St. Augustine, Florida

The towers that set the tone of the core, and who holds them. A price is the price a document states, on the date it states — not an estimate of what the building is worth now.

The most valuable ground in the city, and what the public record says about it.

At this scale the significant owner is rarely a trust or a fund: it is one or two local holding companies, a family in its second or third generation, and often the land around the town rather than the buildings in it.

Public and institutional bodies own St. Augustine's landmark ground. The State holds the most land (Anastasia State Park and marsh), the City about 838 acres across 183 parcels, and Flagler College the most value of any single owner ($273M). The federal holding is the Castillo. Private land is concentrated in the Madeira subdivision (its developer and three home builders) and a handful of apartment LLCs. Railway and utility operating property is centrally assessed by the state (code 996) and barely shows. Acres are roll land square footage ÷ 43,560; one parcel recorded at 2,668 acres (25 Hypolita St, a 'lot 6') is a data error and is excluded; individuals and family trusts are left out.

New-home building in this market: the volume, and the firms behind it. Ownership of a builder matters as much as its volume — a private-equity platform and a family firm behave differently.

St. Augustine is small (the Census puts 2025 permits at 71 single-family homes and 180 apartment units in six buildings) and new housing comes two ways: rental complexes on the US 1 corridor, each in its own LLC, and lots in the Madeira subdivision, which the developer sells to production and local builders. The roll shows 1,053 units on parcels completed 2023–2025, 780 of them in three complexes. Toll Brothers is the only national builder holding land in the City. Figures are the builders' parcels on the 2026 roll and their 2025–26 deed-stamp purchases.

The commercial side, counted separately from housing: who holds the office, retail and industrial floor area.

St. Augustine's commercial landlords are hotel companies and apartment owners, not office REITs: the roll has 77 hotel parcels worth $326.6M. A cluster of hotel companies sharing one Avenida Menendez mailing address is the largest commercial holder by value; listed REITs appear only as a senior-living buyer (Healthpeak) and a strip-centre owner (Curbline). Grouping by mailing address is the roll's, and common control is not stated. Counted separately from housing.

Claims this page would have made if a source could be opened. They are left out rather than guessed.

1. Saint Johns 65 Final NAL 2026 — real property roll (NAL65F202601.csv, dated 6 Oct 2026), 168,410 parcels countywide; 9,368 in the City of St. Augustine (taxing-authority codes 452 and 457) — Florida Department of Revenue, Property Tax Oversight (submitted by the St. Johns County Property Appraiser) · openA
2. Saint Johns 65 Final SDF 2026 — Sale Data File (SDF65F202601.csv), 35,731 recorded transfers countywide (1,787 on City parcels, 763 qualified) with clerk book/page and qualification code — Florida Department of Revenue, Property Tax Oversight · openA
3. 2025 Saint Johns TACD — taxing authority code descriptions (code 452 'City of St Augustine'; 457 'Madeira Community Development District City'; 996 centrally assessed) — Florida Department of Revenue · openA
4. Data & Forms — free downloads: CAMA data, CAMA data sup, TPP CAMA data, historical CAMA, GIS geodatabase and shapefile — St. Johns County Property Appraiser · openA
5. Mapping and Ownership — 'The following data is available to download for free'; records 'traced back to the Spanish Land Grants' — St. Johns County Property Appraiser · openA
6. Download Assessment Roll and GIS Data — NAL, SDF and NAP; July 1 preliminary, October initial final, then final rolls — Florida Department of Revenue · openA
7. 2026 NAL, SDF and NAP User's Guide — sale price 'calculated from the documentary stamp amount'; qualification codes — Florida Department of Revenue · openA
8. Documentary Stamp Tax — '70 cents on each $100 or portion thereof of the total consideration' (all counties except Miami-Dade), s. 201.02(1)(a), F.S. — Florida Department of Revenue · openA
9. Section 28.24, Florida Statutes — clerk service charges ('copies by photographic process … per page: 1.00') — The Florida Legislature (Online Sunshine) · openA
10. qpublic.schneidercorp.com robots.txt — 'User-agent: ClaudeBot Disallow: /' — Schneider Geospatial · blockedA
11. Ponce de Leon Hotel — 74 King Street; 540 guest rooms; 'Since 1968, with the founding of Flagler College, the original building and grounds … centerpiece of the college campus' — Wikipedia · openA
12. Castillo de San Marcos — 20.48-acre site; 'Ownership of the Castillo was transferred to the National Park Service in 1933' — Wikipedia · openA
13. Casa Monica Hotel — bought from St. Johns County for $1.2 million (Feb 1997); 'operates as part of the Kessler Collection headquartered in Orlando'; Autograph Collection 2010 — Wikipedia · openA
14. Lightner Museum — Hotel Alcazar bought 20 Aug 1947 and 'turned … over to the city of St. Augustine'; museum opened 1948 — Wikipedia · openA
15. Lightner Courtyard at City Hall — 75 King Street, 'within the historic Alcazar Building, constructed in 1889 … houses the Lightner Museum and St. Augustine City Hall' — City of St. Augustine · openA
16. Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind — '47 buildings on 82 acres'; seven-member Board of Trustees set by the Legislature in 1963 — Wikipedia · openA
17. Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine — built 1793–1797; Diocese of St. Augustine — Wikipedia · openA
18. Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park — 'a privately owned 15-acre … park in St. Augustine', NRHP 2016 — Wikipedia · openA
19. Historic Downtown Parking Facility — 'This 1,200-car facility, located adjacent to the Visitor Information Center' — City of St. Augustine · openA
20. Legal Notices & Disclaimers — information presented 'as a public service'; no reuse restriction stated — City of St. Augustine · openA
21. St. Augustine, Florida — city navbox lists 'Northeast Florida Regional Airport (not in the city limits)' and 'Flagler Hospital (not in the city limits)' — Wikipedia · openA
22. Building Permits Survey — South Region places, annual 2025 (so2025a.txt): St. Augustine city, 71 one-unit buildings ($24.8M) and 6 buildings / 180 units in 5+ unit structures ($20.9M) — US Census Bureau · openA
23. Healthpeak Properties — Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 30 Jun 2026 (2026 senior-housing acquisitions in Atlanta and Orlando; no St. Augustine property named) — Healthpeak Properties, Inc. via SEC EDGAR · openA