Estero's intelligent designer

A woman credited with helping define the Estero landscape and fuel growth in the unincorporated community walked away with one of its most prestigious honors on Thursday.

The Estero Chamber of Commerce branded Margaret Miller its Person of the Year in a luncheon ceremony at the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort and Spa.

Miller is president of Miromar Development and is the first person to be awarded the honor twice, said Meg Judge, who founded the Estero Chamber of Commerce eight years ago and serves as its chairwoman.

“I take great pride in this area and everything we’ve built here,” Miller said as she accepted the award. “It’s an honor for me to do business here.”

Miller won the award five years ago after her development company opened the Miromar Outlets Mall on Corkscrew Road, a project that was built in the late 1990s and provided a catalyst for growth in the unincorporated south Lee County community.

Estero has since ballooned from 15,000 residents in 1997 to nearly 40,000 seasonal and full-time residents with a $5.5 billion tax base today.

Miller was awarded the honor this year for building the International Design Center, an upscale home and design center that opened on the southeast corner of Interstate 75 and Corkscrew earlier this year and is expected to attract visitors and industry professionals from throughout the state.

The three-story design center in April opened with 13 showrooms and will include 70 when completed.

“It’s another fabulous addition to our community,” said Judge, who also lauded the company for the Miromar Lakes residential project on Ben Hill Griffin Parkway.

“Miromar Lakes was a rock quarry and now look at it,” Judge said. “It’s a beautiful development with $7 million homes in it.”

Miller first purchased property in Estero in the late 1990s and Miromar Development now owns roughly 2,000 acres of the 27 square miles found within the community’s boundaries, Miller said.

Future projects the Miromar Development company has planned for Southwest Florida include a professional business park in Estero that will sit adjacent to the International Design Center, Miller said.

“There’s going to be a hotel there as well,” Miller said.

And the development company isn’t done with the project that started it all — the Miromar Outlet Mall on Corkscrew Road.

The mega mall is now in its fifth phase of construction and Miromar Development has plans for two more phases, Miller said.

Past recipients of the chamber’s Person of the Year award include Florida Gulf Coast University President Bill Merwin, Lee County commissioners Ray Judah and John Albion, and Carlos Cabrera, vice president and managing director of the Hyatt.

Judge was named the chamber’s first Person of the Year for founding the group, which operates under the direction of a 10-member board.

“If I hadn’t had started the chamber, the boundaries of of Bonita Springs would run all the way up to Corkscrew Road,” Judge said.