Gulfshore Neighborhoods

Many of Cape Coral’s first homes were built in the 1950s and ’60s along the Caloosahatchee River near Redfish Point, home to the Cape Coral Yacht Club, which offers a boat ramp, a 634-foot riverfront beach, picnic shelters, barbecue grills, a fishing pier, public pool and tennis and racquetball courts. A handful of the original Rosen-built homes still stand on Flamingo Drive. New nearby gated communities—Tarpon Point Marina, built on the site of the Rosens’ Rose Garden, and the Marina at Cape Harbour—have introduced an upscale component to the Cape’s real estate market. Cape Harbour offers a public waterfront with a marina, shops and Rumrunners, an award-winning restaurant. Inland homes access the river via a thread of wide canals.
Older riverfront homes, built just
30 to 40 years ago, are being razed and replaced by larger million-dollar homes. The most expensive are found in
neighborhoods facing the Fort Myers shore a mile across the river, with views of its two bridges—the Midpoint Bridge and Cape Coral Bridge. Price tags of $3 million and $4 million are now commonplace for homes along
the Caloosahatchee.

Southwest Cape Coral

Realtors identify Cape Coral’s southwest quadrant as the new hot spot. A three-square-mile L-shaped neighborhood west of Chiquita Boulevard, the area offers existing homes, many built within the last 15 years, and vacant lots, some located on the South Spreader Waterway with Gulf access. “It’s one of Southwest Florida’s safest neighborhoods,” says Lenora Marshall, an agent with Century 21 Sunbelt. “There’s also a nice mix of families with children, young professionals, retirees and part-time residents,” adds her associate Teri Kibbe. Statistics show the average southwest Cape home costs $405,000 for an off-water location and $820,000 for a waterfront home.

North Cape Coral

The Pine Island Road corridor, which links the mainland to the barrier islands of Little Pine Island and Pine Island, has grown up in the past decade. Overgrown, vacant lots on weed-choked streets, paved and platted decades ago, are steadily disappearing, being replaced by modest homes. New retail has recently opened at Pine Island Road’s intersection with Skyline Boulevard, and other development is quickly following. Also helping the area’s rising status are plans to improve Burnt Store Road into Charlotte County.

ESTERO

New development continues to flourish along or near the Estero River—mainly new-home neighborhoods and commercial development. The scenic river leads eventually to Estero Bay and portions of it remain undisturbed, offering a glimpse back in time. Estero has several gated communities, a major outlet mall (Miromar Outlets), an ice-hockey/entertainment venue (Germain Arena), the new International Design Center, two top-flight hotels (Embassy Suites and the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort & Spa) and Florida Gulf Coast University, the state’s newest college. New shopping centers border the town’s north and south boundaries—Gulf Coast Town Center at Alico and Ben Hill Griffin roads and Coconut Point at Coconut Road and U.S. 41.
Though Estero is still unincorporated, civic-minded and well-organized residents have created self-governed review boards that would make any full-fledged city envious. The boards set standards for Estero’s architectural appearance and its streetscape, among other things. They will help to guide the final design plans for the upcoming Estero on the River project, a mixed-use development that will include homes and the 500-seat, $20 million Gulfshore Playhouse Theater. Traces of Estero’s past are still visible along Sandy Lane and Broadway Avenue, where banyan trees create a canopy overhead, goats run in small fields next to older homes with screened front porches, and the sprawling champion Mysore fig tree stands sentry at the intersection of the two roads.

FORT MYERS
River District

Downtown Fort Myers, now officially known as the River District to reflect the 40-block area’s relationship to the Caloosahatchee River, continues its meteoric development. Two new high-rise condominiums are now open, and an ongoing flurry of activity will bring a total of 3,800 new homes in the next few years. The impetus for the development was an unused waterfront and a vision by master planner Andrés Duany, the father of new urbanism who’s credited with reviving Fifth Avenue South in Naples and South Beach in Miami. The design philosophy, says Don Paight, Fort Myers’ director of downtown redevelopment, “brings everything together. People can live, work, shop, play and do everything in one area. With rising gas prices it just makes sense to be able to walk to work or take a water taxi or shuttle. It makes for a better lifestyle. You don’t spend your life on the road driving.”
The city is in the process of a $50 million project that will relocate utilities underground, restore brick streets and reintroduce 1930s-era streetlights into the historic district, which stretches from Bay Street to Second Street and from Monroe to Lee streets. The growing district offers retail stores, restaurants and offices and some residences on second floors. Paight says the surrounding new-home developments, which range from 32-story towers to mixed-use developments and low-rises with resort-style amenities, appeal to the target demographic of urban dwellers. 
The River District’s nightlife comes alive on the weekends. Favorite haunts include the charming Brick Bar, which often features jazz and blues magicians, Fat Cat’s Drink Shack, the Cigar Bar and EnVie and Level nightclubs. Fine dining is available at Veranda, Harold’s on the Bay, The Morgan House and the new Patio 33. During the day, rub elbows with government employees and attorneys for lunch at Second Street Deli. To the east of the district is historic Dean Park, a neighborhood of 1920s Victorian and Colonial homes and Florida-cottage bungalows that have been lovingly restored by new owners. To the south are the Fort Myers Skatium and the City of Palms Park, the spring-training home of the 2004 Major League Baseball champion Boston Red Sox.

Riverfront

The Caloosahatchee River divides Fort Myers and Cape Coral, reaching a mile wide at its fullest. Some of the earliest development in Fort Myers took place along the river, mainly on the city’s famous royal-palm-lined McGregor Boulevard and its cul-de-sac side streets. The winter homes of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford are found west of downtown, encircled by white picket fences and botanical gardens. The homes and Edison’s laboratory are open to guests and host a number of special events, including a holiday house and activities associated with the Edison Festival of Light, a three-week celebration of the city’s most famous resident.
The neighborhood offers diverse architecture, from older two-story brick estates and mid-1950s ranch homes to Spanish-style haciendas and Mediterranean revival homes mixed with the occasional contemporary or Old Florida (some nearly a century old). Most homes are on large lots and hidden behind decades-old landscaping and tidy hedges, and some include a sweep of river in the back yard. The area is favored by families with children because of its neighborliness—families tend to know one another and children walk to school. Many homes have been occupied by the same owners since the 1970s or earlier, and some have a storied past—once home to the first bank president or the first funeral home director in the area. And now the next generation is returning; adults who grew up in Fort Myers want their kids to grow up in the same neighborhood they did. Recent sales have ranged from $155,000 for a small condo to more than $3.7 million for a 5,400-square-foot home on the Caloosahatchee River.
Newcomers like Charles and Kimberly Cook are captivated by the charm of the area’s older homes. The Cooks are renovating a 65-year-old home on Gasparilla Drive, just off McGregor Boulevard. “I had never been to Fort Myers before, and although I’m a fourth-generation Florida native, I’m not really into palm trees; I’m from the center of the state,” says Kimberly. “But when I drove down McGregor that first time and saw the big palms, then turned onto Gasparilla and saw the river at the end of the street, I thought, this is beautiful.”
Edison Park offers a similar way of life, but is not on the river. Found directly across from the Edison homestead, it was designed by the inventor’s good friend, the late Jim Newton, and offers 1970s-era homes priced in the high $200,000s, as well as a mix of newer and older residences priced to more than $1 million. The Fort Myers Country Club is within walking or biking distance of most homes.

South Fort Myers

Fort Myers’ jagged city boundaries continue south until about Colonial Boulevard. Anything south of the city limits is known as south Fort Myers, an unincorporated area of Lee County that was home to nearly 50,000 people in 2000. It’s a large swath of land between Lehigh Acres, San Carlos Park and the Caloosahatchee that incorporates several distinct neighborhoods, including Cypress Lake, Iona-McGregor, Punta Rassa, Whiskey Creek and The Villas. Proximity to the beaches, the HealthPark Medical Center and a county park attract many residents to the area.
Iona-McGregor follows McGregor Boulevard en route to Fort Myers Beach, and because of its proximity to water, offers some homes along canals leading to the Caloosahatchee River and overlooking Cape Coral on the river’s west bank. Located off McGregor are the sprawling Gulf Harbor Yacht & Country Club and the ungated Town and River Estates, offering older homes, some on canals. Commercial development includes restaurants, retail stores and the Tanger Outlet Center at the triangular intersection of McGregor and Summerlin. Punta Rassa is home to the Sanibel Harbour Resort & Spa and a number of condo buildings. Turn from Summerlin Road onto John Morris Road and you’ll eventually find Fort Myers’ only beach, the 731-acre Bunche Beach, where natural tidal wetlands offer a look at Florida’s more wild side.
Whiskey Creek, a 1,500-home subdivision dating from 1969, borders its namesake creek off McGregor Boulevard and is north of Iona-McGregor. Selling points include an executive golf course, a mix of condos, 55-and-older multifamily housing and single-family homes, and a great location—close to the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall, and a number of restaurants and shops.
The Villas, a 1,350-home neighborhood behind the upscale Bell Tower Shops, was platted in the 1950s and boasts mature landscaping, large lots and mostly older homes. The first planned residential neighborhood developed south of Fort Myers, The Villas has a community center, a two-and-a-half-acre park and a voluntary but active homeowners association.
A number of subdivisions and gated communities are found on each side of the Tamiami Trail as it heads south to San Carlos Park. Nearby Lakes Regional Park on Gladiolus Drive is a 279-acre oasis in the middle of all this development, with more than half the park dedicated to freshwater lakes for fishing, canoeing and swimming. Two of the area’s newest high-rises at Riva Del Lago offer resort-style amenities.
Destinations in the eastern portion of south Fort Myers include the Southwest Florida International Airport, the Six-Mile Cypress Slough Preserve and Hammond Stadium, the spring-training home of the Minnesota Twins.

LEHIGH ACRES

Once a 20,000-acre tax shelter for a Chicago businessman-cum-Florida rancher, today’s Lehigh Acres is experiencing sizzling construction activity, with 600 new-home construction permits issued monthly, taxable property values that increased 88 percent during the last year and a population of 42,400. Lee Ratner saw Lehigh’s potential in 1954 when he subdivided his Lucky Lee Ranch, making the east Lee County community the first post-World War II retirement community in Florida. Today the 95-square-mile Lehigh has 152,000 lots (some on lakes and canals), a mix of new and old homes and is one of the more affordable real estate markets in Southwest Florida, sought out by young families and first-time homebuyers. The median age has dropped from 38 in 2000 to 36.5.
Proving Lehigh’s affordability: Condos are priced under and around $100,000 and homes start around $200,000. Some newer, larger homes are approaching the $1 million mark.