Lee County Neighborhoods

Despite the rise of Vonzell "Baby V" Solomon on American Idol this year and a continued influx of TV personalities, stars and politicos who call Sanibel and Captiva islands home, Thomas Edison remains Lee County's most famous citizen. Edison, who feared everyone would discover his winter retreat, put Lee County on the map when he built an estate on the Caloosahatchee River in Fort Myers in the mid-1880s. Friend Henry Ford later built next to him. Named after Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, the county experienced a series of land rushes in the mid-1900s that ebbed within a decade or so. But in the past 10 years a new land rush has been taking place. And its breakneck speed is evident in the county's soaring tax rolls, record number of building permits, and real estate sales that place Fort Myers-Cape Coral among the top metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) in the country for resale homes. The area continues to top the country as one of the fastest-growing markets and is often ranked as a hot spot for business growth. Lee County's neighborhoods offer a mix of personalities, from working- class enclaves and gated communities to riverfront estates and luxury high-rise living in a revitalized downtown Fort Myers. Fueling Lee County and Southwest Florida's continued growth are I-75, Southwest Florida Regional International Airport, which opened a brand-new $50-million terminal this summer, and Florida Gulf Coast University.

ALVA

North of the Caloosahatchee River, from North River Road at River Oaks east to Hendry County; south of the river roughly a mile, extending eastward from Hickey Creek.

On the Market

Properties for sale, summer 2005

14 single-family homes.

Price range $229,900-$1,680,000.

What you get for $229,900 A just-built three-bedroom, two-bath home in Alva's Sunny Palm Estates, with 1,350 square feet and ceramic tile floors in kitchen, baths and foyer.

What you get for $1,680,000 A three-bedroom, two-bath home built in 1973 and located right on the Caloosahatchee River, with two-and-a-half acres and income-producing dockage.

Alva, Latin for "white," is one of the first settlements in Southwest Florida. The town was named by its earliest homesteader, Danish sea captain and botanist Peter Nelson, who was mesmerized by the small white flowers (white sabatia) growing along the banks of the Caloosahatchee River. As one of Lee County's first county commissioners, Nelson platted out the village of modern-day Alva, laying out a network of streets and earmarking property for schools, parks, churches and the first library in South Florida. The first bridge to cross the Caloosahatchee was built at Alva in 1903 and provided easier access to the village's two hotels. Today, Alva's surrounding citrus groves and pastures are beginning to give way to grand homes and gated communities as business executives, doctors and white-collar workers seek out a more rural way of life, epitomized in riverfront homes surrounded by moss-draped live oaks. The surrounding area is also home to five- to 10-acre residential tracts, a growing number of riverfront communities and Fort Denaud, where portions of the Sean Connery movie Just Cause were filmed.

BOCA GRANDE

On Gasparilla Island, just off the northwest corner of Lee County's shoreline, accessible across the Boca Grande Causeway from southern Charlotte County.

On the Market

Properties for sale, summer 2005

24 single-family homes, four condos.

Price range $675,000-$6,500,000.

What you get for $675,000 Two one-bedroom, one-bath homes in the historic district, totaling 1,500 square feet. Within walking distance of the village. Private rear yard with mature landscaping.

What you get for $6,500,000 A Mediterranean beachfront two-story villa with three bedrooms, five baths, 3,900 square feet and a private four-room guest cottage.

Price range, condos $1,100,000-$1,695,000.

What you get for $1,100,000 A three-bedroom, three-bath condo in Boca Bay, offering bay and lake views and 1,780 square feet.

What you get for $1,695,000 A three-bedroom, four-bath condo in Boca Bay, offering bay and partial Gulf views and 2,700 square feet; just a short walk to the Boca Bay Pass Club, beach and pools.

Fish brought the first settlers, mainly Spanish and Cuban fishermen, to Gasparilla Island in the late 1870s, and some of the best sports fishing in the world draws modern-day anglers to the annual "World's Richest" Tarpon Tournament in offshore waters. Though the phosphate industry eventually replaced fishing as the main commerce on this island paradise, it was the early-1900s arrival of the Charlotte Harbor & Northern Railroad that not only opened up Gasparilla's phosphate supply line but also brought wealthy Northerners. A downtown area rose up around the railroad station, the Boca Grande Hotel opened in 1929, and travelers from around the world vacationed in this growing resort town, known for its landscaped, tree-covered Banyan Street (actually Second Street). Phosphate companies eventually abandoned Gasparilla Island for larger ports farther north, and the old depot, replaced by the opening of the Boca Grande Causeway in 1958, was restored in the 1970s to house shops, offices and restaurants. Today, Boca Grande's humble beginnings are evident in its bike path, carved out of the bed of the old railroad. Residents include railroad employees and fishermen, who share the island with politicos like the Bush family, celebrities, and part- and full-time residents. The slender seven-mile island is laid-back and less crowded than its other barrier-island neighbors (Pine Island, Sanibel Island, Captiva Island and Fort Myers Beach).

BONITA SPRINGS

Bonita Beach

Bonita Beach Road west from U.S. 41 and along Hickory Boulevard north to the bridge linking Fort Myers Beach.

On the Market

Properties for sale, summer 2005

20 single-family homes, two condos.

Price range, single-family homes $1,895,000-$6,100,000.

What you get for $1,895,000 A three-bedroom, three-bath waterfront home built in 1997, with bay and partial Gulf views, 2,580 square feet, top-floor viewing deck and British West Indies details and décor.

What you get for $6,100,000 A beachfront inn consisting of three duplexes, including one on the Gulf and two on the bay.

Price range, condos $329,000 and $349,000

What you get for $329,900 A one-bedroom, one-bath high-rise home with 500 square feet, across from the beach.

What you get for $349,000 A similarly detailed home-one bedroom, one bath and 500 square feet-across from the beach.

Except for tackle shops and older seafood restaurants, few signs remain of Bonita Springs' once robust ties to the fishing industry. Beach shops, newer eateries, boutiques and new homes dot Bonita Beach Road west of U.S. 41, becoming more residential as you island-hop from Little to Big Hickory islands and make the curve that takes you northwest six miles along Hickory Boulevard to the edge of Fort Myers Beach. But most Bonita Beach residents inhabit only the southern two miles of that road, as the rest is mangrove-carpeted public land anchored by Lovers Key State Park, which is next to the area's only dog beach. Homes on the east side of Hickory Boulevard also offer waterfront views of the back-bay waters.

Bonita Springs

From Bonita Beach Road east to I-75, and along U.S. 41 north to Estero.

On the Market

Properties for sale, summer 2005

125 single-family homes, 164 condos.

Price range, single-family

$169,900-$5,750,000.

What you get for $169,900 A handyman's special in Bonita Farms: one bedroom, one bath, a den and 1,250 square feet.

What you get for $5,750,000 A five-bedroom, seven-bath Mediterranean showplace on an oversized lot overlooking a lake and golf course in The Colony gated community, with almost 6,000 square feet, a wine storage room, four wet bars and a master suite with his-and-her baths.

Price range, condos $149,900-$5,435,000.

What you get for $149,900 A rarely available two-bedroom, two-bath townhouse in Forest Mere at Southern Pines; overlooks a lake and has 1,140 square feet.

What you get for $5,435,000 A LaScala penthouse in The Colony, with five bedrooms, seven baths and 7,040 square feet.

Gated communities with full-fledged amenities (golf courses, fine dining, Gulf-front beach clubs) have become the real estate story on this stretch of Bonita Springs, a voter-approved city since 2000. Up-market boutiques and gated communities personify this once-sleepy fishing town, where pockets of nongated areas and an absence of restrictions allow some homeowners to own goats and horses. Offering picturesque Gulf and bay views, Bonita Springs also counts backwaters, creeks and rivers among the backyards of its residential offerings. Old Bonita Springs, a county-designated historic neighborhood along the Imperial River, is home to a growing Hispanic population and landmarks like Everglades Wonder Gardens and the 1920s Shangri-La Springs Resort, where the hot springs reportedly attracted the likes of Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Franklin D. Roosevelt. New home-buying opportunities are expected to follow the lead of the planned Three Oaks Parkway extension joining Bonita Beach Road, where developers are already assembling properties.

BUCKINGHAM, OLGA,

FORT MYERS SHORES

East of Fort Myers along the Caloosahatchee River to Hickey Creek and north of Lehigh Acres.

On the Market

Properties for sale, summer 2005

16 single-family homes.

Price range $197,900-$1,700,000.

What you get for $197,900 A 1,300-square-foot Fort Myers Shores home built in 1977, with three bedrooms, one bath, spa on a wraparound deck, brick kitchen, living room and formal dining room-all on an oversized corner lot.

What you get for $1,700,000 Newer Buckingham home (built in 2002) with two bedrooms, two baths, nearly 2,200 square feet, fireplace in living room, wraparound porch, staircase to private second-floor loft and two pole barns.

The farther east you drive on State Road 80, the more you seem to travel back in time, eventually arriving in LaBelle, a tree-shaded hamlet of homes and businesses in Hendry County that seems perfectly Mayberry-except for the palm trees. Along the way, however,

are signs of the times-former agricultural land and citrus groves carved into neat little gated communities that offer a quiet, away-from-the-city-but-convenient-to-it location. Because of land use restrictions, most of these new homes sit on larger lots, upward of an acre in most cases, with settings along the mighty Caloosahatchee River and its tributaries. Property often comes with moss-draped oaks and a storied past. Buckingham was home to an Army training camp for airplane gunners during World War II. One community, Buckingham Air Park, still has ties to these aviation roots: Most of the homes have garage airplane hangars and access to the runways of the former Army airfield. Neighboring Olga is located on the Caloosahatchee. Also nestled along the river, Fort Myers Shores is closer to Fort Myers and is characterized by a grid of tidy streets, some jutting into the river.

CAPE CORAL

On the Market

Properties for sale, summer 2005

900 single-family homes, 196 condos.

Price range, single-family

$174,900-$4,350,000.

What you get for $174,900 A 1989 "handyman special" with a new roof, three bedrooms, two baths and 1,305 square feet.

What you get for $4,350,000 A 2005 two-story model home in Tarpon Point Marina, with four bedrooms, four baths, almost 4,000 square feet of outdoor living space, a second-floor cabana lounge and direct sailboat access.

Price range, condos $119,000-$2,300,000.

What you get for $119,000 A 765-square-foot one-bedroom, one-bath corner unit on the first floor in Coral Cay.

What you get for $2,300,000 A luxury penthouse with three bedrooms, a den, four baths and 3,775 square feet in Cape Harbour, set for completion in 2006.

Southwest Florida's largest metropolitan area and the largest city south of Tampa, Cape Coral traces its humble beginnings to the 1950s get-rich antics of brothers Jack and Leonard Rosen, whose Gulf American Corp. carved 400 miles of canals from 60,000 acres of cow pasture and swampland. Consummate salesmen, the Rosens marketed Cape Coral to winter-weary Northerners, treating them to free vacations at the Rosen-controlled Nautilus Inn while enticing them with the prospect of owning a slice of Rosen-manufactured paradise for just $20 down and $20 a month. Even the Rosens would be shocked at the rates property now fetches in Cape Coral, where the most expensive land and homes are located on the Caloosahatchee River and tend to go for a cool million dollars.

Waterfront continues to be the operative word in Cape Coral, since the river, canals and lakes provide plenty of opportunities to live on the water. Gated communities have entered the fray in recent years, including Tarpon Point Marina, on the site of the former Rose Gardens. Remnants of the city's past are evident in the heart of Cape Coral, at the Cape Coral Yacht Club at Redfish Point, built by the Rosens, and on nearby Flamingo Drive, where the city's first eight homes still stand. Even vacant lots in the northeast Cape, some under original ownership that dates to the Rosen days, are seeing a flurry of building.