Land fronting Daniels Parkway, I-75 sells for $35M

A 60.8-acre parcel at the southwest quadrant of Interstate 75 and Daniels Parkway sold for $35 million, or about $575,657 per acre, one of the highest prices paid in Lee County for entitled but unimproved land.

Waypoint Residential, a Boca Raton-based real estate development company, closed on the property Feb. 1. Daniels Parkway JV Development owned the land since buying it for $1.1 million in September 2021 from Daniels Parkway JV Investment, which had held it since 2007.

Gary Tasman, CEO of Cushman & Wakefield Commercial Property Southwest Florida, brokered the transaction. The site had been under contract with Waypoint for about four years.

While under contract, Waypoint guided the property through the rezoning process, Tasman said. According to Lee County records, the vacant land is approved for up to 1,230 apartment units and as much as 500,000 square feet of nonresidential space, including commercial buildings and a hotel with up to 300 rooms. A townhouse component also is planned, with construction expected to occur in phases.

Waypoint could not be reached for comment.

“That’s one of the highest prices paid in Lee County for fully approved but not improved, vacant land,” Tasman said. “We had a lot of obstacles we had to overcome. There was an eagle on the site that left after Hurricane Ian. There were zoning issues.”

The presence of a nesting eagle complicated development of the site. Tasman said the eagle left after Hurricane Ian destroyed its nest in September 2022.

“There’s a very detailed process,” Tasman said of rezoning land previously inhabited by an eagle. “You’ve got to wait two mating seasons before you can do what’s called a taking of the habitat.”

The property sits at the intersection of two major road projects underway in Lee County. Crews are converting the Daniels Parkway and I-75 interchange into a diverging diamond intersection, while work also is progressing to extend Three Oaks Parkway and connect it to Fiddlesticks Boulevard.

That improved road connectivity helped drive the sale price, said Matt Simmons, a property appraiser with Maxwell, Hendry & Simmons.

“You’ve got the corner of I-75 and Daniels,” Simmons said. “And a planned development zoning that’s in place. The Three Oaks extension is creating some activity down there in the south end. That’s some intense land as far as what all’s permissible there. It got a lot of approvals. It’s right, smack in the heart of Lee County. And an interchange with major traffic counts.

“You really don’t have many opportunities left in Southwest Florida for an interchange property like this.”

The roadway improvements are expected to be completed before vertical construction begins on the project, tentatively named Daniels Town Square.

“There’s over 65,000 additional jobs planned along the I-75 corridor over the next three to five years,” Tasman said. “This type of land sale represents the continued confidence in Southwest Florida as an investable location given our strong population growth and job creation. The I-75 corridor continues to be very, very hot. Developers and users are recognizing that this is the growth corridor.

“Our region is preparing for the significant growth that is heading our way. This is an example of the catalyst project of visionary developers who see the opportunity and seize it.”