What's with all the development in Silver Springs Shores?

[OpinionInOcala]

Originally Posted by kmarc

I was reading some of his posts and the posts by people thinking of re-locating to the area and it was interesting to see that a number of people seem to be under the impression that Silver Springs Shores is a retirement area. He always has to correct them on this point.

Perhaps they get confused about this due to seeing the Lake Diamond, Country Club of the Shores, and Baseline golf courses on the map. Additionally, some dishonest advertising tries to tie the area to access to The Villages for some reason. I always get a chuckle out of that, and it reminds me of the large billboards for Marion Oaks that proclaim "Close to Everything" despite it being inconveniently situated to anything but access to I-75 and plagued by more crime on average than SSS.

[kmarc]

Originally Posted by OpinionInOcala

Perhaps they get confused about this due to seeing the Lake Diamond, Country Club of the Shores, and Baseline golf courses on the map. Additionally, some dishonest advertising tries to tie the area to access to The Villages for some reason. I always get a chuckle out of that, and it reminds me of the large billboards for Marion Oaks that proclaim "Close to Everything" despite it being inconveniently situated to anything but access to I-75 and plagued by more crime on average than SSS.

That's branding in action. It's something I'm always aware of, having grown up with family members in the advertising and public relations biz. The early days of regional Florida branding were more successful than people realize and the impressions, however false, carry through to this day. Up north, people still resonate to "Silver Springs" and to words like "Shores". They remember that glass boat and the waters of the springs and even Sea Hunt. They hear "shores" and think of beaches and sun, even though SSS doesn't have much in the way of shores.

The Villages. Classic piggyback positioning, attempting to associate something with a successful brand, although with some people, association with The Villages has the opposite effect, because it also evokes impressions of retirees behaving badly in God's waiting room.

"Ocala" is meaningless to the masses, unless they're into horses. Oddly enough, Ocala has appeal to some of the northern upper crusty folks because of equestrian interests and even internationally, like the Middle East. This is purely conjecture on my part, but if I'm not mistaken, there's a fellow who probably came here originally for the horses, and became quite successful in real estate. Come for the horses, stay for the real estate opportunities!

Marion Oaks? No one really associates Florida with oaks until they get here, so I guess "close to everything" was the best they could do.

[KatesKat]

Originally Posted by kmarc

So are those grandfathered in, with no further development allowed, or at least restricted?

Yes. Exactly. We can do as we wish with our land but the state is not parceling land out to private buyers. As for Silver Spring Shores, my husband says we're more than 15 to 20 minutes from that community. More like 30 minutes.