Is there a patent on The Villages lifestyle?
 

With the raging success of The Villages, why do you think others have not copied the The Villages 'model'? I've looked all over -- California, Arizona, Texas, other states, and throughout the state of Florida, but no other retirement areas compare to the Villages. Normally, success is emulated, but this leaves me scratching my head.

I forgot the name of it. Somewhere out west. Maybe Arizona? It's visible from the air. I think it's modeled simular but I don't know how you could model a lifestyle other than offer the same amenities. There are a a lot of various retirement communities to fit each couples needs and budget. One of the things that attracted us to the villages is the use of golf carts. Can you imagine if you had to throw your clubs in the car and drive to any of the executive or championship courses, rent their cart, and drive back?

Once anything reaches a certain size it becomes very difficult to copy. It took many decades for TV to be even half its current size so it would take a long time for another one to catch up. Thus, if you want to live in a retirement community that offers as much, you can either choose TV and get those facilities now or opt for one that promises to grow that big and wait for the facilities to be developed.

Also, wondering if Florida has (had?) especially favorable laws/taxes etc.? I'll check with Disney.

The presence of DisneyWorld and Florida's long and distinguished history as the Sunshine State (& the primary winter vacation spot of every American West of the Mississippi) make it a "one of a kind".

Disney brings the "access" ... easiest warm weather resort area in the USA to fly into, from every corner of the USA (& the world).

I visited quite a few communities out West before deciding on The Villages - The Del Webb Sun City communities (Sun City / Sun City West / Sun City Grand / Sun City Festival) have some similarities to The Villages, albeit on quite a smaller scale, but nothing comes close to the lifestyle/amenities we have here.

Very difficult to replicate. The developer had the perfect storm of good fortune. Lots and lots of cheap undeveloped land, easy access, great weather, no state income taxes, and a huge population of well off retiring baby boomers. Add to that the fact that they basically control local government (their agenda is rubber stamped) and have carefully aligned themselves with the state government. The sheer size of the Villages provides economies of scale that allow extensive amenities to be provided at a cost to residents that is almost impossible to match.

I thought maybe Lakewood Ranch would become a competitor with the Villages. Start small and build out, developing lifestyle along the way. But their crazy autonomous villages policy dooms them from the start. One of the best features of the Villages is the intermingling of the various villages and their amenities. The villages of Lakewood Ranch (now close to 20 +/-) are each gated and open only to residents (and guests) of that village. Makes no sense to me...

Very true. Started off as a trailer park and with vision and hard work made this happen.

They do control local govt and tend to get what they want, if not immediately soon thereafter

Theres just somuch Kool-Aid to go around

The history of The Villages is quite interesting. It really started to take off after Harold invited his son Gary down. My guess is Gary studied precursors such as Youngtown and Sun City in the phoenix area.

Youngtown, Arizona - Wikipedia

Sun City started the golf cart thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxZH_WTRVNU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ki5-aDvC2kw

The Viera development near Cocoa Beach is very much like The Villages. Actually, it is more of a 'golf cart community' than The Villages because the golf cart paths have the right-of-way when they intersect the roadways.

They have multiple builders so buyers have a greater variety of homes to choose from. In addition, it is close to a nice beach.

You need to have a CDD style taxation and authority district to succeed. This is illegal in 47 (?) States.

Now could this be replicated elsewhere in Florida? Yes.

Lakewood Ranch has both family and 55plus areas.. Some do not want to mingle or pay for the other’s amenities. Just a different version of tv that is very successful

It's not something patentable. Copying concepts is completely allowed. The Villages very obviously took ideas including the golf cart thing from Sun City in Arizona. Concepts like Edna's and Sawgrass I've definitely seen in other places.

Quite a few variables had to come together in just the right way, at just the right time and place.

Lifestyle
 

Part of the reason is The Morse family has stayed in control of everything. Other developers stay for a short time and then move on. Del Web turns over the management to the homeowners who do not have the resources to keep up the "expensive" lifestyle. This happened to my parents in the 1990's at Sun City West, AZ. The golf courses went downhill and so did maintenance of rec centers, etc after Del Web moved on.

I lived in the villages behind Bonifay country club in a premier from 2012 to 2020. Built a new home and moved to Lakewood Ranch in 2020 on a lake not a retention pond.
The activities in the villages are obviously incomparable to anywhere.
I miss my golf cart. Now where to go with one here.
Many friends from the villages have moved to Lakewood Ranch as well.
The location is so much better.
I chose not to live in a 55+ neighborhood here and really enjoy that.
To each his own, but Lakewood Ranch is a success.
I wonder as to the future of the villages being 55+ ; will it be affordable to those without pensions, etc.
Most of us still have friends in the villages and read the villages websites and newspapers. In fact, my girlfriend lives there and we commute back-and-forth.

That factor is crucial to the success of TV. The developer here is a family business that apparently have wanted to keep it a family business rather than sell it to someone looking mostly for ROI (return on investment). Very successful family businesses tend to focus on years into the future in creating family wealth rather than earnings per share over next calendar quarter or two.

In contrast, Del Webb, for example, has not been a family business for decades. It went public in 1960 on the New York Stock Exchange, later bought by Pulte, who later merged with Centex, and the current company trades on the New York Stock Exchange. I believe it would be very difficult for a company like Del Webb to build, for example, a Middleton-type community, a huge and risky investment, because their board of directors would be worried about the effect on their stock price and bonuses. A family business doesn’t need to worry about public stockholders and Wall Street equity analysts.

Peachtree City, GA

The Villages got to be what it is over many decades. To start fresh to emulate TV would take really deep pockets, not to mention being really connected politically to get the concessions needed to do it TV way.

And Lakewood was built 1st. But the taxes are higher there. Of course it is closer to the ocean which is nice & no history of sinkholes. Doesn’t have a crazy reputation either, but we like the cart access better here. But wish we were a gated community. Have to pick your poison, I guess

TV is the result of skill and luck — a lot of luck. Luck is a reason it is very unlikely to replicate the TV concept at scale even with lots of money and smart people,

The crazy number of executive golf courses seems to me to be the big difference here. My concern before buying was whether there was something in place to see that these attractions remain and would be kept in good condition. I still don't really have much of an understanding about who owns them once development is "complete" in their vicinity, but decided to bet that that they'd outlast me, regardless. :-)

Haven't experienced a "busy season" here, yet, and do have at least a "little" concern about whether enough new executives will continue to be built to "keep up" with demand.

Bottom line, I've never heard of *anything* like this place with all the executive golf opportunity. Still sounds sort of "too good to be true". :-) Anybody know how much less costly it is to keep up nine holes of executive golf course relative to nine "championship" holes?

The Villages copied the concept from The Woodlands, Texas, just made it an over 55 community. The Woodlands Texas is still going strong and now does have a few age restricted Villages. The Woodlands us the oldest community of it's type in the US and is much larger than The Villages

Valencia at Riverland in Port St. Lucie, FL is very nice - it was a reasonable second choice for us.
Valencia at Riverland in Port St. Lucie (incl. Cay, Grove, and Walk)

You need the vision, the infrastructure, the land, and of course the money to start something like the villages. Every other 55+ community is a small establishment with no real vision or infrastructure to create a development bigger than a few thousand homes. We lived in a typical 55+ community before and after 3 years there, our golf cart had less than 1000 miles on it, our 2021 golf cart has over 8000 miles on it.

One other thing that is very difficult to duplicate, especially in a start-up development, is the energy and talents shared by so many residents in starting, growing, and maintaining the many and varied clubs and organizations. When we were looking 10+ years ago, most of the other developments had activities, but they were developer/management driven, not ground roots organizations. This is what sets the Villages apart, I think, the people and their willingness to share their talents.