Developer unveils project for Cape

Chicago company plans business, retail center

By DON RUANE

Published on March 9, 2005

A Chicago developer is planning a 26-acre retail and business center with a three-story office building at the intersection of Veterans Parkway and Surfside Boulevard.

The Shops of Sandoval, as it's called now, will be on the northwest corner next to the big Bonita Bay Group project called Sandoval. Dodge Capital LLC of Chicago is the developer. The project is not affiliated with the Bonita Bay Group.

Besides the office building, the center will have space for restaurants, a bank, small box stores, small shops and a drive-through coffee store.

Dodge founder Bob Horne somewhat reluctantly broke the news about the project Tuesday to about 300 people attending the Womens Council of Realtors' FuturesCape at the Waterford Ballroom. Only three months of work has been put into the project, Horne said.

The project was warmly welcomed by the audience, which included real estate professionals, city officials and others. FuturesCape is an annual gathering of real estate professionals and others working in the city's real estate and commercial sectors. Updates on sales and changes to major projects such as Tarpon Point, Entrada and Pinewood Lakes were presented Tuesday.

It's significant that a Chicago-based developer would pick Cape Coral for his project, said Blanca Contreras, a residential real estate agent for Century 21 Birchwood Realty.

"We've come a long way. It says a lot about us. We're being noticed," Contreras said.

City Economic Development Director Mike Jackson said Shops of Sandoval is a good example of the destination retail sector the city wants to develop. People choose to visit such places for their restaurants and shops rather than shop at them because they're nearby, he said.

Friends encouraged Horne to look at Cape Coral. Throughout 2004 he made 12 to 15 trips to the city to study the market.

"You are grossly underserved for retail," Horne said. Cape Coral has about 10 square feet of retail space per person, whereas Naples has 30 square feet, he said.

Cape Coral is ripe for the development with its exploding growth and rising household incomes, Horne said. He predicted the intersection will become the center of Cape Coral.

He called Veterans Parkway the "spine and the heartbeat" of Cape Coral.

"I call this the new center of gravity for Cape Coral. We just hope the retail market agrees with us," Horne said.