Bonita to get long-awaited condos

Brought to you by

Bonita to get long-awaited condos
By Pam Witmer
pjwitmer@news-press.com
Originally posted on January 03, 2006

Terry Allen Williams/news-press.com . Jerry Payne clears brush from fields at Vanderbilt Drive and Bonita Beach Road in Bonita Springs on Friday to make way for the Bonita Village condos. BONITA VILLAGE Condominium resort with 156 units in nine buildings on 16 acres Location: Between Luke Street on the west and Meadowlark Lane on the east, on the north side of Bonita Beach Road Price: Ranges from $550,000 to $725,000 as buyers go to contract (Original prices in 2004, at time of reservation, were from $380,000 to $485,000) Availability: All units are either under contract, or reserved. There is a lengthy waiting list in the event some reservations do not convert to contracts. Amenities: An island pool, a water garden, private clubhouse, fitness center, concierge services, and retail shops along Bonita Beach Road for use by residents, and the general public. There will be 30,000 square feet of commercial space, to include a restaurant, boutique grocery store, jewelry store, hair salon, fly-fishing establishment and a real estate office. DELIVERING YOUR WORLD Subscribe to The News-Press Signup for daily email news Printer friendly version Email this article

Two years of Bonita Springs City Council debate, followed by two years of permitting and preconstruction sales, is about to turn into resort condominiums on Bonita Beach Road.

Clearing of the 16 acres of pine and scrub that will be the site of Bonita Village began Dec. 20. Construction is expected to start in February on the nearly $100 million project.

"We're finally getting the site cleared, and we'll be ready to go," said David Lagerman, project developer.

Sales began in February of 2004. The estimate then was that the project could be built out by early this year. Instead, the first buildings will start construction this year.

While construction has been slow in coming, interest in buying the units was immediate, broker associate DeWayne Talley said.

"We had reservations for every unit in the first 109 days," Talley said.

Contract prices for the one-, two- and three-bedroom units range from $550,000 to $725,000. When originally offered in 2004, prices were from $380,000 to nearly $485,000.

The property is at the northeast corner of Bonita Beach Road and Luke Street.

Thursday, a heavy equipment operator was busy pulling out tree stumps on the property.

Just yards away, Valerie Berlin and William Brouwer parked their bikes by a knocked-over Florida pine and pulled long, yellow-green needles from the boughs.

"I want to learn to make things from the needles," Berlin said.

"Maybe baskets."

"I hate to see the trees go down," she said. "I always see so many birds eating from them."

Berlin is a Canadian citizen who has spent the past 16 years wintering in Southwest Florida. Twelve years ago she built a house just blocks from the new condominium project in Bonita Shores.

"It's beautiful," she said of the area. "It's paradise here. I see why more people would want to come here."

But for Berlin, 71, the prices of the new condominiums, ranging from $550,000 to $725,000, mean a financial pinch for her.

"Those prices make my property value go up," Berlin said. "I don't want to sell my property, so that doesn't help me. It just means my property taxes go up."

Talley said reservations for the first three of nine buildings were converted to contracts in December.

Contracts will be signed for two more buildings in January.

Talley isn't just a sales agent for the project.

"I bought two units here myself," he said.

Now a Bonita Beach resident, Talley said he is considering selling his property one block off the beach to move into Bonita Village.

"There will be shops and restaurants right here," he said. "And we'll have our own shuttle to the beach. I'm really thinking about it."

Transformation of the property began in May when several long-standing buildings were demolished along Bonita Beach Road.

The building that once housed Marco's sandwich shop was the first to go. A castle-looking building, a former real estate office, was next, along with an old church that most recently held a women's gym.

What still stands is a little wood-framed building, painted dark green, that is the sales office. It was the former location for Rhodes restaurant.

Lagerman said it also will be destroyed, to make room for new commercial development.

The businesses are expected to appeal to residents of Bonita Village, as well as the public.

Access to Bonita Village residents will be by gated walkways from the condominiums.

The Bonita Springs City Council approved the project with a 5-2 votes in 2002. District representative Robert Wagner, and then-mayor Paul Pass voted against the project. They expressed concerns about high- traffic density in a neighborhood not fit to handle it.

The gated community stretches from Luke Street on the west side to Meadowlark Lane on the east.

Traffic will enter and exit the community from both roads.

Talley said that the majority of people who reserved units in 2004 are still hanging on, despite price increases for the rise in construction costs.

"There are hundreds of people on the backup list," Talley said.