In the Know: Turkey Day special edition looks at new grocery stores and apartments plus businesses migrating from Collier to Lee
Happy Thanksgiving, from your two “In the Know” columnists.
One of us grew up in Edison Park in Fort Myers, graduated from Bishop Verot High School and then became a wayward son. He returned near his roots in August, taking the fast-paced challenge of keeping up with real estate trends for the Naples Daily News. That would be Phil Fernandez.
One of us grew up all over the place, graduating from Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut, about 50 years after John F. Kennedy and 10 years before Ivanka Trump. In March, following more than two decades of covering the local sports scene, he established “In the Know” for the Lee County crowd with The News-Press. That would be David Dorsey.
For this special, turkey day edition of the column, we are combining forces, like mashed potatoes and gravy. We are giving you more of the same helpings of exclusive news about real estate and growth and development for subscribers to enjoy each week.
One parallel between Lee and Collier counties we have noticed: The vast number of new grocery stores not named Publix.
This month in Cape Coral, two new Aldi stores opened during back-to-back weeks, a standalone one at 1481 Pine Island Road SW, and one integrated into Coralwood Mall at 2301 Del Prado Blvd. S.
A Lucky’s Market is on the way for the southeast corner of Veterans Parkway and Santa Barbara Boulevard, expected to be complete in late spring.
More In the Know:Updates on Lucky's, Wynn's, Fifth, Brooks Burgers
Sun Fresh Market opened earlier this year at 3853 Cleveland Ave., Fort Myers.
Whole Foods Market has been open for a year now at 6891 Daniels Parkway in Fort Myers.
In Collier County, the owners of the highly anticipated Oakes Farms Seed to Table Market at Immokalee Road near Interstate 75 are pushing hard to unlock their doors in December. They say it could open within the first few days of the month, but workers themselves shrug their shoulders when asked if that's possible.
In the Know:Latest on Oakes, which promises to be 'Disney World of grocery stores'
A Lucky's is slated to debut by March at Gateway Shoppes near Wiggins Pass Road in North Naples. There are a pair of other area options for Collier, one in East Naples, the other on Naples Boulevard, which launched in April.
Sprouts entered the Southwest Florida market in February, planting itself at the newly constructed Logan Landings at Immokalee Road and Logan Boulevard in North Naples. Another one is expected to take root south of the county line in Estero at the emerging Estero Grande center on U.S. 41 near Estero Parkway. Target date: March 2020.
On the other side of the spectrum, Winn Dixie, not far up the road on U.S. 41 in Bonita Springs shut down.
Meanwhile, Aldi opened its third grocery store in the Naples area in August. The store took residence near the intersection of U.S. 41 East and Collier Boulevard in East Naples at Tamiami Crossing.
Read:Aldi grocery stores set for pair of grand openings in Cape Coral
That chain fits in with what Randy Thibaut, president of LSI Companies, is projecting.
“You’re not going to see a bunch more Whole Foods,” Thibaut said. “But you’re going to see a bunch of Aldis. You’re going to see value-oriented short-stay retail. That’s going to be the trend. Our younger generation is spending less time in grocery stores and having everything shipped to the house. They’re not going to the grocery store once a week. They shop daily in some cases.
“If you go to Whole Foods, you’ve got a lot of people buying their meals and taking it home.”
Even Publix has followed that trend, Thibaut said.
“Publix has now entered the market where you can go in there and buy meal kits. Baby Boomers are starting to get caught up in these trends as well. It’s just a change of habit. You can pop in quick and grab what you need. You’re not spending as much time in there.”
The great apartment illusion
Seemingly everywhere you drive in Lee County, apartments are either under construction or just finished construction. Decorum off Six Mile Cypress Parkway, The Edison off Ortiz Avenue and Grand Central off U.S. 41 in Fort Myers are three recently completed.
Many more construction sites are hopping with activity, including off Daniels Parkway just west of JetBlue Park in Fort Myers, two sites off Three Oaks Parkway between Alico Road and Corkscrew Road and more across Cape Coral, Fort Myers and other parts of Lee County.
But believe it or not, the action has slowed. Apartment construction has dipped by 30% from last year, according to data pulled by Nelson Taylor of LSI Companies.
From Phil Fernandez:Who's the new guy? And what's up with Lucky's?
And: 'In the Know' column to launch in Lee County
There were 2,894 apartment unit permits pulled in Lee County in 2018. This year, there have been 1,805 permits pulled.
“What you’re seeing is a byproduct of what started two years ago,” Thibaut said. “Now they’re coming out of the ground. What that tells us is, you know there’s still several apartment developers who want to get apartments out of the ground in Lee County. There are several deals where they haven’t pulled the permit but they’re in the planning stages.
“This has been a hot market for the past six or seven years. Let’s say it’s not the tail end, but so much has been built over the past five years, now you’re seeing a decrease. Because lenders and developers are not as exuberant about starting as many projects. Now, they’ve got to be really careful. Is it oversaturated? Banks are going to be making most of those decisions.”
Thibaut said he didn’t have a crystal ball, but a further slowdown in 2020 wouldn’t surprise him.
“You’re seeing a slew of them being finished right now,” Thibaut said. “Everywhere you go. But now you’ve got to see how that volume gets filled up. There’s a lot of inventory out there. We won’t know until about six months from now how it all works out.”
Lee's apartment spurt of recent years has been happening in Collier.
Complexes, for example, are going up at Livingston and Radio roads and at Goodlette-Frank and Pine Ridge roads, where part of the Magnolia Square shopping center is being wiped out to make room.
Should they stay or should they go?
A big trend to watch next year is whether Collier County firms will keep moving headquarters or at least creating large hubs in Lee County, closer to where many of their workers live.
EHC Inc., a site construction company, was among the latest to make plans to do just that this year.
It's currently building on more than six acres in a relatively undeveloped Fort Myers spot at Canal and Van Buren streets, just a little east of Veronica S. Shoemaker Boulevard. The ideal site is across from the back side of Dunbar High and less than a block from the Hanson Street Extension under construction. Target date: March 2020.
The current location is in the Rail Head Boulevard area off Old 41 Road in North Naples. The new campus will include the EHC corporate office, maintenance and repair facilities, equipment storage yard, water management facilities and additional property to triple the size of the operation when needed.
Other Collier County and Southwest Florida company leaders are finding fertile unused land in Lee County to create headquarters or a new hub to keep growing their businesses. Some company leaders find themselves site-constrained at their current locations.
Another driving factor: Sometimes they're too far away from where employees live and from where a lot of new growth is occurring in more northern parts of Southwest Florida as Naples to the south hits up against the generally protected Everglades.
There are a lot of jobs, but not a lot of qualified people who can live where the jobs are because the companies cannot pay what is needed to live comfortably in the area.
County leaders have conceded the challenge and put in affordable housing rules to encourage more of that kind of construction, and Justin Thibaut, LSI's chief operating officer, believes that will bear fruit in the coming year.
Among the Collier companies on the move to Lee or expanding there:
► Based in North Naples, booming Best Home Services is setting up a new 65,000-square-foot home next door to the new global headquarters for Fort Myers-based cancer diagnostic laboratory NeoGenomics at Three Oaks Parkway and Interstate 75.
Best Home, a current neighbor of EHC, will eventually be moving out of corporate offices that total roughly 20,000 square feet.
► Founded in Naples in 2003, My Shower Door is establishing its North American headquarters and the D3 Glass Manufacturing plant off Alico Road in Lee County.
In addition to housing corporate offices, training facilities and distribution, the 7.5-acre campus features manufacturing, tempering and laminating of glass. The property includes a 60,000-square-foot multi-purpose building with the option to expand another 10,000 square feet.
► While not designating it as a headquarters, Naples-based Conditioned Air is expanding into a new 52,710-square-foot operations center in Lee County.
The new building — at Jetport Loop and Global Parkway in the Southwest International Commerce Park — will include roughly 10,800 square feet of office space and a little more than 31,000 square feet of warehouse, with a nearly 11,000-square-foot mezzanine planned for storage and future expansion.
But in the end, does it matter that much where the companies are located, as Collier and Lee together try to position themselves as a destination nationally?
Aside from the potentially minor hit on the tax base, Thibaut has said no.
All this movement, all these companies spending money to grow is a "great indicator" of a vibrant Southwest Florida economy that benefits everyone, he said.
"The county line is an invisible line," he said. "These all have regional impacts."
The moves, though, have had some unintended consequences as at least two commissioners are looking for ways to give builders a major break that could end up hitting taxpayers in the pocketbook. After years of supporting the idea that growth should pay for itself, the Collier County commission has moved to lower impact fees.
More:In the Know: Will commissioners make current residents pick up the tab for future growth?
And:In the Know: Traffic jams, higher tax bills possible after economic break for developers
The result, say some county officials, is that taxpayers may have to pick up the bill that developers are leaving on the table. Another option is reducing the money for projects, such as road construction, which residents fear will lead to the kind of horrid congestion experienced by residents in places like Miami, just across Alligator Alley.
Traffic cost the United States $87 billion in lost productivity in 2018. That works out to $1,348 per driver, according to data analyzed by research firm INRIX.
The commission lowered impact fees this month but promised to take another look on Dec. 10.
Commissioners Bill McDaniel and Donna Fiala have aligned themselves with developers. Commissioners Penny Taylor and Burt Saunders have taken up the cause of the taxpayers. Taylor remembers a time only two decades ago when lack of planning and funding led to "sewage spilling into the streets."
Commissioner Andy Solis has set himself up as the swing vote. McDaniel said there must be some other source for money other than impact fees. Saunders challenged him to come back with a plan at their next meeting.
Connect with these reporters: NDN-InTheKnow@gannett.com.