Travel & Leisure

Retire to Paradise Jimmy Buffett Style

You may picture Hawaiian shirts, sunglasses, and margaritas by the pitcher, but the fitness centre and aerobics studio should help make sure residents aren’t “wasting away” in Margaritaville as they enjoy retirement in one of the Jimmy Buffett-inspired active adult communities to be built around the United States in the coming years.

Scheduled to open in late 2018, the first tropical-escape themed Latitude Margaritaville will be a 7,000-home development in Daytona Beach, Florida; the Daytona sales office will open sometime this fall. A $1 billion project, the retirement community will feature lots of dining and nightlife, with amenities including a Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurant and a permanent band shell for live concerts. Residents will have access to a private beachfront club, with shuttles to take them back and forth between the “World’s Most famous Beach” and the retirement community some 20 minutes away—where LPGA Boulevard meets Interstate 95.

A joint venture of the Canadian developer Minto Communities and Margaritaville Holdings, the entity behind a number of Buffett-themed restaurants, vacation clubs, and resorts, these communities are intended for those aged “55 and better”—whether Parrotheads (Buffett fans) or not—who want to “live the Margaritaville lifestyle as they grow older, but not up,” a lifestyle the developer describes as having a “‘no worries’ tropical vibe.”

By Lola Augustine Brown

Photos: Minto Communities.