The Island at West Bay Club tops out as Estero rarity

The Island at West Bay Club is developer Kolter Urban’s latest ode to exclusivity: a luxury residential tower within a private country club community on Estero Bay.

Manhattan Construction workers recently reached the tower’s 24th floor, where future residents may one day relax by a rooftop pool with soaring views of the bay, the barrier islands and the Gulf beyond.

Manhattan Construction workers, Kolter executives, Estero officials and other industry partners gathered at the site Oct. 30 to celebrate The Island’s topping-out ceremony — roughly marking construction’s halfway point.

Work began in 2025 and is set for completion in mid-2027.

Palm Beach County-based Kolter Urban is the luxury condo division of Kolter Group. The division develops condos ranging from 50 to 500 residences. It has more than $7.8 billion in real estate projects in the southeastern U.S., including $5 billion on Florida’s west coast, according to a company biography.

The Island at West Bay Club is Kolter Urban’s first Lee County condo project.

“The plan is to continue to grow in the (Southwest Florida) area,” Kolter Urban development executive Carlos Gollega said.

The company also has developed towers in Sarasota and Naples, along with other sites in Florida and Georgia.

But it could be the last high-rise condo built in Estero. The village currently does not have other land available to develop one, said Mayor Joanne Ribble, who toured the facility Friday morning with Vice Mayor George Zalucki.

Estero Village Council unanimously approved The Island at West Bay Club, but Ribble added that she favors limiting further high-rise development within the village.

“We don’t want to become the East Coast,” she said.

Kolter purchased the undeveloped, legacy high-rise site, seeking an opportunity to develop it inside West Bay Club, an established community with a championship golf course.

“We were able to acquire it (the Island site) a couple of years ago,” said Brian Van Slyke, president of Kolter’s Florida West Coast Division. “It’s a really unique property in that it is in a gated community, with all the benefits that entails — golf, tennis, pickleball, a Gulf-front beach club… . And The Island is fully amenitized on its own. So, you get a community within a community.”

While Van Slyke declined to reveal the project’s total cost, citing company policy, he said the investment is “well north of hundreds of millions of dollars.”

The tower includes 86 condominiums with sale prices expected to begin at $2.7 million and reach $10 million for two penthouses.

Each three- to four-bedroom condo occupies a corner, with four condos per typical floor.

The building, designed by architecture firm GarciaStromberg, was created to maximize views, said the firm’s CEO, Jorge Garcia.

Floor-to-ceiling windows and sliding doors open onto expansive terraces.

Garcia compared the experience of living in one of the spaces to a waking dream.

“When you wake up and it’s not a dream — here it is,” he said. “It’s real.”

Gourmet kitchens, residences with dens and other luxury features will round out the tower’s interiors still under construction.

The company hopes to sell as many units as possible before construction is complete.

“There’s no set number that we target, but they’re priced competitively in the marketplace, so they’re a good value for the lifestyle that we offer,” Van Slyke said.

If buyers follow historical trends, they may include empty nesters and second-home buyers from Midwestern states, such as Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Missouri.

“We still draw heavily from that region, but we are seeing migration from as far away as California and the northeast,” Van Slyke said.

Headwinds, such as high interest rates, could hurt sales if they weaken confidence in the economy, although most of Kolter Urban’s buyers purchase units outright rather than financing them, Van Slyke said.

Florida’s reputation as a tax-friendly state is also a key selling point for buyers who may want to make it their primary residence.

“There’s been a lot of wealth generated in the past few years and there is still demand in the luxury price points,” Van Slyke said.