Lee County Neighborhoods

Despite the continued influx of TV personalities, stars and well-known entrepreneurs who live here at least part of the year, Thomas Edison remains Lee County's most famous citizen. Evidence of Edison's time here still exists-his McGregor Boulevard estate was recently restored to its late-1800s glory. Named after Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, Lee County has experienced land rushes, but nothing quite like the past decade, which has seen prices quadruple. The county's breakneck building is evident in its 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 activity. The area recently ranked No. 2 in the nation for home-price-appreciation gains (Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Ariz., is No. 1; Naples is No. 3); and Lee County is also 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 and growing 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 last summer, and Florida Gulf Coast University. Of course, picture-perfect weather, miles of beaches and no state income tax help, too.

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, winter 2005

Seven single-family homes.

Price range, single-family

$259,000-$2,998,888.

What you get for $259,000

A two-bedroom, two-bath, contemporary-style home with 1,295 square feet, fenced back yard, two-story covered porch and two-story ceiling in great room.

What you get for $2,998,888

A 10.5-acre horse farm with eight-stall barn and tack room, pond with dock and five-bedroom, four-bath home with large front porch and 6,900 square feet.

Alva, Latin for "white," was 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 River was built at Alva in 1903.

Today Alva's surrounding citrus groves and pastures are giving way to big 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, winter 2005

21 single-family homes, eight condos.

Price range, single-family

$750,000-$6 million.

What you get for $750,000

A two-bedroom, two-bath home in the historic district two blocks from the village, with 1,855 square feet.

What you get for $6 million

A two-story Mediterranean beachfront 1929 restored villa with three bedrooms, five baths, 3,900 square feet and a private four-room guest cottage.

Price range, condos

$795,000-$2,395,000.

What you get for $795,000

A two-bedroom, two-bath condo in Sea Oats, offering 350 square feet and a partial Gulf view.

What you get for $2,395,000

A three-bedroom, three-bath end-unit penthouse on second floor of Boca Grande Club, with 2,515 square feet and full Gulf view.

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 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, winter 2005

24 single-family homes.

Price range, single-family

$1.2 million-$5,995,000.

What you get for $1.2 million

A two-bedroom, one-bath home just across the street from the beach, with deep-water access and nearly 1,900 square feet.

What you get for $5,995,000

Just-constructed four-bedroom, six-bath home with Gulf and bay views, four stories and 5,000 square feet.

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, winter 2005

307 single-family homes, 578 condos.

Price range, single-family

$139,900-$5.5 million.

What you get for $139,900

A handyman's special in Bonita Farms: one bedroom, one bath, a den and 1,250 square feet.

What you get for $5.5 million

A five-bedroom, six-bath Mediterranean home on an oversized lot in The Colony gated community of Pelican Landing, with 5,915 square feet, a wine storage room, four wet bars and a master suite with his-and-her baths.

Price range, condos

$175,000-$4.25 million.

What you get for $175,000

A one-bedroom, one-bath, courtyard-style attached villa with 600 square feet in Village Garden.

What you get for $4.25 million

A two-story penthouse with four bedrooms, five baths, 5,780 square feet, two-story screened lanai overlooking Estero Bay, Hickory Island and the Gulf, 650-bottle wine cellar in Palermo high-rise in The Colony.

Gated communities with full-fledged amenities have become the real estate story in 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 back yards 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 Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Franklin D. Roosevelt. New homebuying 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, winter 2005

148 single-family homes, 10 condos.

Price range, single-family

$79,000-$2.7 million.

What you get for $79,000

A three-bedroom, two-bath manufactured home with attached guest suite, 725 square feet and front porch.

What you get for $2.7 million

Two-bedroom, two-bath 50-year-old home with 515 square feet on deep-water lagoon with sailboat access to Caloosahatchee River.

Price range, condo

$135,000-$1.9 million.

What you get for $135,000

Two-bedroom, two-bath low-rise home with 1,065 square feet in gated 55+ community, cathedral ceiling with skylight, screened balcony and newer tile; some furniture included.

What you get for $1.9 million

Five-bedroom, three-bath half duplex with 3,785 square feet on 12-acre site with three ponds and a horse barn.

The farther east you drive on S.R. 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.

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 history. 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 and canals.

CAPE CORAL

North of the Caloosahatchee River and west

of U.S. 41.

On the Market

Properties for sale, winter 2005

1,294 single-family homes, 222 condos.

Price range, single-family

$174,900-$4.35 million.

What you get for $174,900

A three-bedroom, two-bath home with

wooded view and 1,500 square feet, built-in brick barbecue and fenced yard.

What you get for $4.35 million

Aubuchon Homes' two-story Anno II model with four bedrooms, four baths, parlor, salon, butler's pantry, guest cabana, 4,400 square feet and direct sailboat access.

Price range, condos

$114,000-$2.3 million.

What you get for $114,000

A 715-square-foot, one-bedroom, one-bath condo with pool view and new appliances in southwest Cape Coral.

What you get for $2.3 million

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 (one-fifth of the county's population lives here) 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 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.

ESTERO

Bounded by Williams Road to the south, Estero Parkway to the north, and from just east of I-75 to Estero Bay west of U.S. 41.

On the Market

Properties for sale, winter 2005

178 single-family homes, 299 condos.

Price range, single-family

$249,900-$3.4 million.

What you get for $249,900

A two-bedroom, two-bath home in the Island Club at Corkscrew Woodlands, offering 1,150 square feet, computer area and oversize garage. What you get for $3.4 million