Ocean Hammock

Ocean Hammock sits where ITT's 1969 master plan always envisioned its crown jewel: the oceanfront. When ITT announced its 20,000-acre Palm Coast complex at Princess Place in June 1969, the vision explicitly included an oceanfront hotel and resort-grade development on the barrier island east of the Intracoastal — but for decades that piece lagged the lettered residential sections built on the mainland. The Atlantic-front tracts remained largely undeveloped through ITT's tenure, and only after the corporation formally withdrew in 1995 did the resort vision finally take shape under successor developers.

The defining moment came in 2000, when Hammock Beach opened with the Jack Nicklaus Signature Ocean Course — a layout that plays six holes directly along the Atlantic and finishes with the famed four-hole "Bear Claw" stretch, consistently ranked among Florida's most scenic non-private courses. The Ocean Course, the Hammock Beach Resort with its spa, water amenities, and oceanfront accommodations, and the gated residential enclaves of Ocean Hammock and neighboring Cinnamon Beach turned this stretch of barrier island into Palm Coast's premier luxury address.

Unlike the open mainland sections, Ocean Hammock is gated, managed, and resort-anchored — a fundamentally different product from the original ITT grid a few miles inland. The Nicklaus course was renovated by Nicklaus Design following Hurricane Matthew's damage in 2016, a reminder that the same oceanfront setting that defines this community also exposes it to the Atlantic in ways no inland section faces. Living here means living with the ocean's gifts and its risks in equal measure.