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Naples developer Paul Hardy is moving ahead with plans for a new 240-acre business park in Fort Myers, his second push at developing the property.
Alico ITEC Park is slated to contain as much as 4.7 million square feet at build out. The property is adjacent to, and dependent on, the $14 million construction of the four-lane Alico Road scheduled to be built later this year.
Hardy isn't waiting. He plans to break ground on the park's first building in the third quarter of this year and complete infrastructure work by year end. He also hopes to have all of Alico ITEC's lots sold within three years.
“We're going to position this as the premier corporate park in Fort Myers and the whole region,” he says. “There really isn't anything like it in Lee or Collier counties.”
The property is home to Florida Gulf Coast University's 25,000-square-foot Emergent Technologies Institute, and Hardy intends to build on that presence.
“The relationship with the university is very important,” he says of the school, which is located near the property, as is the Southwest Florida International Airport. “So we've made a conscious decision to go for office and business space, with an emphasis on high tech in keeping with the university's presence.”
Hardy says the park, which his ITEC LLC will control through a master-development agreement, will also be environmentally conscious, with LED lighting and other “green” features.
“We plan to do anything we can to emphasize the green concept in the park,” he says.
The plans will mark Hardy's second push at developing the former “Innovation Hub.” He and partners owned the property and sold it for roughly $21 million to a developer whose plans ran into the previous decade's economic recession.
In January, Hardy's group bought it back, this time for $6.2 million.
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