| Builders reaching for new heights in Cape By Kevin Duffy |
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| A mixed-use community in northwest Cape Coral with five 18-story structures to capture the waterfront preserve views. An entertainment district in the southwest with one 12-story tower at each corner. And a lakefront neighborhood off Pine Island Road with buildings stretching up to 10 stories. Cape Coral is on the map and reaching for the stars. More than 1,000 business professions saw things for themselves Thursday evening during the 10 th installment of FuturesCape, held at First Baptist Church of Cape Coral and presented by the Women’s Council of Realtors. Speakers such as Bob Hensley of Tarpon Point Marina and Will Stout of the Realmark Group talked about the latest developments in their established communities, including the plans for Hensley’s Marina Village and Stout’s latest projects at Cape Harbour and his newly-acquired Burnt Store Marina. And business consultant Joe Mazurkiewicz made three separate trips to the podium to pitch Burnt Store Preserve, Osprey Point, and a mixed-use project in the downtown area called Cape Villagio. Some touted destination retail, destination entertainment, gated lifestyles and waterfront amenities. And many of the projects had one underlying commonality – height. “Everyone’s into density and intensity – those are the key terms,” City Councilmember Jim Jeffers said. Reaching high elevations within the downtown Community Redevelopment Agency area is prudent, he said, but perhaps not so throughout other parts of the Cape’s boundaries. “I don’t want us to become Fort Myers, and this sends the message that that’s what we’re replicating,” Jeffers said. Bill Clarke’s Beach Street Square, planned for a 21-acre parcel on Agualinda Boulevard and Beach Parkway, is intended as Cape Coral’s answer to Fifth Avenue in Naples and Coconut Grove in Fort Lauderdale – an entertainment district that will help put the city on the map. The project is planned to include more than 370,000 square feet of commercial space with dining and retail specialty shops connected by more than a mile of illuminated walkways included in the blueprints. And the center of the entertainment hub could be closed off as needed for festivals and other large-scale gatherings, Clarke said. “We know we need this in Cape Coral,” he said. “We need the restaurants, we need the shops.” Also included are four 12-story towers – one at each corner of the parcel – which will house 450 condominium dwellings and parking levels. |
“What we were looking for, this is a destination point,” said Dave Irwin of Keller Williams Realtors. “We want you to look at Cape Coral as a gated community.” In the northwest, Burnt Store Preserve, just south of Burnt Store Marina, will be nestled between state and county lands and will assure residents of the same surroundings in the future that they’ll enjoy when they buy their homes, Mazurkiewicz said. “You’re guaranteed who your neighbors are going to be – bugs and bunnies,” he said. The community will include 60 x 125 square foot single family lots and multifamily dwellings, and five 18-story towers on the western side to take in the waterfront views. At Chiquita Boulevard and Pine Island Road, Lakeview Commons will include 875 dwelling units built in two phases around an existing 25-acre lake, said John Jacobsen of Intergraphic Group. The gated community, which is still in the planning stages, will also include a blend of elevated structures, some five stories, others 10 stories. Prices are planned to start around $200,000, Jacobsen said. Bella Vista at Kismet Lakes will promote the gated community lifestyle, with a network of lakes throughout the 55-acre parcel allowing for peace and tranquility, said Gloria LeTendre of Keim Associates. Plans call for 28 half-acre homesites on the 55-acre parcel located at the northeast corner of Kismet Parkway and Burnt Store Road, she said. Event organizer Gloria Tate wrapped the presentation by encouraging all in attendance to email their local legislators to request the necessary funding to widen the 1.9-mile stretch of Pine Island Road between Burnt Store and Chiquita Boulevard so that a regional mall there can become reality, Mazurkiewicz estimated that the work could be done for about $10 million. That would help solidify the configuration of the ongoing Sandoval project, said Kitty Green of the Bonita Bay Group. “If we ever get Pine Island Road widened, we’ll have an entrance on the north side as well,” she said. |