| **Financial Instruments and Fair Value Measurements - Carrying Amount and Fair Value of Financial Instruments (Details) - USD ($) $ in Thousands** | Dec. 31, 2016 | Dec. 31, 2015 |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------|---------------|
| **Fair Value, Balance Sheet Grouping, Financial Statement Captions [Line Items]**                                                                  |          |          |
| Senior Notes held by special purpose entity                                                                                                        | $ 176,310     | $ 176,094     |
| Carrying Value | Level 3                                                                                                                           |          |          |
| **Fair Value, Balance Sheet Grouping, Financial Statement Captions [Line Items]**                                                                  |          |          |
| Retained interest investments                                                                                                                      | 10,635        | 10,246        |
| Time deposit                                                                                                                                       | 200,000       | 200,000       |
| U.S. Treasury securities and cash equivalents                                                                                                      | 8,590         | 8,785         |
| Senior Notes held by special purpose entity                                                                                                        | 176,310       | 176,094       |
| Fair Value | Level 3                                                                                                                               |          |          |
| **Fair Value, Balance Sheet Grouping, Financial Statement Captions [Line Items]**                                                                  |          |          |
| Retained interest investments                                                                                                                      | 13,669        | 13,333        |
| Time deposit                                                                                                                                       | 200,000       | 200,000       |
| U.S. Treasury securities and cash equivalents                                                                                                      | 8,398         | 9,033         |
| Senior Notes held by special purpose entity                                                                                                        | $ 199,691     | $ 178,035     |

| X                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| - Definition
Investments Held By Special Purpose Entities, Fair Value Disclosure
+ References
No definition available.
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| X                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| - Definition
Senior Notes Held By Special Purpose Entity
+ References
No definition available.
+ Details**Name:**joe_SeniorNotesHeldBySpecialPurposeEntity**Namespace Prefix:**joe_**Data Type:**xbrli:monetaryItemType**Balance Type:**credit**Period Type:**instant |
| X                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| - Definition
Time Deposits Held By Special Purpose Entities, Fair Value Disclosure
+ References
No definition available.
+ Details**Name:**joe_TimeDepositsHeldBySpecialPurposeEntitiesFairValueDisclosure**Namespace Prefix:**joe_**Data Type:**xbrli:monetaryItemType**Balance Type:**debit**Period Type:**instant |
| X                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| - Definition
Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.
+ References
No definition available.
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| X                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| - Definition
Fair value portion of interest continued to be held by a transferor after transferring financial assets to a third party.
+ References
Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 860 -SubTopic 10 -Section 15 -Paragraph 4 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=68074228&loc=d3e94415-111705
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| X                                                                                                                                                                                       |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
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| X                                                                                                                                                                          |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
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| X                                                                                                                                                                                    |
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
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