For Bonita Springs, the Ritz-Carlton Residences, Estero Bay on Coconut Road, is not the first high-rise community to come to the area. But some nearby residents said they find comfort that a new modification to the development plans will lower the remaining building heights in the community.
At the most recent Bonita Springs Council meeting, there was a unanimous vote to approve the elimination of 75-foot assisted living facilities. Those towers had been planned to surround the Ritz within the new Saltleaf on Estero Bay community. Instead there will be townhomes and carriage homes, not to exceed 45 feet. However, two towers broke ground in July, and those plans will remain the same.
Bonita Springs Councilman Jesse Purdon believes this will ease long-standing opposition to the height of the new development.
“I think that it’s even less controversial, you might say, now,” Purdon said. “People are a lot more comfortable with two-story carriage homes.”
Purdon believes the new development will be a great asset to the city. “I think everybody’s property values will go up,” he said. “And I think it’s just going to be a pretty good deal for us.”
London Bay purchased the Saltleaf site in 2018. When complete, it will include 224 units at the Ritz towers on one parcel. The 76 smaller units will be in another parcel. Almost 60% of the tower homes already have been sold, despite it just breaking ground in July.
The new development is 500 acres, part of which was once the historic Weeks Fish Camp – a commercial boat launch on Estero Bay. It was owned by the Weeks family and opened to the public in 1942. Generations of commercial and recreational boaters used the boat ramp to get access to the Gulf of Mexico. Jim Weeks sold the camp in 2014.
Weeks had taken over the old fish camp after his grandparents, Draine and Mamie Weeks, died. For Weeks it's a piece of family history he just wants preserved.
His grandparents, having lived through the Great Depression, thought it was important for the family to be self-sufficient. When ownership fell on him, Weeks said he just wanted to carry out his grandfather’s request to keep the land in the family as long as he could.
“My granddad's wishes were, you know, to have a place for our family to catch fish and feed the family no matter what happens,” he said. “And we got that. We were able to get that and share that with the community.”
The plans for development include public access to the marina and a boat ramp. City council approved 72 wet boat slips and 25 dry boat slips, as well as a public restaurant. How much boat space will be given to the public has yet to be determined.
“I don't give a crap what they put in there because you can't fight it,” Weeks said. “But we got our public access.”
Weeks said he believes today's Bonita Springs residents are getting more than anyone could have asked for. “It was never open to the public unless my grandparents wanted it open to the public,” he said. “So we're very lucky to get what we got.”
Another modification to the new plans adds 5.3 acres for residential development, including roads. It also removes less than an acre of northeastern conservation land, which will be mitigated to mangrove preservation off site.
“They requested to remove a small, .62-acre preserve on the site because, after analysis by an environmental team, it was determined that this parcel was overrun with invasive species and in poor condition,” Allison Baer, the public relations representative for London Bay, said.
“They will be replacing it with 3.5 acres of new preserve that is better poised to thrive on the land,” she added.
Alan Glazier has been a Bonita Springs resident for 37 years. He is not a fisherman, but he said in the past he used the old Weeks boat launch and tackle shop.
He said he was glad to see some of the building heights had been decreased, but he was disappointed when he learned that the fish camp had been sold and then to see that more high-rises were being built that far north in Bonita Springs.
“I don't really want to see the whole coastline of Estero Bay developed,” Glazier said. “So I'm glad that some of this is going to be, from my understanding, a preserved area.”
He said that limited access for boaters is a real problem in the area because most ramps are privately owned. The approved project will provide more access to the bay.
Glazier is more concerned with how long it has taken for development.
“I mean, it was a sad thing to know that part of our history was gone,” Glazier said. “It was sad to see that we're going to lose a spot that, for so many years, had been used by the public. But then we were told that there was going to be public access.”
But he said he's also worried that building more homes means more density, and that means more traffic.
“It's just getting a larger impact on limited access roads, like, for instance, Coconut Road,” Glazier. “There's not a whole lot that you can do to widen that road or do anything more for traffic.”
The Ritz-Carlton Residences and the marina are expected to be completed at the beginning of 2026. The Saltleaf Golf Preserve will open this November, which consists of an 18-hole championship course and a 9-hole short course.
Amenities within the Ritz community will include pools and a lagoon, a beauty salon, private dining, a library, a dog park and a wellness center, among others. Prices begin at just over $3 million, and the units range from 2 to 4 bedrooms. Pricing has not been released for the rest of Saltleaf as construction has yet to begin.
“I think they’re going to do a great job,” Councilman Purdon said, referring to London Bay. “I think that they’ll do a good, quality project for the city. I think it’ll be something that everybody’s going to be pleased with.”
This story was reported and written for the Democracy Watch program, a collaboration between FGCU Journalism and WGCU News. Gwendolyn Salata can be reached at gwendolyn.salata@yahoo.com. WGCU is your trusted source for news and information in Southwest Florida. We are a nonprofit public service, and your support is more critical than ever. Keep public media strong and donate now. Thank you.