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During the land boom that started in the 1950s, developers packed real estate investors nationwide into airplanes and bused them from the Fort Myers airport to Lehigh Acres, where they sold them quarter- and half-acre lots.
The area in Lee County east of Interstate 75 is 30 miles from the closest beach, so developers entertained lot buyers with free booze and food at The Hut and Peace Tropical Gardens. Situated on 3.9 acres off Buckingham Road in Lehigh Acres, the restaurant and gardens hosted exotic Polynesian-style dinners that delighted real estate buyers from northern states.
Now Fort Myers real estate brokerage firm Land Solutions has The Hut for sale for $2.85 million. “It's a cool place and there's a lot of history,” says Randy Thibaut, president of Land Solutions.
The gardens date to 1924, when Edwin Peace settled there with a Tahitian princess bride, Ramira Stephagee, experimenting with tropical plants. Their children sold the property in the 1960s to Marie Louise Books Rector, who opened The Hut restaurant.
Investor Tommy Lee Cook took over the gardens and restaurant in 2011, restoring them to their former glory. “He didn't want to see that memory die,” says Thibaut.
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