Miraval at WindMark Beach

In a little noticed press release, the St. Joe Company announced on May 1 that it had reached an agreement with Miraval to create Miraval Village at WindMark Beach in Gulf County.

And in a related deal, Exclusive Resorts agreed to purchase 30 lots at WindMark Beach too.

Just another real estate deal by Northwest Florida’s largest private landowner, right?

I think not. In fact, this could potentially be the most important news to come out of Port St. Joe since they had the state constitution convention there in 1838.

This could be a game-changer.

Miraval and Exclusive Resorts are two of the companies now guided by America Online (AOL) founder Steve Case. Case built AOL from the ground up, then sold it to Time Warner at the height of the Internet boom. In 2003 he was forced out at Time Warner, but he didn’t walk away from business.

For the past several years, Case’s been trying to figure out how to revolutionize the health care and health and wellness industries in this country.

He bought a majority stake in Miraval, an Arizona-based health and wellness company. MSNBC said: “In just 10 years it has become one of the best known names in the multi-billion dollar spa and wellness business.”

And here’s what BusinessWeek said in 2005.

And now we know Case is planning to establish a significant presence at WindMark Beach. That’s a big deal, potentially positioning Gulf County as a major player in health and wellness, one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy.

This is good news for Gulf County and all Northwest Florida – and a story worth following.