Despite Slow Southwest Florida Housing Market, Developers Persist
Four developers have pitched projects for 3,660 houses along Burnt Store Road since January, raising the likelihood that this area will be one of the first to develop when the Southwest Florida housing market recovers.
The Burnt Store corridor of Punta Gorda is the only place in Charlotte County where major new developments have been proposed in the past six months.
The historically rural corridor is one of the last areas in the Southwest Florida housing market with tracts of undeveloped land near the water.
The latest plan by citrus grove owner Bryan Paul calls for 663 houses on 133 acres.
It also would have 27 acres of commercial real estate space, something needed in an area where residents drive to Punta Gorda or Cape Coral for groceries.
Such projects are welcomed by the building industry in Charlotte County, where the unemployment rate rose a full percent over the past year, but developers say they will likely not begin construction for two years.
“Everybody’s doing what’s needed to get the zoning in place, so when the market does turn around (they) can develop it more quickly,” said Andrew Fitzgerald, a representative for Paul.
Neither the water nor the sewer plants will have enough capacity to handle the new developments until 2009. So no construction can begin until water and sewer lines are extended down Burnt Store Road and treatment plants in the area are expanded.
But in order to move those infrastructure projects forward, developers must declare their intentions and sign cost-sharing agreements with the county - one reason many started the permit process without any intention.
Charlotte County officials want the developers to join together to install pipes and widen the road on their own, but so far none has signed an agreement to do so, said County Engineer Dan Quick.
“I don’t think they’re that far along yet,” Quick said. “But everyone has expressed a willingness to work together.”
Yet at least one developer has tried to strike out on his own.
Frustrated by the slow pace of utility work, Realmark Development LLC has asked the county for permission to build his own water treatment facility and hook his 999-home project into North Fort Myers‘ sewer system.
County officials are skeptical, and the utility proposal has gone through multiple incarnations. Its efforts fly against the Burnt Store Area Plan, which was created in 2005, done urging property owners to help facilitate orderly growth.
Developers, in exchange for zoning changes to allow more houses, agreed to pay the full cost of infrastructure improvements and coordinate with each other to prevent a disorderly mish-mash of pipes and roads.
In all, about 5,000 homes are planned for Burnt Store.
County planners would like to avoid what happened with Lennar Communities, the troubled home builder, which opted to push past the other developers and install a small sewer line that only has enough capacity to serve 1,800-home Tern Bay.
Lennar also paid to widen Burnt Store Road, but only the quarter-mile in front of the gated community.
“We’re trying to coordinate this work as much as possible to minimize the disruption to the community,” Quick said.
We will have to see whether this proves true, and if this area is one of the first to be developed once Florida home loan demand returns.
SOURCE: Sarasota Herald-Tribune
