The Daily Soak - August 2

From Landfill to Links: Jacksonville Golf Course Set to Open

When an old Jacksonville landfill reached capacity in 1986, it was capped with 3 feet of soil and bentonite by Waste Management. 22 years later, developer Retirement Corporation of America (RCA) is set to re-open the landfill as a 9-hole golf course called Sunbeam Hill. The conversion process was long and costly according to RCA President Dane Cates, whose company obtained ten special permits and spent $120 million on the project (Map) over the last few years. An additional one to six feet of soil was placed on top of the existing landfill to shape the course, so there is little chance bad golfers will penetrate the cap with a mean divot. (Although an occasional methane geyser would make for a sweet fairway hazard.) Ranch-style condos are also being sold adjacent to the 4th hole under the name Edgewater. Cates is quick to point out the real benefit of this project extends beyond condo owners at Sunbeam Hill, "It's exciting...we turned something that had no use into open space and recreation."


Your Zip Code Says A lot About You...and Your House Value

BusinessWeek takes a look at twenty major metro areas and shows how housing markets are booming and busting within the same cities. The majority of metros mirror Boston where an older, more established neighborhood like Wellesley Hills with median home prices 10x the worst-performing zip code continues to appreciate, although a few cities like Cleveland report more affordable houses are located in the best-performing zip codes. Tampa and Miami were the only two Florida cities to crack the Top 20; however, the editors at BusinessWeek could use a quick Florida geography lesson. In the "Miami metro" area, the best-performing zip code is listed as 33469 (Jupiter) and the worst-performing is 33314 (Davie). Tampa's best performing zip code is 33606 (Hyde Park), while the worst-performing is Sun City Center, the WCI retirement community where median prices have fallen 25% in the past year alone. (Complete Slide Show)


Friends Bury The Hatchet...Millionaires Bury the Power Lines

In Winter Park, the Orlando neighborhood known for its mansions, lakes and boutiques, neighbors are far removed from the maddening crowds and visual clutter of the tourist meccas along I-Drive. Yet for one Winter Park resident, even the power lines were too much to bear. Steve Goldman, who sold his computer data storage company in 1999 for $235 million, decided to take advantage of a new program that allows residents to chip in for the cost of having power lines buried. But rather than wait for his lazy neighbors to chip-in, Goldman stroked a check for the entire $100,000 bill himself. Reached by phone vacationing in the south of France, Goldman told the Orlando Sentinel, "The one single thing that you could do that improves the quality of the environment is to get rid of the power lines. It's going to increase your property values; it's going to make the system more reliable. It's silly to pinch that particular penny." Or in Goldman's case ten million pennies.