It’s been three years since plans for the model community known as Sky, Florida, were being put in place here in Calhoun County, but with no signs of development, many readers are now asking, “What happened?”
Developers Bruce White and Julie Starr Sanford purchased close to 600 acres on the west side of the county near Clarksville to build Sky. The community plans include five villages with a total of 624 new home sites, an equestrian complex with miles of riding trails, public gardens, group agriculture with a farmers market, and over half the property set aside for agriculture and open space. The Sky lodge and conference center will provide much needed lodging for eco-tourists who wish to visit Calhoun County.
However, when real estate sales began plummeting and the economy took a dive, the project seemed to come to a near screeching halt.
The County Record spoke with Sanford on Tuesday who says plans for Sky have definitely not been scrapped.
“We are really at a critical financial point,” she explains. “All hands on deck to secure the financing we need. We have some very interested and very influential players at the table talking to us now. Because of the current economy, we’ve had to focus all of our energies on financing. We have some really good possibilities and we’re coming down to the wire.”
Sanford has prepared a letter that will be printed in next week’s edition with more details about where the Sky project stands.
