Arvida Corp.

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Arvida Corp., (Ar-VIE-Dah) a Florida resort and real estate development company, was founded in 1958 by Arthur Vining Davis to develop his Florida land holdings, which included the historic Boca Raton Resort & Club, built in 1928.

In 1959, Sarasota’s Ringling Estate sold all of Coon Key, Bird Key and Cotter Key and part of Longboat Key to Arvida for $13.5 million. Davis opened the Royal Palm Yacht and Country Club in 1960[1]. On Longboat, the company developed the Resort at Longboat Key Club.

The company later became a partially owned unit of Penn Central. In 1984, the company was purchased by Walt Disney Productions, and was later acquired by the St. Joe Company [2].

St. Joe dropped the Arvida name, and St. Joe now manages its developments as St. Joe Towns & Resorts.