhandle is ready for yet another change. Attracted by the abundance of natural beauty, pleasant temperatures and leisure activities, people are discovering the serene stretch between Pensacola and Panama City, where available beachfront property still exists and seasonal visitors are becoming owners.

The white-sand beaches and waterfront property of Sandestin, on Florida’s Emerald Coast, are drawing buyers. Photograph by Scott Jackson. (Click image to enlarge)

For more than three decades, Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort offered vacation hideaways along its seven miles of shores on the Gulf and Choctawhatchee Bay. Set among wetlands and a wildlife preserve, the complex encompasses over 2,400 lushly landscaped acres. After resort developer Intrawest bought it in 1998, the resort raised the bar for luxury accommodations in the vicinity with top-flight golf courses, fine dining and a lengthy list of amenities, from spa pampering to boutique shopping. While previously catering just to tourists and investors, today the diverse range of residences and rentals provides an extensive selection of prices and architecture for buyers.

"There’s a great palette of properties here at Sandestin—something to match everyone’s taste, from a golf community to a second or third home," says sales specialist Brad Smith of Playground Destination Properties/Sandestin Real Estate. "And the dynamic mix of residents and guests keeps it fresh and energetic." Of the approximately 4,000 accommodations, 1,700 are rentals, approximately 800 are permanent residences, and the remainder are seasonal homes. Covering every niche in the real estate market, from sophisticated penthouse condos with sunset views to elegant estates on the bay, townhouses to charming bungalows, the array of homes inside the gates of Sandestin is like a city within a city.

The resort boasts four professional golf courses designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr., Tom Jackson and Rees Jones, 15 tennis courts (with clay, grass and hard surfaces), a 98-slip marina, endless water sports, as well as the Village of Baytowne Wharf, a commercial district of shell-covered paths through garden courtyards. The sidewalks used to roll up at dusk, but since 2002 when this gathering spot opened, 19 restaurants and eateries, dozens of shops and galleries and wine bars, concerts and even outdoor movies keep things bustling day and evening.

The variety of housing styles in some 30 neighborhoods includes Southern manors nestled among magnolias evoking an old Florida feel and grand villas in a Tuscan-like vineyard with stone fountains, tiled roofs and turrets. At the Raven Golf Club, front-row seats to the PGA Boeing Championship at Sandestin are available on the verandas of Island Green homes with a traditional tropical look. And under a canopy of oaks, Burnt Pine’s cul-de-sacs offer custom homesites on a quiet peninsula.

Another option is Storied Places, a private residence club community. This Intrawest concept, also found at its ski resorts, from Aspen to Whistler, allows fractional ownership through the purchase of "chapters" to share the cost. The waterfront enclave, named Inspiration at Sandestin, features handsomely furnished homes reflecting the local vernacular, with summer kitchens, screened porches and fruitwood beam ceilings. It affords an effortless lifestyle with a concierge service that can arrange for an on-call chef and reservations for tee times.
"Sandestin is 30 years old, with a nine-year history," says Mike Stange of Intrawest. "The resort has really reinvented itself since 1998." Since Intrawest’s $400 million renovation added the Village and other developments, other local residents also visit. The master plan ensures that the complex will not overdevelop, and with 40 percent of the surrounding lands preserved by the presence of state parks, the pine forests, sand dunes, cypress wetlands and natural greenery should remain untouched.

"I’ve been here for 20 years and really watched the area grow up," says Chuck Cary, owner of Sea Sotheby’s International Realty. "There’s every amenity possible, from five-star restaurants to your choice of world-class golf year-round, yet it still has a sleepy fishing village feel." Cary sees Sotheby’s entry into the region as a significant indication of the prospects for this burgeoning area, with plenty of luxury listings. He notes that about 135 homes over $3 million are on the market in the Destin,
Sandestin and South Walton County areas.

Sea Sotheby’s International Realty holds this luxury penthouse listing in nearby Destin for $1.53 million. Photograph by Kent Vanhoesen. (Click image to enlarge)

"The area is just catching its breath after a huge development boom of high-end condominiums and beachfront homes. It grew so big, so fast," says Cary. The area’s busiest developer, St. Joe’s, has created a series of upscale planned communities, including the elegant WaterColor Inn, among several others on South Walton County’s beaches. "There are wonderful properties along scenic U.S. 98, paralleling the Gulf, from Rosemary Beach to Perdido Key, and without the price tag of bigger names like Miami and Naples. Never more than a mile and a half from the beach, it’s still gorgeous and poised to take off again," he says.

Cary speaks of the Emerald Coast with the same enthusiasm that inspired him to buy when he first arrived after playing major league baseball with the Atlanta Braves. "Sitting on your back porch, watching a dolphin play in the surf—it doesn’t get better than that."

Facts & Stats

CATCH OF THE DAY
Sandestin sits among 16 beach communities along the Gulf, including quaint Seaside, which was depicted as the perfect American town in the movie The Truman Show. Just several miles west, in Okaloosa County, Fort Walton Beach beckons, as does the city of Destin, where the harbor hums with vessels unloading fresh seafood bound for dockside restaurants. Charter boats leave daily for deep-sea hauls of sailfish, blue marlin, wahoo and tuna. With the Gulf of Mexico in the front yard and Choctawhatchee Bay in back, recreation choices abound, such as sunset or dolphin cruises, scuba diving and sailing, waverunning and fly-fishing in shallow waters.

Cuisines range from New Orleans Cajun dishes to Floribbean fare. Fine dining can be found at Bistro Bijoux (850.622.0760, www.bistrobijouxdestin.com). In Destin, try the Marina Café (www.marinacafe.com). One of the best-known spots is Criollas in nearby Grayton Beach (850.267.1267, www.criollas.com). Besides the two Marriott hotels (a Courtyard and a Residence Inn) at Sandestin, which afford guests all-access passes to amenities within the resort’s gates, the elegant WaterColor Inn (866.426.2656, www.watercolorinn.com) offers Southern hospitality, boutique-style. In Seaside, suites at Josephine’s Inn, a Georgian-style plantation home, present gracious B&B accommodations (800.848.1840, www.josephinesinn.com).

THE MATCH GAME
With some of the last opportunities still to be found for beachfront property, the scope of homes on the Emerald Coast, from high-rise condos to single-family dwellings, is priced between $500,000 to more than $1 million. At Sandestin, houses climb from about $1.2 million to $6 million for 2,300 to 12,000 square feet. A 5,000-square-foot, five-bedroom penthouse condo overlooking the Gulf runs $2.5 million, while a one-bedroom townhouse can be as low as $330,000. Properties are available through local agents at three Sandestin Real Estate/Playground Destination offices (800.277.0801, 850.267.8100, www.mysandestinhome.com; see www.sandestin.com for all the resort’s amenities). Chuck Cary at Sea Sotheby’s International Realty handles properties along the entire coastline (850.269.2150, www.sothebysrealty.com).

FROM GULF TO GOLF
If relaxing in serene environments isn’t enough, there are annual festivals for gumbo feasts, wine tasting and art events as well as golf and fishing classics. For details on activities, try the Emerald Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau (800.322.3319, www.destin-fwb.com) or Walton County Visitor’s Center (800.822.6877, www.beachesofsouthwalton.com). There are a number of options for flights with Delta, Northwest and US Airways landing at Okaloosa Regional Airport (on the Eglin Air Force Base), and flying into Pensacola or Panama City airports, both about 90 minutes away, for more direct routes. Destin’s airport handles private jets, and the new international airport in the works should further expand the region.