The Greater Gainesville area is extraordinarily diverse and beautiful in so many ways. It is full of unlikely contradictions that make this community culturally rich and wonderfully unique.
Modern and historic, innovation and tradition, urban and rural, startups and established businesses, growth and sustainability, city life and natural beauty, education and imagination: These all find a balance in Greater Gainesville.
Gainesville is the most populous city, home to top-ranking health care centers, the University of Florida and Santa Fe College, a downtown busy with people dining out or enjoying live music, public art and nightlife, plus numerous neighborhoods and businesses large and small.
Beyond the urban core, eight additional municipalities each have their own niche and personality. Every part of Greater Gainesville is growing, changing and embracing the future, while staying true to their roots as tight-knit communities with plenty of Southern hospitality to go around.
Greater Gainesville is a mid-sized region, with close to 300,000 residents, yet has worldwide recognition for quite a few reasons.
The U.S. News & World Report Top 5 Ranked University of Florida and its equally well lauded, Aspen Institute ranked Top Community College in the country counterpart, Santa Fe College, are sought by students around the world. People travel from near and far seeking treatment at our high-ranking health care systems, including UF Health Shands and HCA North Florida, which both perform ground-breaking research and innovative medical practices in both the most common health issues and rare, complex disorders and conditions.
Professionals travel in and out of Greater Gainesville to work with our thriving industry clusters, including technology, biotech, life sciences, agricultural sciences and academia. There is plenty of travel for not just business, but pleasure as well, with thousands of visitors each year to our many freshwater springs, natural parks and wildlife, Gator games, other sporting events and arts and cultural attractions.
What makes a community great? The answer to that subjective question varies depending on what every individual values most. However, with so many outstanding qualities in almost every aspect of life, including business, health care, education, community, culture and entertainment, anyone can find their own reasons why the Greater Gainesville community is such a great place to make a home.
“Why Greater Gainesville?”
…You can turn a house into a home here
Each community within Greater Gainesville has something differ to offer its residents. In addition to Gainesville, Alachua, Newberry, Jonesville and High Springs are all quickly growing small towns, where multi-generational residents mingle with newcomers. History runs deep everywhere in Greater Gainesville, but is especially important to the rural communities of Micanopy, Hawthorne, Waldo, Archer and LaCrosse.
There is a neighborhood and a housing option here for people seeking all kinds of lifestyles — whether that is a historic home near a charming, walkable downtown district, a luxurious estate home in a master-planned community, a high-tech and sustainable home in a live, work, play community next to research parks and employment centers, a zero-lot line residence with all the modern amenities, a rural home out in the country or on a farm or a cozy home tucked into a quiet community beneath Greater Gainesville’s moss-laden live oaks.
Housing costs are relatively affordable here, with home prices cheaper than elsewhere in Florida and many other places in the nation. Moving in becomes part of the fun, too. With our moving checklist, no to-do goes uncompleted, box left unpacked or step left behind.
Greater Gainesville has a great location in the heart of Florida, making for easy travel to the beaches on either coast, larger cities nearby or up into other areas of the country. After settling into your new home, hop in the car and take a drive — there is no better way to get to know the community than getting the lay of the land and taking in the sights firsthand.
….You will learn, grow and rise up here
There are endless pathways to success in Greater Gainesville and plenty of guidance and support along the way. Kids who grow up here have so many opportunities to find their own way and advance among their peers, with several top-notch private schools in the area preparing students for college and life after graduation very early on in their academic experience.
Specialized curriculum such as STEAM is introduced as early as elementary school. Magnet and career and technical education programs align with Greater Gainesville’s most in-demand industries, with local professionals working closely to shape the curriculum and provide opportunities for students post-graduation.
Many students advance to local higher education institutions, UF and Santa Fe College. Both are highly ranked, have long legacies of success and draw students from around Florida, the nation and even the world.
UF’s many bragging rights include competitive Gator sports teams; esteemed graduate programs across many disciplines; and U.S. News & World Report rankings as the No. 5 public university in the nation, and UF Online as the No. 1 online bachelor’s degree program and the No. 2 best online bachelor’s program for veterans in America.
Santa Fe College educates around 14,000 students each year, and more UF students come from SF than any other college. SF is deeply involved in supporting their students and the community around them, with the recent debuts of Blount Hall — which expands academic and financial support for students — and a new mentorship program for high school students in Alachua and Bradford counties.
…You are in good hands here
Patients seek treatment at Greater Gainesville’s highly ranked and highly skilled hospitals and medical centers from all over the country — and residents have access to it all right there in their backyards.
Top 100 U.S. Hospital UF Health Shands Hospital and the top children’s hospital in the state, UF Shands Children’s Hospital, bring people to the area from the 67 counties of Florida, all 50 states and dozens of countries. In addition, the Malcolm Randall Department VA Center is one of the busiest VA medical centers in the nation and is highly ranked by the VA Institute.
Researchers at UF Health have pioneered the way on many fronts, from implementing AI to creating vaccines to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic to working toward cures for rare and complicated medical conditions and disorders.
Not only do medical professionals here lead with experience supported by a strong network of peers, but they are always one step ahead in the medical field. There is an impressive amount of research and medical innovation always being performed in Greater Gainesville, with the latest information and skills constantly being shared with local health care professionals. Trends, discoveries and the latest technologies emerge from our local health care systems.
…You will have every opportunity for success here
It is always a good day to do business in Greater Gainesville. The business community here is like no other. Business leaders, local government, the academic community, entrepreneurs and newcomers all come together to help the economy grow and thrive.
A culture of support and collaboration exists across fields and among all kinds of entities, between the university and the private sector, businesses within industry clusters and among similar industries, academia and the business community working together to retain local talent, startups among established companies — the list goes on. The level of genuine support here is rare, with businesses trying to lift each other up, rather than compete.
Although Greater Gainesville is a small metro, its business community is something even a large city could admire. Women and minorities are thoroughly well represented in leadership roles and among the workforce. Gainesville was recently ranked one of the top cities in the nation for the gender pay gap — with women earning higher salaries than men, on average. It is a place where people of all ethnicities, nationalities and backgrounds can find their place, become part of a community, find support, gain opportunities for personal and professional growth and enjoy living and working.
….You will enjoy all life has to offer here
Beautiful, crystal-clear springs, rivers flowing beneath majestic cypress trees, stately live oaks, wild Florida swampland and marshes and vast prairies are some of the natural wonders that lure thousands of visitors to Greater Gainesville each year. There is an astonishing array of natural scenery and wildlife here, and even the most avid outdoor enthusiasts will never run out of ways to enjoy nature. Greater Gainesville is well known for its abundance of biking trails, natural parks, paved pathways for walking and running and other opportunities to enjoy our area’s pristine natural beauty.
Not the outdoorsy type? The arts are very well represented in Greater Gainesville, with both museums and galleries and communities of working artists forming a diverse arts scene. Catch an art show or exhibit, a live music event, a dance performance or a theater production almost every weekend, if not every day. The calendar stays full all year long, with family-friendly attractions, festivals and events entertaining residents and visitors alike.
There is always a new restaurant, coffee shop, brewery to try in Greater Gainesville. From Mexican to Southern to Asian, steakhouse to vegan food truck, cold brew or cold beer, good eats and refreshing beverages are always on the menu.
A culturally diverse community feels right at home in Greater Gainesville. Leaders consistently make equity a priority and celebrate our diversity — whether it comes to race, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, religion, age or ability. Our strength lies in our community, no matter what walk of life a person comes from, and we truly embrace that.
This is just the beginning to all that our community has to offer. Come explore it for yourself — there are endless reasons to choose Greater Gainesville as the place you and your family calls home.
By Jewell Tomazin