Over the past year, the headquarters for the cancer diagnostics company NeoGenomics, food distributor Scotlynn and the eye care facility of Dr. Jonathan Frantz all have been completed at the northwest corner of where Interstate 75 and Alico Road meet.
All of that construction was just the tip of the iceberg of what’s coming next.
Over the next year, visible from the interstate, the 226-unit Centro Apartments are being built. It is just a precursor to a planned slate of projects that will completely transform this quadrant of land.
Some other projects are in the planning and predevelopment phase. Some have construction permits while others are still going through the process of obtaining them, according to Lee County public records, including development orders and construction permits.
TownePlace Suites Hotel, a 126-room hotel, will be the first of this Mariott brand in Southwest Florida. It is being planned for 16917 Vintage Commerce Blvd. with permitting and construction yet to begin.
Avid Hotel at Three Oaks Marketplace, a 119-unit hotel, is planned for a 2.56-acre site at 0 Three Oaks Market Place. It will support a 52,231-square-foot commercial building and have direct access to Brian Song Lane and Hilsman Lane.
Floor & Décor flooring outlet will anchor a retail building of just under 80,000 square feet and will be built on a 5.4-acre parcel at 16917 Vintage Commerce Blvd., just west of the TownePlace Suites and just south of the Centro apartments. It will be the third store of its kind in Southwest Florida, as there is already one in Fort Myers and another in Naples. Floor & Décor sells tile, stone, wood, laminate, vinyl and other types of flooring.
Vintage Commerce Center is a planned, 12-home subdivision, which will have an L-shape, wrapping around the apartment complex and the Floor & Décor-anchored retail center, and already has a construction permit. The homes will be built on part of a 33.9-acre parcel. To the west of the homes will be Three Oaks Parkway and to the south will be Alico Road.
Construction has begun at what will be a 5,943-square-foot Wawa gas station with 16 fuel pumps built on a 2.16-acre site. It will have access to Alico Road and two unnamed access roads. Its address, for now, is 16971 Aaron Warnek Place.
Blue Wave Car Wash’s construction began west of the Wawa and just north of Alico Road at 17001 Three Oaks Market Place.
A 107,930-square-foot Home Depot is being planned at 16972 Three Oaks Market Place. The project, which doesn’t yet have permits in place, also will have a 28,118-square-foot garden center.
The rapid and variety of developments in that Alico Road corridor were amazing, said Randy Thibaut, founder of the LSI Companies land brokerage firm.
“That particular corridor – it’s experienced the benefits of people fleeing and coming to our market,” Thibaut said. “National retailers and apartments and you name it. That corridor had been sleepy for so long. It was just waiting for it. Look at the distribution centers on either side of I-75. The residential growth that’s happening at Wild Blue and Esplanade. The fuse was COVID.”
Alico Road looked like the perfect location for a Home Depot, he said.
“I think they’re going to be busy,” Thibaut said. “They’re going to be able to support all that growth on the east side of I-75 off Alico and Corkscrew Road. There’s going to be thousands of rooftops. There’s plenty of rooftops.”
