University village

With 89 buildings and 14,100 students, Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers has become its own small town since it opened in 1997.

But surprisingly little development has occurred adjacent to the 760-acre campus just east of Interstate 75. You can blame the recession for that.
Now that the recovery is underway, that's about to change. Private Equity Group, a Fort Myers-based real estate land-investment and development company, plans to start developing a mixed-use project nearby called CenterPlace.
Private Equity acquired 5,300 acres adjacent to the university in 2012 from Alico for $10 million. On an 886-acre portion of that land, the company plans to build CenterPlace, which will have room for 1,950 multifamily units, a 250-room hotel, a 30,000-square-foot conference center, an office and research park totaling 300,000 square feet, 246,400 square feet of retail space and 100,000 square feet of office space.
“We're going through zoning right now,” says Donald Schrotenboer, president of real estate for Private Equity Group, a company controlled by CEO O.J. Buigas.
Buigas has a track record of success, acquiring and disposing of real estate and other assets totaling more than $2 billion in Southwest Florida over 30 years. Private Equity has delivered 42% annual compounded return on invested equity, the company says.

Schrotenboer also has a well-established development pedigree. He moved to Southwest Florida to help Domino's Pizza founder Tom Monaghan create the new town of Ave Maria in eastern Collier County in partnership with Barron Collier Cos. Before joining Private Equity Group, Schrotenboer was president of Alico Land Development.