Estero-based developer Cameratta Cos. completed the $92.8 million purchase of roughly 2,700 acres in southeastern Lee County, marking the largest land sale of the year so far by both acreage and price, according to a deed recorded June 5 by the Lee County Clerk of Courts.

The project is known as Kingston.

“It’s a huge moment for Cameratta Companies,” said Joe Cameratta, CEO of Cameratta Companies. “This was a very large acquisition. We’ve bought half the property so far. The other half we’ll be closing on in the next 12 months.”

Cameratta Cos. has eight employees and has been reshaping Southwest Florida’s Corkscrew Road corridor over the past decade.

Kingston will be built over the next decade and beyond, starting with plans to build 1,118 single-family homes as the first phase of the project, clustering them while preserving 60% of the property to become restored wetlands and flow-ways and green space, Cameratta said.

“Ultimately, we have the builders all signed up,” he said. “We have an Esplanade with Taylor Morrison going in there. We’ve got Neal Communities going in there. We’ve got Lennar and Pulte going in there.

Cameratta has yet to purchase much of the rest of the land for Kingston on the northwest side of Corkscrew Road but has it under contract with a company owned by Texas-based King Ranch.

King Ranch still owns adjacent land between Corkscrew Road and State Road 82, where plans call for about 700,000 square feet of commercial space and thousands of homes to be built over the next 25 years.

“Ultimately, we have a license agreement with them on the next phase to continue to develop,” Cameratta said. “You can only do so many at once.”

In January, Lee County traded about 195 acres with Cameratta Cos. as part of a property rights lawsuit settlement agreement, giving Cameratta more land along Corkscrew Road while giving up land along State Road 82 on the north side of what would be developed in the future.

Cameratta Cos. agreed to develop the land and restore wetlands, which avoided both a $63 million lawsuit and the prospects of rock mining on the land — mining that could have been approved after Lee County commissioners, including current commissioners Brian Hamman and Cecil Pendergrass, voted in 2018 to remove Map 14.

Removing Map 14 gave landowners a new ability to rezone land in an area previously known as the Density Reduction/Groundwater Recharge, which only allowed one home per 10 acres and did not allow rock mining.

The current development order filed with Lee County allows for the first three phases of three land pods, as Cameratta Cos. hires contractors and begins installing infrastructure. This includes roads and water and sewer lines. Phase one of pod one will have 554 homes, and phase one of pod two will have 214 homes, plus 90 townhomes. Phase one of pod three, located at the elbow, on the northwest corner of where Corkscrew Road turns from heading eastward to heading northward, will have 350 homes.

All phases of the Kingston project have been met with opposition from environmental groups, including Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity and Conservancy of Southwest Florida, citing concerns over the disappearance of Florida panthers and other wildlife habitats.

Rob Moher, president and CEO of Conservancy of Southwest Florida, declined an interview but released the following statement: “The approval of the Kingston development permit is deeply concerning for our community, wildlife and the Greater Western Everglades ecosystem. This decision comes despite significant deficiencies in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s biological opinion on this project. The biological opinion, completed under the Endangered Species Act, is meant to safeguard imperiled species. However, the Kingston biological opinion contains serious flaws that would set a troubling precedent for Southwest Florida wildlife, one of the very reasons people choose to live and visit here.”

Cameratta counters that Kingston is not part of the wildlife corridor being proposed by the state and that the company will plant thousands of trees and restore historic wetlands on what had been farmlands.

“We have wildlife connectivity,” Cameratta said. “Everything’s tied together. It allows for movement of the panthers within their habitat.”

“There’s going to be quite a bit of wetlands restoration. When you create all the flow-ways like we’re going to do. We’re going to be planting millions of trees and plants.

“We’re three years into this. And you can’t even imagine how many reviews we’ve had. And how many questions and how many changes and how much mitigation we’ve had to do.”

Environmental concerns are being addressed in planning the community, Cameratta said, and that includes reestablishing natural flow-ways to the south. This, he said, would be done at the developer’s expense, not the taxpayers’.

“Everything is so state of the art that it’s unbelievable,” Cameratta said. “You’ve got the restoration on old farm fields and sod fields. We’re going to plant thousands of trees.

“We’re putting in the first phase of lots. We have building contracts with mostly national builders. And then we’ll continue along our path.”

Paige Rausch, a real estate agent with Aslan Realty Advisors and the first to research the deed and share it with Gulfshore Business, said she recognized the environmental controversy but trusted Cameratta Cos. to keep its promises.

“They have proven themselves to be highly credible developers given the amount of projects they’ve already finished,” Rausch said. “I have a strong belief they will stick to their word to restore the wetlands and establish the wildlife corridors. I have a strong belief and confidence in them. They’re creating 400 acres of wetlands. I believe they will keep their word. They’re very professional.”

For Cameratta, one thing always has led to another. The company developed High Point Place, condominium towers that rise up to 32 stories near downtown Fort Myers.

But since 2004, Cameratta Cos. has focused on building homes and communities along Corkscrew Road. It began with The Preserve at Corkscrew, a subdivision of 441 homes, about 2 miles east of Interstate 75. It continued with Corkscrew Shores (670 homes), The Place at Corkscrew (1,325 homes) and then Verdana Village (2,400 homes).

With Verdana Village about 60% sold, Cameratta can turn its attention to Kingston.

“We’ve been going through permitting since January of 2022,” said Ray Blacksmith, president of Cameratta Cos. “It’s been a long process. It got held up with the permitting. We’re putting all the infrastructure in. We’ve got to get that going.”