Tim Aten Knows: Construction underway at Brightshore Village  

Q: I’m sure you must have written about this already, but I apparently missed it in my travels. What is that enormous land-clearing project on the north side of Immokalee Road relatively near the turnoff to Ave Maria? It’s gigantic. Is that the Ave Maria expansion? Are they jumping Immokalee Road, or what? Thanks. – J.C. Bruce, Naples 

A: Construction recently began for Brightshore Village, a major mixed-use development east of Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Golden Gate Estates. The master-planned residential and commercial project is being developed by Naples-based Barron Collier Companies near the northwest corner of Immokalee Road and Everglades Boulevard North.  

“Ultimately, it will be about 1,400 single-family homes and 600 apartments or townhomes,” said Blake Gable, CEO of Barron Collier Companies, which also developed the nearby community of Ave Maria. “We broke ground in February and we’re doing the base infrastructure now. And we should be in a position to start turning over pods for homebuilders soon. We’re hoping for September.”  

The Brightshore Village project was approved by Collier County commissioners in October 2022, creating the Brightshore Community Development District to oversee the infrastructure and services on the more than 680 acres of former farm fields. When approved, the project promised 106,000 to 120,000 square feet of goods and services; a minimum of 20,000 square feet of civic, governmental and institutional uses; and a maximum of 100,000 square feet of indoor self-storage. 

Single-family homes, townhomes and apartments will be built in different neighborhoods within Brightshore by multiple national homebuilders, which will be formally announced by Barron Collier Companies after the Sept. 18 closing date on the parcels. Two builders will have their own neighborhoods and then two builders each will share two other neighborhoods, said Cee Cee Marinelli, vice president of commercial leasing for Barron Collier Companies. 

“We’re looking at January of ’28 for move-ins,” Marinelli said. 

Commercial plans 

Brightshore will include a 95-acre “village center,” a concentrated area with commercial, civic and institutional uses. The commercial village center on either side of the two entrances into the new community off Immokalee Road will separate the residential area from the busy thoroughfare.  

The commercial lots most likely will include a combination of a retail center and freestanding businesses west of the community’s entrance, and a grocery tenant and additional outparcels east of the entrance, Marinelli said. “We’ll have a traditional retail strip, and then we’ll hope for a grocer of some kind and probably a bank and other services,” she said. 

The businesses will be open to the public. The gatehouse into the private residential area will be built north of the commercial area along Immokalee Road. 

The community’s interior road network will include Brightshore Boulevard and Luminary Way, according to site development plans by Peninsula Engineering, part of Barron Collier Companies. The “bright” names of neighborhoods within the village will include Cascade at Brightshore, Horizon at Brightshore, Radiance at Brightshore and Sunward at Brightshore.  

The single-family homes and townhomes will be built first, and the apartments will be built later on commercial property directly behind the retail strip along Immokalee Road. 

“We’re not in a rush, obviously, given the state of the [multifamily] market,” Marinelli said. 

Residential amenities 

Brightshore Village will have nearly 300 acres of open space and focus on simple, organic outdoor living. 

“We have a huge central park that will go up the middle with open green space that’s really going to be unique and a great addition for families and just outdoor recreation,” Marinelli said. 

A linear park with a walking trail and outdoor fitness stations will ring a narrow “bracelet lake” snaking around the edge of the village. At least three pedestrian bridges over the perimeter lake will connect to the community park. The neighborhoods of homes also will surround small interior lakes. 

“We’re really focusing on lake life. You’ll be able to have a motorboat,” Marinelli said. “You’ll be able to fish and recreate on the lake. There are not many communities in Collier County that you can do that. Really, the differentiating factor for this is it’s going to be a lake community.” 

A 15-acre amenity center will be located near the center of the community. Plans for the gated community’s amenity center show a one-story fitness building that features a large fitness studio with a cardio wing and cross-training veranda, as well as separate group fitness rooms, a game room and an activity room. 

The Commons area also will include a nearly 8,200-square-foot organic swimming pool and pool deck, four outdoor pickleball courts, an outdoor basketball court, separate dog parks for big and small dogs, a playground, mail kiosk and a lake with a boat dock and ramp. Future expansion plans show a one-story social building with outdoor dining, another eight pickleball courts, two tennis courts, a pavilion and shade structures.  

“We’ll eventually have a covered sports pavilion, so it will be covered basketball and pickleball,” Marinelli said. “It will eventually have food and beverage. We’ll have a restaurant.”  

RSLA FAQs 

The Brightshore Village project is part of the Rural Land Stewardship Area planning and zoning overlay, a conservation program approved in 2002 for about 185,000 acres in eastern Collier County. Landowners, agreeing to protect their environmentally sensitive land in exchange for credits from the county, can use the credits to entitle development on a less sensitive piece of privately owned land at an increased density.  

The Brightshore master-planned community is considered a village because it is self-contained.  

“It meets the village criteria for the RLSA. It’s smaller, which required a smaller amount of commercial,” Marinelli said. “With Ave [Maria], we were required [to build] a significant amount of commercial.”  

Brightshore also has a proposed future interconnection to the vast acreage immediately to its east that Barron Collier Companies also owns. “Eventually, that could be another town, quite honestly,” Marinelli said. “But we don’t have entitlements. We’d have to go through that whole process.” 

The Tim Aten Knows weekly column answers local questions from readers. Email Tim at Tim.Aten@NaplesPress.com.