Former Sarasota Italian deli and market property up for sale

Naples/Fort Myers/Charlotte

Government spending: The Lee County Property Appraiser’s office has leased a 31,006-square-foot space in downtown Fort Myers. The office is at 1520 Lee St. in the city’s commercial district. For the past 30 years, the agency has worked out of a space at 2480 Thompson St. right off of Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard and Fowler Street. Lee’s property appraiser Matt Caldwell says in a statement that the space is larger and will better serve the growing area. The deal was brokered by Adam Palmer, managing principal at LQ Commercial. The firm says it is the largest office lease in Southwest Florida thus far this year and the largest in the core of downtown in more than two decades.

Holy moly: Ave Maria, the Collier County master-planned community, has reached a milestone. Developers say that more than 5,000 new homes have been sold within the community since its inception in 2007. The news is based on reports from four residential builders: Pulte Homes, Lennar, CC Homes and Del Webb. Ave Maria, being developed by the Barron Collier Cos., is on Oil Well and Camp Keais Roads on the eastern side of the county. When complete, the 5,000-acre self-sustaining community is expected to have 11,000 residences and 1.8 million square feet of retail and office space. Along with reaching the 5,000-home mark, a new commercial center is nearly complete. When it opens, the 21,000-square-foot Midtown Place will count LEDO Pizza, Sunshine Ace Hardware, Dunkin’, Cold Stone Creamery and Ave Nails as tenants. An NCH Immediate Care Center and Umami Ave Restaurant will open early next year.