The St. Joe Company Adopts New Real Estate Investment Strategy; Expects to Recognize Impairment Charges in Range of $325 Million to $375 Million

The St. Joe Company

today announced that the Company's Board of Directors has adopted a new real estate investment strategy, which is focused on reducing future capital outlays and employing new risk-adjusted investment return criteria for evaluating the Company's properties and future investments in such properties. Pursuant to this new strategy, the Company intends to significantly reduce planned future capital expenditures for infrastructure, amenities and master planned community development and reposition certain assets to encourage increased absorption of such properties in their respective markets. As part of this repositioning, the Company expects properties may be sold in bulk, in undeveloped parcels, or at lower price points. The Company anticipates that the amount of future capital expenditures associated with existing projects will be reduced by approximately $190 million, the majority of which was expected to be spent in the next 10 years. The Company believes that this new investment strategy continues to build upon the successful cost reduction initiatives previously implemented by the Company and positions the Company to (i) increase its short and medium-term cash flow, (ii) reduce its long-term risk and (iii) maintain the strong cash position necessary to weather a tepid and uncertain real estate environment and to best exploit the Company's substantial land resources. As the Company stated in its November 3, 2011 press release, the new management team, led by Park Brady, who assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer on October 12, 2011 and Patrick Bienvenue, who joined the Company as its Executive Vice President in September 2011, commenced a review of all of the Company's assets and projects and the development of a new strategic plan to maximize the risk-adjusted return on the Company's real estate portfolio. The new strategy adopted by the Board of Directors is a product of that review. As a result, the Company has decided to modify the development plans for certain of its projects to bring them in line with the Company's new investment return criteria.