In the Know: Plans set for Oil Well Road's first major shopping area. What's up with Aldi delay in Naples?

So let's check out our overflowing mailbags.

"Long time reader, first time writer. I recently saw a survey company measuring the commercial property on Oil Well Road between Palmetto Ridge High School and Orange Blossom ranch. Any idea who might be looking at the property? Sincerely, InDireNeedofRestaurants."

Thank you for reading and the heads up, Mr. InDireNeed, and for your role in the research.

A check of public records finds that developers represented, in part, by WMG Development and Banks Engineering recently met with Collier County officials to discuss what is right now known as the future Orange Blossom plaza. Lennar, which has residential and commercial divisions and has interests in that area, has repeatedly used Banks and has teamed with WMG in the past.

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The 40-acre tract is owned by a long-time citrus grower. LSI Commercial had it on the market for $11 million, and it's under contract. Here's what we know from various documents including from the county and real estate data:

The gathering, known as a pre-application meeting, is a preliminary step toward major commercial development at Hawthorn Road and Oil Well Road. The latter, destined to one day match up with the county's main east-west corridors as massive growth edges closer to the Everglades, appears on a potential track for its first significant shopping destination on its 16 miles between Immokalee Road and State Road 29.

Plans at the moment call for a grocery anchor, and the land has previously had allowances for up to 200,000 square feet of leasable space.

Based on the history of the players involved, a Publix would be a possibility. The nearest one is three miles away off Randall Boulevard while to the east, Ave Maria's is a 20-minute ride along a route that has numerous housing communities in the works.

The property would link to a proposed county avenue that will connect to the Big Corkscrew Island Regional Park and adjacent fairgrounds at 751 39th Ave. NE, which is currently accessible off Immokalee Road. Right now, that's a three-mile drive to the parkland from that Oil Well Road point, which may eventually receive a traffic light. The new parkway would also have ties to Hawthorn through another future street.

The initial work on all those elements are projected to occur within 18 months or so. Also, slated as part of all this are 15 three-story apartment buildings totaling 360 units.

The county commission's consideration of that piece of the puzzle, which has been compared to the Founders Square housing at Immokalee Road and Collier Boulevard, is probably about a year away.

What's causing Aldi delay in opening?

Aldi backtracked its plans to open at Immokalee Road and Collier Boulevard.

Originally setting a Feb. 10 debut last month, now it doesn't have a firm date on when the unveiling will occur.

Chris Hewitt, division vice president for Aldi, issued this statement Wednesday afternoon: "Our team works hard to meet the expected grand opening date. However, to ensure our new Naples store provides customers with the best shopping experience possible, we’ve shifted our opening date from Feb. 10."

In the statement, Hewitt didn’t provide more as to what is leading to the delay – or if this is an extensive pushback or just a brief one.

So we followed up with him.

“We don’t have details to share about the rescheduling,” Hewitt said Friday, but “we are pleased to confirm the new Naples store will open next month.”

A Naples grand opening page Aldi had created on its website that was operational more than a week ago also had disappeared by Wednesday. The grocer now has no upcoming grand openings listed along the Eastern Seaboard from Florida to Maine. Launching its 2,000th U.S. spot in July, Aldi had been rapidly expanding with nearly 300 new venues the past two years, according to industry magazine Progressive Grocer.

As we've seen around Southwest Florida, businesses have had challenges finding employees, and a few have had to temporarily close for days at a time. The company has $16 an hour associate positions for the planned location that were still up Friday in its job listings.

Also, this past week, the organization announced that some unspecified products in the U.K. that were supposed to be in their stores won't arrive for another month due to shipping "disruptions." Such shortages have been causing challenges for markets.

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A review of Collier public records finds the store had some finishing touches this past week to complete, such as a back and forth on Tuesday between planning and development honchos on the correct placement of crosswalks.

Workers prepping the Chick-fil-A a couple doors or so away from the idling Aldi still were saying Thursday that Feb. 10 would be their official debut, which also was listed that way on its web site. In recent days, the county completed its electrical inspection of the site, according to documents.

Helping 'families for years to come'

Dominium formally announced its acquisition this past week of affordable housing we first told you about last month.

At $22.8 million, The Crossings at Cape Coral is its first Lee County investment following similar projects it has picked up in Collier and Charlotte counties.

The goal is "to provide affordable housing for working Cape Coral families for years to come," said Terry Sween, a vice president.

Built in 2000 using low-income housing tax credits, the complex consists of 168 apartments of one to four bedrooms.

The Minnesota-based enterprise has been involved in affordable housing for a half-century while others seeing the prospect of hefty returns have more recently been spending millions to get into the game. At least four public housing complexes have sold in Southwest Florida in the past month.

"While Dominium’s focus on affordable housing has spanned its history, the current pandemic-driven investment environment is quite strong for affordable housing within the real estate sector," said Mike Voss, director of communications. "We are more focused on the quality of our developments for our residents, lenders and investors through a belief in the power of long-term value creation."

A year from now, Dominium plans a $5.1 million renovation, including upgrades to the units, the exterior, community clubhouse and fitness center, similar to what it did after buying Whistler’s Green Apartments in Naples in 2012 and Seven Palms Apartments in Punta Gorda in 2018.

"After takeover, both properties underwent significant renovations," Voss told me. "Dominium has grown over time through a consistent focus on purposeful, data-driven development coupled with strong long-term ownership and management of properties."

'Connections to help solve crisis'

Of Florida's 3 million low-income households, close to 2 million were paying more than 30% of their household's income on rent, according to Florida Housing Coalition's 2021 report.

"Developing and preserving affordable housing helps address the high demand and short supply of affordable units in Florida," said Voss, indicating the company anticipates Southwest Florida expansion. "Building affordable housing alleviates some of the financial pressure that Florida's low-income families experience."

Voss said his outfit has helped dwellers at its properties in 19 states.

"Roughly half of our over 37,000 residents have incomes near or below the $25,000 a year level, and half of those have incomes below $12,500 a year," he said. "We are focused in Florida because of two key data points: The overall growth of the population and the growing need for affordable housing in the state."

My piece on this topic prompted quite a few of you to touch base with me, including John Harney, a volunteer advocate for Habitat for Humanity of Collier and a member of the county Affordable Housing Advisory Committee.

"The county needs new entities to develop and sustain homes that are affordable," said Harney, who in learning about Dominium through the column was reaching out to it and others for potential partnerships and "connections to help solve this crisis. We feel the common ground is the desire to make development of more affordable homes more attainable by increasing density. We're working to create a groundswell of support."

Based at the Naples Daily News, Columnist Phil Fernandez (pfernandez@gannett.com) writes In the Know as part of the USA TODAY NETWORK. Support Democracy and subscribe to a newspaper.