DRB Homes opens Castaway model at Granary Park in Green Cove Springs

DRB Homes has opened a new model home at Granary Park in Green Cove Springs, giving prospective buyers their first look at the Castaway floor plan in Clay County's expanding master-planned community. The professionally decorated model at 2533 Barnstead Road debuted with a grand opening celebration on Friday, November 13, from 11 a. m. to 2 p. m.

The opening represents another sales and construction milestone for Granary Park, a community that has been adding inventory and amenities as Clay County absorbs residential growth radiating outward from Jacksonville along the First Coast Expressway corridor.

What's happening

The Castaway model is a single-story design with four bedrooms and 2,061 square feet of living space. The open-concept layout connects the family room, kitchen, and dining area in a continuous gathering space. The floor plan includes an owner's suite, secondary bedrooms, and a covered lanai.

DRB Homes offers five one- and two-story floor plans at Granary Park, ranging from 1,600 square feet to more than 2,625 square feet with three to five bedrooms. The homes are priced starting in the $300s, according to GreenPointe Holdings, the developer behind the community.

Granary Park's amenity campus spans 4. 5 acres and includes a beach-entry pool with deck and firepit, a 1,000-square-foot covered pavilion, an event lawn, a recreation field, a fitness center, a playground, and a dog park called the Puppy Prairie. A Meeting House overlooks the pool area.

The community is located in Green Cove Springs near the First Coast Expressway, with access to Oakleaf Town Center, Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Cecil Commerce Center, and downtown Jacksonville. It is served by schools in the Clay County School District, which the developer describes as A-rated.

Why this matters for Clay County homebuyers

The opening of a new model home signals that builders are continuing to invest in standing inventory and sales infrastructure at Granary Park, a sign of sustained buyer demand in the Green Cove Springs market. Model homes serve as both showcases and on-site sales tools, and their construction typically indicates a builder's confidence in near-term absorption.

For buyers shopping Clay County, the Castaway model provides a tangible walk-through of what $300,000-plus buys in a master-planned community along the SR 23 growth corridor. The price point positions Granary Park in the middle of Clay County's new-construction market, where master-planned communities compete on amenities, school access, and commute times to Jacksonville employment centers.

The availability of single-story floor plans is particularly relevant to aging baby boomers and buyers seeking accessible, main-level living. Single-story homes in the 2,000-square-foot range with four bedrooms appeal to retirees, empty-nesters downsizing from larger two-story homes, and multi-generational families looking for flexibility without stairs.

How Granary Park fits Clay County's growth pattern

Clay County has been one of the fastest-growing counties in Northeast Florida, driven by families seeking lower housing costs than St. Johns County, access to well-regarded schools, and shorter commutes than more distant exurban options. The First Coast Expressway loop—State Road 23—has functioned as the spine of that growth, opening formerly rural land around Middleburg, Green Cove Springs, and Lake Asbury to subdivision development.

Master-planned communities such as Granary Park bundle amenities, multiple builders, and a cohesive design vision in a single location. The 4. 5-acre amenity campus at Granary Park is larger than the recreation facilities typically provided in smaller subdivisions, offering a competitive selling point for families weighing trade-offs between home size, price, and lifestyle perks.

The Green Cove Springs location benefits from the city's position along US 17 and proximity to the expressway, which provides a controlled-access route north to Oakleaf and west toward Middleburg and I-295. Nearby Ronnie Van Zant Memorial Park, a 90-acre public recreation complex with disc golf, sports fields, nature trails, and fishing piers, adds public outdoor amenities that complement the private offerings inside Granary Park.

Implications for schools and infrastructure

Clay County has routinely added new schools to keep pace with residential growth, and school capacity remains a central consideration for buyers choosing among communities. Granary Park is served by the Clay County School District; the district's schools are frequently rated highly by the Florida Department of Education, a draw for families relocating from other states or other Florida counties.

Master-planned communities such as Granary Park are typically approved through planned-unit-development (PUD) zoning, which allows mixed residential product types and centralized amenities in exchange for design standards and phased infrastructure commitments. Buildout at such communities can span many years, with home sales and construction tracking broader economic cycles and local absorption rates.

As Granary Park adds rooftops, the community will contribute to cumulative demand on Green Cove Springs roads, particularly connections to the First Coast Expressway and US 17. Large residential projects in Florida are subject to concurrency requirements, ensuring that roads, schools, and other public facilities can accommodate new development. The specific concurrency commitments for Granary Park would have been addressed during the original land-use and permitting process.

What buyers can expect at the grand opening

The November 13 grand opening event at 2533 Barnstead Road offered visitors a chance to tour the professionally decorated Castaway model and speak with DRB Homes sales staff about available lots, construction timelines, and financing options. Model-home openings are a standard marketing milestone in new-home communities, designed to generate foot traffic and convert prospects into contract buyers.

"We are excited to celebrate the opening of DRB Homes' new Castaway model at Granary Park and introduce homebuyers to another exceptional home," said Gaynelle James, GreenPointe Marketing Director, in a statement. "With an impressive collection of recreational amenities, quality homes from this award-winning builder and a convenient Clay County location, Granary Park offers an outstanding setting for families to put down roots. "

DRB Homes, the builder offering homes at Granary Park, is a regional homebuilder active in multiple Southeast markets. The builder's presence in a community typically means an established sales and construction operation with model homes, design centers, and on-site sales staff.

The bigger picture for Northeast Florida

The Granary Park model opening is one data point in the broader residential expansion reshaping Clay County and Northeast Florida. As Jacksonville's core becomes more built out and land prices rise, development pressure has intensified in the suburban ring—particularly in Clay, St. Johns, and Nassau counties—where large tracts remain available and infrastructure investments such as the First Coast Expressway open new frontage.

Green Cove Springs sits at the intersection of those trends: a historic Clay County seat experiencing a second wave of growth as the expressway and commuter demand push development southward and westward from Jacksonville. Master-planned communities offer developers a way to differentiate through amenities and place-making, competing for buyers who might otherwise choose an established community closer to the urban core or a lower-cost subdivision farther out.

For Northeast Florida, the pace of model-home openings, builder entries, and amenity investments in communities such as Granary Park serves as a real-time indicator of housing demand and builder confidence. Each new model is a bet that buyers will continue to migrate to Clay County—and that the schools, roads, and quality of life will keep pace.