Although the sale has yet to be finalized, Evangelical Christian School announced in a news release and on social media March 5 it will purchase the former Hodges University campus in Fort Myers and have it ready in August for the 2024-25 school year.
Listed at $26 million by LSI Companies, the campus has two buildings totaling 110,000 square feet on 17 acres at 4445 Winkler Ave., which is about 5.3 miles from ECS’ current campus at 8237 Beacon Blvd.
ECS, which teaches preschool through high school at its current campus, first opened in 1973 and has about 1,300 students.
Property records show the former Hodges location has been owned since 2021 by UDP Gemini One LLC, which is owned by Campus Capital Partners, based in Dublin, Ohio. Todd Holstlaw, CEO of Campus Capital, could not be reached for comment.
ECS Headmaster John Hunte declined to comment.
But the school announced: “We look forward to utilizing these facilities to provide a world-class, college-prep, academically excellent and Christ-centered education for the Southwest Florida community.”
Justin Thibaut, CEO of LSI Companies, is representing the seller.
“This is a great buyer for this property, given that they intend to utilize it as a school, similar to what it was designed for,” Thibaut said. “It’s very good for ECS to have the potential to acquire a building like this. They’re able to buy it for far below the replacement cost of building that from scratch.”
Thibaut put the listed price of $26 million into context.
“If you take $26 million and divide that by 110,000 [square feet], that’s $236 per square foot. Buildings like this today are somewhere in the $450 per-square-foot range, plus the land. This is an opportunity that ECS seized. I’m very happy for them to have the opportunity to do this and expand their high school.
“We’re excited to close in the near future.”
The former Hodges campus has two buildings. Building H is a three-story building built in 2005 at 63,668 square feet, the property’s sales listing said. Building U is a three-story building built in 2012 at 48,052 square feet. It underwent renovations in 2020.
The city of Fort Myers scouted the campus as a potential new location for city hall. Those talks ended Feb. 20, when city manager Marty Lawing said he had learned it was under contract.
“There’s possibly some other sites in Midtown or others not in the downtown, so we’d have to start looking,” Lawing said of a potential future city hall location. “The main thing that was appealing with the Hodges property was the size of it, room to grow, high-quality construction buildings in good condition.”
