As Southwest Florida recovers from Hurricane Ian and moves back onto its growth path, a panel of area experts from a commercial real estate forum discussed the variety of factors affecting that path. Alexis Crespo with RV I planning believes that pathway is heading East.
"Obviously, our coastlines are mostly built out. But with Ian, the phone is ringing off the hook with re-development and things like that. So, we’re going to see a resurgence of projects along the coastline but for the most part, the bigger, challenging entitlements are going to be in our eastern land areas,” said Crespo. "So, it's really focusing on how we can do that well, how we can do that better than some of the historical growth patterns, the more suburban in nature. And just work as a partner with the local government to do, to do really great things in these areas."
Nelson Taylor with LSI Companies focused on the potential of single-family developments using available vacant lots throughout the region.
“I was able to quickly identify 200,000 vacant opportunities for single family development," said Taylor. "If you look in Lehigh we have 80,000 vacant lots right there. If you look on Burnt Store Road, going from north Cape Coral into Charlotte County to 41, there’s about 18,000 new units planned right there. If you look on Corkscrew Road, we have about 17,000 coming with Kingston. If you look into Rural Lands West, which you were speaking to, I think there are about 6 projects out there that have about 16,000 units planned. So the opportunities are out there, it’s just whether or not that’s where we want to go.”
Taylor saw these developments further afield as a challenge for job seekers: “I think when you start looking at a lot of the single-family development occurring, it’s further and further away from where the jobs are. I think that’s one of the areas that we’ve got to really focus on. How do we increase housing opportunities around where the working jobs are?"
Neale Montgomery from the Pavese Law Firm saw infrastructure as a challenge: “One of the challenges is the cost of land; finding land that is of sufficient size; and then having all the infrastructure (that Alexis identified); and having it be someplace that someone wants to live that Nelson identified, and then figuring out if you can make it through the entitlement process and still afford what you want to build, on the spot you want to build.”
Rob Price from Lee County Planning Department pointed out the challenges to infrastructure development: “In DOT, we have to be visionary but we also have to be reactionary. A lot of the planning efforts that a lot of you guys are doing, we don’t have much of a say in that. We’d love to go out and widen every road we have out there right now but there’s not enough right-of-way. So, now we’re kinda tasked with, 'Where can we build new roads to try to open up and get traffic moving on our existing arterial roadways?'”
So, what will help us to move forward and manage this continuous and coming growth?
Montgomery shared: “One of the things I think that needs to change going forward is relooking at what the rules and regulations are. We've got to be able to find a system we can get through faster. We are going to have to rethink available densities since we're looking for a a younger population under 45, they can't afford the single family homes in this area. That has to change."
So, the growth might have slowed just past Hurricane Ian, but it's now back to full speed ahead as construction and development once again kick into high gear in Southwest Florida.
Karen Moore is a contributing partner for WGCU and the publisher of SWFL Business Today.
