Cape growth drawing big development plans;
Bonita Bay Group joins builder boom

The News Press, Wednesday June 4, 2003

By Jeff Cull

The Bonita Bay Group, one of Southwest Florida's largest residential real estate developers, confirmed Tuesday that it will build 1,300 single-family homes and condominiums in Cape Coral.

Bonita Bay's news comes on the heels of a unique three-week period for the city.

In that time, Cape Coral convinced the federal government to quit a boat-dock building moratorium, began looking at becoming its own county and showed an increase in property values of 22.4 percent - the biggest increase in Lee County.

"The Cape is on the map," said Robert Wagner, a commercial real estate agent with Colliers Arnold Southwest Florida. "The numbers speak for themselves."

Bonita Bay has owned a 524-acre site on the city's west side for the past two years but had debated selling the property. Kitty Green, general manager of the project tentatively called Veterans Parkway West, said the unprecedented growth in the city convinced Bonita Bay to develop.

"It's all about the growth," she said. "The Cape is attractive to everyone these days."

Greg Eagle, president of Eagle Realty, said he recently sold a 29-acre site across from the city's proposed Academic Village on Del Prado Boulevard Extension for 300

condominium units. He has also recently sold land for a new Publix Supermarket on Kismet Parkway and Del Prado and a 20,000 square-foot medical center on Pine Island Road.

The residential and commercial developments are continuing signals that not much is slowing down in the area.

The population is growing at about 6 percent every year and is currently at 119,000. This year, Cape builders will nail together more than 3,600 new homes, a new record. Homes valued at more than $500,000 have nearly doubled in the past year, according to property records.

"The Cape's just getting into its growth years," said Frank D'Alessandro, a real estate agent for RE/MAX Realty Group who writes a real estate column for The News Press. "I think the next 10 - 15 years will be very good.

Big Developments

The Cape used to survive on homes built on pre-platted home-sites all over the city's 114 square miles. That formula worked for more than 30 years and still continues, but big developers with big plans are beginning to rule the market.

Bonita Bay has just started the process of getting the development approved by the city, officials said. They expect to begin construction in about a year.