Hal Arkin has dealing real estate in Cape Coral for 53 years.  

The commercial real estate broker with RE/MAX worked for about 15 of those years in pulling together a deal off Pine Island Road.  

A new emergency room/urgent care clinic is being built at the southwest corner of Pine Island Road and SW Third Place.  

The same group that owns Fawcett Memorial Hospital in Punta Gorda is developing it.  

Arkin needed more than a decade to acquire the different parcels. He sold the 12.7 acres for $7.3 million in December 2019.  

“They are presently doing phase one,” Arkin said. “They will be building additional medical buildings as time progresses.”  

There will be a 10,850 square-foot freestanding emergency room with 11 examining rooms, Arkin said. The clinic will have about 40 employees, and PHM Group is managing construction, he said.  

An expansion of medical facilities in Cape Coral is much-needed, Arkin said.  

To get an idea of how much Arkin has seen the city grow, Arkin noted that Connie Mack III, the future congressman and U.S. Senator, was in banking when Arkin first arrived.  

“Before he got into politics, the very first loan that I ever took out in my life, he was the banker,” Arkin said. “Isn’t that wild? When I came to Cape Coral, Del Prado Boulevard from Coronado to Pine Island Road was a two-lane dirt road.  

“And when I came here, there were just around 4,000 people.  

There was one traffic light. That was at the intersection of Cape Coral Parkway and Del Prado. There wasn’t even a bridge. And there was one blinking light in the entire city. That was the major intersection of Del Prado and Pine Island Road.”  

Arkin helped broker another deal just down the way.  

Arkin brokered five acres, and Skip Thinnes of Lee & Associates brokered 9.5 acres on the corner of Pine Island Road and Nelson Road.  

The Palms of Cape Coral, a 238-unit apartment complex, is taking shape there.