The next Southwest Florida Commercial real estate network meeting will be on January 30th at 7:45AM in Fort Myers. To sign up to join visit www.swflcren.com for more information.

I have started a new commercial real estate networking group in the Fort Myers area. This is a group similar to a chamber of commerce or BNI, but the advantage is that we only take one person per specialty related to commercial real estate. This is an excellent highly leveraged networking group because it excludes anything outside the real estate arena, which ensures high quality referrals by the members of the group. If you are interested contact me to see if we have an opening for your specialty. The website is www.swflcren.com.

The city of Cape Coral generates only about 8% of its tax base from businesses. The city has added over 2 Million square feet of commercial space in the last 2 years, and that hasn't even put a dent into the pent up demand that the city requires to service all the people that live here. On the corner of Kismet and Del Prado the new strip center called Shoppes at North Cape,  anchored by Publix is going up very quickly. It will include a Beef o' Bradys as a co-anchor to Publix.  According to the economic development director of Cape Coral, the city is motivated to get more commercial projects through permitting faster.  Some notable commercial locations include a neighborhood Walmart Grocery just opened on Pine Island road and Nicholas Pkwy in the last month. The Pine Island corridor remains a super hot area for new sites and is the main draw for residents living in the NW section of the Cape.

 

An exciting new commercial center in Cape Coral, on the corner of Pine Island and Pondella road called Coral Walk is progressing along very quickly. This center is being anchored by a Super Target and Staples. It will also have a Starbucks, Panera Bread, Chili's restaurant, Olive Garden restaurant and a Sports Authority. This is great news for all the residents of NW Cape Coral who are starving for retail stores to shop and dine at, and it should help the residential sector of this market that has been lacking in retail locations for some time.