It was initially planned as a joint venture with Miami-based Lennar Homes, but Lennar dropped out after the Scripps Research Institute's location at the adjacent Mecca Farms site became jeopardized by litigation. The site for La Jolla-CA-based Scripps bio-research center has since moved to Jupiter/Abacoa, about 12 miles away.

"The Scripps decision was irrelevant," Aimee Craig Carlson, TVP's project director, tells GlobeSt.com. "We always envisioned this as a stand-alone community." TVP's plan for the Vavrus Ranch site retains its original technology-orientated focus under the full name: Exploration Pointe: A Gardens Science & Technology Community.

Plans call for 9,982 residential units, plus 250 assisted living units, and approximately five million sf of commercial space, including 644,000 sf of retail. The restaurant and retail space will be located primarily in the town center with some also spotted throughout the community's North and South villages. The town center contains a four-block Main Street with residences above stores and live/work residential/office units. Residences throughout the community will be a mix of single-family houses, for-sale condos, townhouses, villas, rental apartments and the downtown lofts and units.

The commercial space, in addition to the town center, will include approximately 2.7 million sf of R&D space, 350,000 sf of office space and more than one million sf of university facilities. The latter is planned on 100 acres that TVP is donating to the state university system. TVP is also donating land to the Palm Beach County school system for development of up to four public schools. More than 2,000 acres, nearly half of the site, will be open space.

TVP is now under contact to buy the land, but has not completed the acquisition. Carlson declines to disclose the cost. According to a published report, the development is valued at more than $270 million, a figure GlobeSt.com was unable to confirm by deadline.

Following the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council's approval of the DRI application, which Carlson expects by March, full build-out is expected to take 15 years, with completion in 2022. The TVP development team includes the Looney Ricks Kiss architectural firm, which is headquartered in Memphis, and Naples-based WilsonMiller, a community planning specialist.