City
growth booming on all fronts
Home, warehouse, retail markets hot
Published
on March 13, 2005
Cape
Coral's luxury home market is reaching new heights along the riverfront while
warehouse space is expanding off Pine Island Road.
The city is in transition.
"Cape Coral has always been a sleepy little town. It's awakening now. A
lot of changes are coming up. It's not going to go backwards," said Donna
Eastman, president of the Women's Council of Realtors.
"If
you're a citizen of this city and you're interested in any growth, it's
important as Realtors and as citizens to be aware of what's going on,"
Eastman said.
There are retail shops, hotels and gated communities being developed that will
boost the city's status as a luxury market, Eastman said, reflecting on the
message of last week's FuturesCape. The market is hot, according to market
managers and developers who recapped progress and changes in their projects for
about 375 people who attended the event.
Not everyone
wants the luxury of a condo overlooking the Caloosahatchee River or waterfront
access, but Cape Coral has that option now for those who do, Eastman said.
Growth drives retail development, and that says Cape Coral is a good place to
live, said city Economic Development Director Mike Jackson. It gets the
attention of company presidents who are thinking about moving their business,
Jackson said.
He predicted 2.6 million square feet of retail and commercial space will be
added to the city in the next three years.
"It's
magnificent to see what's happening," Jackson said. Just in the past two
years four restaurants and a deli have opened in the city. Two banks and a
75-room hotel. He attributed the changes to the city's rapid population growth.
Ninety percent of the units in the second of three planned 14-story
condominiums at Tarpon Point sold in four months, said Nick Cross, sales and
marketing manager. The units go for just about $800,000 to $2.7 million, but
the building doesn't exist yet. Tarpon Point is south of Rotary Park off
Pelican Boulevard.
Contractors
are rushing to meet the demand for the condos. The first building is under
construction and expected to be completed in December.
"Every 10 days another floor is poured in building number one," Cross
said.
One of the biggest changes in the Tarpon Point complex of homes, condos and
restaurants near the Caloosahatchee River involves its plan for a hotel.
Grosse
Pointe Development changed its plan from a 100-suite, 19-story hotel to two
14-story buildings with a total of 204 units, Cross said. Grosse Pointe is
holding back 50 condominiums for use as hotel units. Buyers of the other units
also can arrange to rent them as hotel units, he said, but they will not be
required to do so.
Grosse Pointe has a letter of intent from Wyndham Resorts & Hotels to
manage the hotel.
Two projects
by developer Mel Wroten also are moving forward.
The 58-home Pinewood Lakes development for people who own large motor homes has
sold 18 units. Prices range from $450,000 to $800,000, Wroten said. The project
features large garages attached to homes by a breezeway. While the project at
nearby Santa Barbara Boulevard and Nicholas Parkway is landlocked, it will have
a 3-acre lake.
"I intend to stock that lake with trout and bass," Wroten said.
Wroten said
he also is developing a $10.5 million project that will be a class A business
park with a retail section in front. The project is on the south side of Pine
Island Road across from the DQ Grill & Chill.
"By the end of this year the entire project is up and running,"
Wroten said.
The business
park units can have office space in front and warehouse space in back, Jackson
said. Cape Coral has 5,000 home-based businesses and some of them might want to
expand into one of the units, he added. The project will expand the city's
ability to create jobs, Jackson said.
The city
faces several challenges to keep the momentum going, Jackson said.
The city has to have roads that can handle the traffic, he said. Getting Pine
Island Road and Burnt Store Road widened are major goals, he said.
It might be
possible to do the Pine Island Road work before 2010, when the state plans on
starting the project. More property owners must donate the right of way, and
the city must agree to spend its money and be paid back later by the state.
The other major challenge is finding enough land to assemble in larger packages
for major projects. The city is developing incentives to encourage such
assembly, Jackson said. But one of the biggest competitors for such blocks of
land is the rapidly growing Lee County School District, he added