World Golf Village's Empty Core Won't Move Until 2046. Everything Around It Already Has.

On June 27, 2026, Andy Murray posted a short goodbye on Facebook. Murray Bros. Caddyshack, the golf-and-movie-themed restaurant he and his brothers, including actor Bill Murray, had run at World Golf Village for 25 years, was closing that day. No reason was given. Florida's business licensing records listed the restaurant's food service license as delinquent that same month. Longtime regulars showed up that night for one last round of wedge salad and live music, and then the space at 455 S. Legacy Trail went dark.

It is tempting to read that closure as one more sign that World Golf Village is fading. It sits a short walk from the shuttered World Golf Hall of Fame building, which has been empty since 2023, and from an IMAX theater that went dark the following year. Three high-profile closures in one small stretch of pavement can look like a pattern.

They are not the same story, and treating them that way misses what is actually happening here. Caddyshack's closure was a private lease matter with its own paperwork problems, unrelated to anything at the Hall of Fame site. The empty museum next door is stuck for a completely different, much more specific reason, and that reason has an expiration date: 2046. Understanding the difference tells you more about how this neighborhood works than either story does on its own.

A Deal Signed in 1996 Is Still Setting the Rules

In 1996, the company that would become IT Land Associates sold roughly 37 acres in the heart of World Golf Village to the World Golf Foundation for $100. The catch was a use restriction written into the deed: for 50 years, through July 31, 2046, that land could only be used for golf, entertainment, and closely related purposes, specifically the Hall of Fame, PGA Tour Productions, an IMAX or similar attraction, and an 18-hole golf course with a clubhouse.

For most of the three decades since, the restriction matched exactly what was already there. Then the anchor tenants left in quick succession. The Hall of Fame relocated to Pinehurst, North Carolina, in 2023 after roughly a quarter century in St. Johns County. The IMAX theater closed in late 2024. PGA Tour Productions moved its operations to a new PGA Tour Studios facility in Ponte Vedra Beach by early 2025. By that point, the buildings the covenant was written to protect sat empty, but the covenant itself did not go anywhere.

The World Golf Foundation, which still owns the 36.7 acres, sued IT Land Associates in February 2025, arguing the original "World Golf Vision" had already ended and the restriction no longer served any purpose. A previous attempt by St. Johns County to buy the surrounding acreage for $5.5 million had already collapsed in 2024 for the same reason: the developer holding the restriction would not release the land for anything other than golf and entertainment use, and the sale fell through.

On August 3, 2026, a St. Johns County circuit judge ruled against the foundation. Judge R. Lee Smith found that declining attendance and a closed museum did not amount to the kind of changed circumstances needed to void a private covenant, and that the restriction still provided a real benefit to IT Land Associates. The land stays locked to golf and entertainment use until 2046, unless the parties negotiate their way out of it first. One resident who lives near the site described the property to a local TV station in blunt terms: "It is literally a ghost town."

Here is what the covenant actually allows, and how each use has played out:

That last row is why two very different redevelopment pitches both stalled before they got anywhere near a shovel.

Two Blueprints Came and Went Before the Ruling Even Landed

In the fall of 2025, St. Johns County commissioners advanced two competing proposals for the site into a second phase of review. Golftopia, from Boca Raton-based Capital Group P3 Developments and developer Mario Caprini, pitched a family entertainment concept with indoor and outdoor mini golf, disc golf, foot golf, and a virtual reality golf lounge, with construction targeted to begin in July 2028 if it were approved. The Fountains at World Golf Village, from Cross Regions Real Estate and developer David Ergisi, proposed medical facilities, independent living, retail, and restaurants, with a projected completion in September 2027.

Neither made it that far. On November 18, 2025, commissioners rejected both proposals after the Renaissance Resort's new ownership revealed plans for a $20 million private renovation of the hotel. Commissioner Christian Whitehurst framed it as a reset: he wanted to negotiate from a stronger position rather than lock the county into either concept. "We're wiping the slate clean," he said at the meeting.

Then, in August 2026, the reset ran straight into the court ruling upholding the restriction. St. Johns County has said that if a deal comes together to acquire the remaining development rights from IT Land Associates, which would carry the authority to terminate the restriction, residents could see a new redevelopment proposal within 45 to 60 days of the ruling. Counting from August 3, that window runs through roughly early October 2026. It is worth watching. It is not worth planning around, given how many prior timelines here have slipped.

None of That Touches the Half of the Neighborhood Everyone Actually Uses

The retail and dining growth that residents interact with day to day sits on parcels that were never part of the 1996 covenant, which is exactly why none of the legal back-and-forth has slowed it down. Jacksonville Today reported in May 2026 that the broader area around the Hall of Fame site already includes a Buc-ee's, a Costco, and a Bass Pro Shops, and that construction is underway on a Walmart Supercenter about two miles west of that hub. Permit filings reviewed by the St. Johns Citizen in October 2025 showed a Chipotle and a Panda Express, the brand's third location in St. Johns County, both slated for sites near that Walmart plaza.

The Loop, a Jacksonville-area fast-casual chain, opened its fifth neighborhood location at World Golf Village on April 24, 2024. Owner Maurilio Gonzalez said the location was designed with a larger patio than the chain's other spots to take advantage of outdoor dining. None of that required a court ruling or a development rights sale. It required a lease.

That is the actual shape of World Golf Village right now. One boundary line, drawn by a private contract in 1996, separates a frozen 37 acres from a fast-moving commercial corridor that answers to nobody but its own landlords.

What's Actually on the Calendar This Month

The split shows up in what residents can do this September, too. Ancient City Con, Northeast Florida's longest-running multi-day pop culture convention, returns to the Renaissance Resort at 500 South Legacy Trail from September 25 through 27, with celebrity and comic book guests, cosplay, and tabletop and arcade gaming. The golf side of the covenant keeps running its own calendar as well. AJ's Kitchen & Cocktails at the King & Bear clubhouse runs Bites & Flights specials every Friday and live music on Saturdays, and Legends Grille & Spirits at Slammer & Squire keeps its patio open year-round with views of the course and surrounding preserve.

Both of those venues sit on land covered by the same 1996 restriction as the empty Hall of Fame building a few hundred yards away. The difference is that golf and hospitality are exactly what the covenant was written to protect, so they never stopped operating. The museum was covered too, but nobody has found a way to run it without losing money, and the restriction that keeps it from becoming anything else has 20 years left on the clock unless a deal changes that sooner.

If you already live in World Golf Village and you are curious what any of this might mean for property values in the King & Bear or Slammer & Squire communities down the road, Julie Little Brewer has spent decades tracking how these shifts actually play out on the ground here. Request Your Complimentary Home Valuation whenever you are ready to talk specifics.