Your guide to Collier County neighborhoods: Naples to Vanderbilt Beach

NAPLES

Airport-Pulling Road Residential

From Immokalee Road to Tamiami Trail East.

Gated communities (Stonebridge, Pelican Marsh, Tiburón, Grey Oaks, Estuary, Bear's Paw Country Club) are sprinkled among shopping centers, restaurants and car dealerships as Airport-Pulling Road stretches south from Immokalee Road before assuming a more industrial and commercial personality south of Golden Gate Boulevard. Ungated neighborhoods lie off side roads like Poinciana Drive, Radio Road and Estey Avenue.

Tall Pines, a neighborhood of 120 single-family homes sans gates, is tucked behind Barron Collier High School just north of the Airport-Pine Ridge intersection. "There's a lot of diversity," says Larry Roorda, an agent with Premier Properties' Gallery office in Naples and a Tall Pines resident. "It's a very friendly place." The neighborhood's first homes date back to the late 1970s-long before major national retail stores began appearing at each corner.

Homesites front one of the community's two lakes or preserves. Some back up to the high school; others to some of the surrounding streets, Airport-Pulling Road included. Buyers can get into close-to-everything Tall Pines at $400,000 for an older home-perhaps a 1,800-square-footer with no pool. Larger, newer homes, upward of 3,500 square feet with a pool and a lakefront homesite, are currently fetching $700,000 to $800,000.

Aqualane Shores

Between Port Royal to the south, 14th Avenue South to the north, Gulf Shore Boulevard South to the west and Naples Bay to the east.

By late 2004, a meticulously cared- for Florida-style home with fruit trees and a wood dock was the lowest-priced listing in Aqualane Shores, carrying a $2.19 million price tag for three bedrooms and just over 2,000 square feet. At the high end was a $6.75 million Mediterranean home on Marina Drive, offering six or more bedrooms, eight baths, 6,450 square feet of living space and canal and partial bay views.

Within walking distance of the beach and the exclusive shops and restaurants on Fifth Avenue South and Third Street South, Aqualane Shores has 350 homes and homesites (320 on the water, 30 landlocked). Consisting of nearly 300 acres, the neighborhood boasts deep-water access, mature landscaping and older homes that buyers often renovate or replace. Speculative homes and models are also available. The area was developed by Forrest Walker & Sons, which sold its first homesite in the late 1950s for $2,500: $100 down and $50 a month. Gallus says recent listings have sold for more than the asking price, and homes priced under $2 million tend to be teardowns, especially if they have views of Naples Bay.

East Naples

East of Goodlette-Frank Road and south of Radio Road.

Access to the interstate via Davis Boulevard, the extension of Livingston Road, and an offering of single-family homes, villas and condos from $130,000 to more than $400,000-some with golf included and some in gated communities-have triggered high demand in east Naples. "Prices were dormant for years," says John Norris of Winkler Realty, who dis-covered the family-oriented nature of east Naples in 1978. "We moved to town and looked near the beach. You didn't see any swing sets or any signs of children in the back yard."

Communities like Queens Park, Foxfire, Berkshire Lakes and Kings Lake are attractive to families with children now, and to those looking for a home in older, more-established neighborhoods (most with street lighting and sidewalks, larger homes and larger lots). "East Naples is still reasonably priced," says Norris, whose former four-bedroom home, purchased for $108,000 in 1978, sold three years ago for $179,000 and "is probably worth well over $200,000 now." When they are on the market, homes in East Naples range from the high $200,000s to $500,000.

Just south of Rattlesnake Hammock is Lely Resort, a 3,000-acre gated community that has homes priced from the high-$100,000s to $1.5 million. Gated communities are also popping up along Collier Boulevard (State Road 951), including Fiddler's Creek toward Marco Island and a recently announced venture-Treviso Bay, a community of 1,200 single- and multi-family homes bordering the 25,000-acre Rookery Bay Estuarine Preserve.

Goodlette-Frank Road Residential

Stretching south from Immokalee Road to U.S. 41/Tamiami Trail at Bayfront.

Pockets of intimate neighborhoods, scattered gated communities and some of the most exclusive private golf courses-the Royal Poinciana Club and the Hole in the Wall-appear along Goodlette-Frank, running parallel to and west of Airport-Pulling Road. A new entry in the real estate roster here is Hemingway Place, a neighborhood of 23 homes off Goodlette on 14th Street North. Close to Venetian Bay, the beaches, restau-rants and resorts, the community features homes that seem plucked right out of New England, including the first, a 4,574-square-foot Victorian-inspired home with gingerbread trim, gabled roofs and dormers.

Gulf Shore Boulevard South

Running north from Doctors Pass and south to Port Royal.

Live along Gulf Shore Boulevard and you have to get used to the street's status as a minor tourist attraction. Long before it was featured on a popular HGTV series profiling the country's most gorgeous residential roadways, carloads of vacationers cruised the boulevard to gawk at the million-dollar mansions and old cottages that back up to the Gulf of Mexico, including the 1895 Palm Cottage home of Henry Watterson, one-time editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal. Most houses are hidden behind towering hedges, and residents enjoy the park-like setting of green space running parallel to the street on the east side. Newer projects include Charleston Square, a 24-unit condominium/retail venture across from Lowdermilk Park, and the lux-ury 23-unit Sancerre high-rise farther north. Four-bedroom, four-bath homes with 4,000 to 4,600 square feet in Sancerre are priced from $2.55 million to more than $4 million.

Livingston Road Residential

Extending north from Immokalee Road to Bonita Beach Road.

The Bonita Bay Group is credited with literally paving the way for development along Livingston Road between Immokalee and Bonita Beach roads. For access reasons, the Bonita Springs-based developer built a portion of Livingston to reach its high-end Mediterra. Since then, other developments have followed: Taylor Woodrow with the more affordable Vasari and WCI with its highest-priced offering to date, Tuscany Reserve, where homes start at $1.4 million. Other communities, including Delasol, have also popped up. The private Royal Palm Academy, housed in portable buildings at the road's big curve, is getting a new $70 million campus opposite its current location. Toward Bonita Beach Road, Tuscany Reserve and Mediterra's newest phase are rising around one holdout-an island of ruralness, where a handmade sign in front of a small house advertises hay for sale.

Livingston Woods

Located north and east of the intersection of Livingston and Pine Ridge roads.

Close to the Community School, Barron Collier High School, shopping and restaurants, Livingston Woods is being discovered by families who like the extra-large homesites of an "in-town" location. A handful of narrow two-lane streets stretches east from Livingston Road to the interstate, offering lots measuring two to 2.5 acres and homes of various architectural styles, most hinting at Mediterranean or Old Florida, with long driveways and big back yards. The recent completion of several legs of Livingston, which now stretches from Radio Road to to Immokalee Road and eventually to Bonita Springs, has helped make the neighborhood highly sought-after, according to John Aycock Jr., of John R. Wood Realtors. Current listings range from $599,000 for an older three-bedroom, two-bath home to $2.1 million for a 1981-built home on a 10-acre wooded lot.

Old Naples

Bounded by the Naples Beach Hotel & Golf Club's golf course to the north, Ninth Street South (aka U.S. 41 or Tamiami Trail North) to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the west and 14th Avenue South to the south.

Living in Old Naples means being close to everything, including the beach and the shops and restaurants on Fifth Avenue and Third Street South. "You can walk everywhere, and people are always out and about," says Kim Case, a realtor with John R. Wood Realtors and a downtown resident since 1990. "It's the kind of neighborhood where everyone stops to talk to friends in cars. They block the street and no one cares because you know the person behind you."

Nearby marinas and boat clubs allow homeowners to "make your house waterfront, so to speak," says Case. Life's necessities are a mere walk from home, as are amenities like Cambier Park, the Naples fishing pier and Rodgers Park, closer to Third Street South. "The farther you are from the beach, the less expensive it gets," says Case.

Homes are as varied as the demographic, a combination of young buyers, families, new retirees and long-time residents who will find old beach cottages, new mansions and everything in between, says Case. Most are within a dozen blocks of the beach. Prices range from around the high $600,000s (for an older home, likely a teardown) to the $20 million being asked for the historic Halde-man home, a landmark next to the Naples Pier.

Mid-rise condos and coach-home-type properties offer the best entry-level pricing, from about $500,000. The Colonnade on Fifth, located in the heart of the lively restaurant and shopping district, offers 17 one- and two-story condos of 1,900 to 3,200 square feet priced from $850,000 to $1.3 million. "The beach is just five blocks away," notes Kemp Deming, vice president of development for Baltimore-based Continental Realty Corp., which converted an original building and built a second.

Pine Ridge Road Residential

East from U.S.41 to Collier Boulevard, east of Interstate 75.

The road's expansion to six lanes within the last five years has not only opened the way to more commercial prospects (hotels, a Harley shop and restaurants), but also prompted a number of new homes along its side roads. McIntosh reports that that the 218 carriage homes at Coventry have sold out on Whippoorwill Lane and that developer JED of Southwest Florida plans to build the 300-unit Andalucia on nearly 80 acres there. With the recent opening of the Livingston Road extension between Pine Ridge and Immokalee roads, look for Toll Brothers' 230-home Aviano, which has reportedly recorded 3,000 pre-registrations and Zuckerman Homes' 149-acre Livingston Village, proposed to offer 590 homes.

Port Royal

Bounded by Lantern Lane to the north, the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Gordon's Pass to the south and Naples Bay to the east.

Developer John Glen Sample's fascination with the 17th-century Jamaican city and its pirate inhabitants inspired the colorful names of many of Port Royal's 550 waterfront addresses-Rum Row, Spyglass Lane and Galleon Drive. Sample, who made his fortune with the advertising agency that developed the radio soap opera, financed and developed Port Royal, converting swamplands, hammocks and beachfront into one of the country's most coveted neighborhoods, with manmade peninsulas, coves and bays, and homes for the rich, including many captains of industry, and occasionally the famous. Port Royal is revered for its deep-water yacht basin and its bridgeless access to the Gulf and Ten Thousand Islands-and its multimillion-dollar homes, an eclectic mix of Mediterranean mansions and cottages tucked behind the tall hedges and landscaping of an old tropical neighborhood, often providing sun-dappled canopies above perfectly manicured streets.

Homes that builder Gary Carlson erected in the 1970s-considered expansive at 2,500 and 3,000 square feet-are being razed to make way for mega-homes. "The Southwest Florida regional airport and the Ritz-Carlton brought in a whole new clientele, who had a lot of money and liked things nice," says Carlson.

Prices in Port Royal have remained fairly stable the last few years, starting just under $3 million and reaching close to $20 million (a nearly 10,000-square-foot $16.75 million mansion with soaring ceilings, fabulous faux finishes and bay views), drawing obvious comparisons to Palm Beach. But Port Royal deviates from the east coast with an ambience that is more understated and less show-and-tell. Aycock is working with one international buyer, who's trying to assemble five acres to build a "true mega-home," which the realtor says could reach $100 million if a deal goes through.

Tamiami Trail (U.S. 41) Residential

Bounded by 111th Avenue North to the north, extending south to State Road 951 (Collier Boulevard) and including blocks east and west along the Tamiami Trail.

As development radiated outward from Old Naples, neighborhoods began to take shape north along U.S. 41. Others started popping up east of 41. Many buyers are full-time residents who enjoy the ambience of Old Naples without its higher home prices, says Premier Properties' Emily Bua. "A $1.2 million home in Old Naples is less in Park Shore or the Moorings," she says.