BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Starke had a record year for new housing, with 36 new home permits pulled in 2024.
This was the highest number in recent years, according to the city’s building and zoning office.
Many of these homes make up Sandcastle Pines. This is a rental subdivision funded by the Florida Housing Finance Corporation, with the target market being teachers, correctional officers, etc. Sandcastle Foundation had some trouble getting city approval, eventually downsizing to 21 homes to avoid a rezoning hurdle.
The remaining new houses are sprinkled throughout the city, some replacing older homes.
Still on the drawing board are the CityWalk townhouse project next to Downtown Square. Just last month, the city conveyed its veterans park property to Kingsley Development in a land swap. The city will rebuild an expanded park, and the townhouse developers are proceeding with approval of their planned unit development.
Engineers and Woodward and Curran are working on a grant-funded visioning project for future revitalization.
Starke also annexed nearly 180 acres off State Road 16 at the bypass in a 2023 for a future mixed-use development. The city and county commissions are cooperating to fund the extension of water and sewer lines to the area. Engineers are working on those plans.
Starke approved a new subdivision of 20-plus homes south of Green Acres in 2021, but no further action has taken place, according to the building and zoning office.
Outside of Starke, residential growth is also booming, with 85 new home permits pulled last year compared to 64 in 2023. Most of these continue to be in the Keystone Heights and Melrose area off County Road 21B (Southeast Eighth Avenue). A number are closer, with around 25 having addresses around Starke. Those are followed by 23 in Hampton, Lawtey and Brooker.
Those numbers were surpassed by the 97 new or replacement mobile homes installed. Again, many of these were near Keystone, with 24 being park homes at the RV park. Most had Starke addresses however, followed by Lawtey, Hampton and Brooker.
The biggest commercial project in Starke is the Wawa still under construction on U.S. 301 and Edwards Road, potentially opening in February. Others included the remodel on the old Pizza Hut building for the opening of G’s Slow Smoked BBQ and the reopening of Huddle House. Eleven commercial permits were pulled in all. A Waffle House is also coming, according to the city.
RaceTrac’s travel center — the largest commercial project outside the city limits — is now open at the corner of U.S. 301 and C.R. 227. Two of the county’s seven commercial permits in 2024 were for the RaceTrac and its canopy. The living quarters for the county’s firefighting substation in Speedville was another. Then south of the Hampton Dollar General, will be the site of a pool sales office.
The RV Park in Keystone also permitted a shooting range and a golf driving range. Most recently, signage and fill dirt just next to Mosley Tire point to a Snappy’s Express Carwash coming soon. That permit was pulled just before Christmas.
Other projects in that area which were finished up in 2024 included the Zaxby’s restaurant and the reconstruction of the Murphy USA gas station.
The county also said goodbye to businesses, including Cato’s Fashions and Badcock Home Furniture. Cato’s which had more than 1,100 locations was expected to close around 70 by the end of 2024, according to the Charlotte Observer in North Carolina, where the company is based.
Conn’s Inc., which acquired Badcock in December 2023 and added those stores to its own, filed for bankruptcy soon after, closing more than 550 locations, according to Business Observer Florida.
