NOCATEE, Fla. – Raghu Misra is the mastermind behind The Link, a $6.5 million, 22,000-square-foot state-of-the-art cultural center being built in Nocatee.
Misra’s vision for the center is built around ar trait that comes naturally to him.
“I’m personally a very lazy person,” Misra said.
Misra believes innovation revolves around making things more convenient. That’s something many parents sacrifice and, as the father of two -- a 4-year-old and one in college -- he knows what that feels like.
“We live in Nocatee. He was doing taekwondo on Hodges and that was a 20-minute drive on a good day and my office was in Neptune Beach, so that was 40 minutes,” Misra said. “So I used to come back only to take my son back. Didn’t make any sense.”
So that was the problem he was trying to solve -- to do more of what they were doing separately all in one place. Businesses, non-profits and families can grow and learn in different ways without ever having to leave the building.
The Link’s mission is to inspire people to learn, play, think and do. It will offer yoga, dance, art classes, a video gaming studio, meeting rooms and a space for businesses and non-profits to hold events. And that’s not all.
“Right now we have 345 families traveling from Nocatee to Ponte Vedra for the arts,” he said. “Now we will be servicing here at The Link ... and folks will have it right here in their own backyard
Donna Guzzo, director for the Cultural Center of Ponte Vedra Beach, is partnering with The Link this summer to offer 10 weeks of camps.
“We want all our members and families to experience all different aspects,” Guzzo said. “We focus more on the intellectual side of things that will stimulate and engage the mind.”
One of the features of the site is a 360-degree immersive studio where you can do yoga near the Eiffel Tower today and tomorrow do it on a beach in Barbados.
Upstairs, Raghu envisions a place where people can “think and do. For example, there could be a podcast studio where you can record your voice or even video and become the next YouTube star.
His goal is to offer something productive for the whole family.
The Link will require a membership. A monthly family membership is $20 while singles will pay $7.95. Members will pay a separate price for the individual activities they participate in. For more information visit thelink.zone.