01 Oct 2026 3 min read

NEW SMYRNA : CITY FOR SALE

Looking at the real estate marketing around New Smyrna, you’d think we all spend our days walking to restaurants and coming home from the beach to our private elevators. The town looks great in a sales brochure. The beach, the local businesses and the people who give this place some personality make it an easy sell. It gets harder to enjoy the pitch when you live here and keep watching more of the place get cleared to accommodate it.

National builders have spent serious money getting established here. Taylor Morrison reportedly paid $26.5 million for land in 2023. Tri Pointe spent $10 million on 6.4 acres for its 75-townhome EvenTide development. This July, Colliers announced that KB Home had purchased 109 acres for $8.3 million, with plans for 166 homes and sales expected to begin in early 2027. Those three purchases add up to $44.8 million in land alone, across just the last few years.

Beachside, EvenTide is selling three-story townhomes, some with private elevators, with advertised floorplans starting around $700,000. The marketing invites buyers to make it their primary residence, vacation getaway or next chapter. Then there are the homes listed for more than a million dollars that aren’t even on the waterfront. We’re used to oceanfront and riverfront property costing ridiculous money. Seeing those asking prices away from the water makes the future of an ordinary life here feel a little less certain. I’d like the people serving dinner, working the trades, and teaching the kids to have a place in that future too.

The Southeast Volusia Chamber’s promotional video gives us a clearer picture of what’s being pitched. Around forty seconds in, it points to Abacoa in Jupiter and Alton in Palm Beach Gardens as inspiration for Deering Park. A city report on the chamber’s April 2025 trip makes the same connection. That comparison doesn’t make me feel better. I’m sure plenty of ultra wealthy people would enjoy a newer, shinier version of New Smyrna. I like the mix of people we have here, including the ones who could never afford to buy into the version being advertised.

The retail plans are growing alongside the housing. In May, the city approved rezoning for an 11.37-acre shopping center near State Road 44 and South Myrtle Avenue, with Sprouts, T.J. Maxx and two future outparcels in the proposed plan. In September, permit filings revealed plans for New Smyrna’s first Chick-fil-A. I get why people are excited about having more options nearby. I’ll probably use some of them myself. I’m still tired of watching more of New Smyrna fill up with the same chains and parking lots we already drive past everywhere else.

Out by I-95, Ocean Gate’s proposal includes 496 apartments, a 150-room hotel and 290,000 square feet of retail space, along with other uses. Its first rezoning reading was postponed to December 8. The city’s strategic plan also identifies South Village, Deering Park Innovation Center and Ocean Gate as areas it needs to prepare for. They’re on different schedules, but residents will be dealing with their combined effect across the same town.

That’s what gets lost when every project is discussed separately. You hear about a subdivision, then a shopping center, then another piece of land changing hands. Each has its own explanation and approval process. Meanwhile, the people living here are trying to understand how much change is coming altogether and whether they’ll still enjoy the place once it arrives.

Full boat ramp in Edgewater on a Friday afternoon October 2026

I bought a home here, so I understand wanting a piece of it. I also understand why builders and investors see an opportunity. What frustrates me is how much attention goes toward accommodating the next project while residents are expected to adjust. New Smyrna already has things worth protecting, and some of them are hard to put a price on. Being able to afford a life here, get across town and enjoy the beach without planning your whole day around it matters to me more than having another national chain close by.

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