MountainStar Partners CEO hopes others will follow lead in helping homeless vets
St. Johns Housing Partnership Executive Director Bill Lazar and MountainStar Partners CEO Chris Lazzara at a Jan. 17 ceremony for Patriot Place in St. Augustine.
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MountainStar Partners CEO Chris Lazzara is almost hesitant to talk about how his company is a partner in Patriot Place in St. Augustine.
He wants people to know about the project not to promote his own company or its role in the development but to challenge others in his place to do something for the community it serves: homeless veterans.
Located at 79 Masters Drive in St. Augustine, Patriot Place comprises six low-income housing units for area at-risk and homeless veterans.
Opened in September 2023, the project joined MountainStar Partners, St. Johns Housing Partnership, St. Johns County, UF Health and others with the common goal of constructing the building specifically for underserved former military members.
Patriot Place is administered by Care Connect+, UF Health’s social health program that links local residents with safe housing, food pantries, counseling services, workplace readiness and transportation.
There was a recent dedication service of a military statue at the site where Lazzara met with other partners in the endeavor.
Lazzara told the Business Journal that it was rewarding to be part of the Patriot Place project, and now he thinks the outline can be scaled for similar projects all over the First Coast and beyond.
“My intention is simply to inspire others to do the same,” Lazzara said. “I am not afraid to go up to the right person and say, ‘Hey, here’s the blueprint.’ To me, this is an opportunity to do something significant.
“We do not intend to stop here.”
The company, which is headquartered in Ponte Vedra Beach and Vail, Colorado, is already doing more than just the housing.
MountainStar also has a fund division created to maintain a portfolio of investments in the health care industry. It operates a network of orthodontic educational and clinical facilities in Georgia that is expanding. Through that, MountainStar offers free orthodontic services to Purple Heart recipients and their families.
Bill Lazar, who is the executive director for the St. Johns Housing Partnership, said MountainStar was a huge help in making the Patriot Place happen.
They were first introduced almost a decade a ago when MountainStar was trying to work a deal with the county to get some lots it owned in the northern part of the county subdivided and agreed to make a contribution that would create at least four affordable units.
Lazar said Lazzara was excited about the Patriot Place idea, which created six affordable units, when he presented it. He also said Lazzara remained patient when the project took years to go from planning to finished construction.
“They really believed in what we were doing,” Lazar said. “When I couldn’t pay one or two things, I’d call them up say, ‘Can you guys pay for this?’ And they’d cut a check for $15,000, $20,000.”
If they wanted to simply satisfy the requirements of the county agreement, Lazar said MountainStar could have just bought four trailers for the Housing Partnership and walked away.
“Those guys were willing to work with me and not give me something that was more of a headache than a benefit,” Lazar said. “In return, we came out with a great product. They contributed over half a million dollars to that effort.”
As for doing something similar to Patriot Place again, Lazar said the model works, but it’s all about finding the right location at a reasonable price and having the right partners and everything else that goes into such a project.
“I think it is something that could be replicated, but obviously the devil’s always going to be in the details,” he said.
By Stuart Korfhage – Managing Editor, Jacksonville Business Journal Mar 6, 2025 View Original Article Here