Koreshan Parkway property's development plans tweaked

The 36-acre property on Koreshan Parkway that Greg Toth had hoped would be a mixed-use development is now going to be a commercial strip instead.

Estero Oak LLC bought the parcel popularly known as Koreshan 36 and plans to develop 300,000 square feet of commercial retail and office space on it.

The property already has a development order and construction should begin in the next week or two, said Steve Hunt, partner in Estero Oak and owner of Hunt Construction. He said the project should be finished in 24-36 months.

The property consists of eight outparcels of about an acre and a half and an inner parcel that will house 120,000 square feet of commercial space.

Three of the outparcels already are under contract and there is a letter of intent on the fourth, said Tiffany Luongo, sales and marketing director for Select Real Estate, who also brokered the $17.6 million deal.

When complete, the development will have 8-12 restaurants, probably including a specialty dessert shop, a cigar and martini bar and a confectioner, Luongo said. Other potential tenants include a bank, a spa and entertainment venues.

The property will benefit from its location, Hunt said, noting nearby Three Oaks Parkway is being widened and that construction should start next year on the Estero Parkway overpass over the interstate.

“I believe we are tying into a tremendous reservoir of residential rooftops,” said Hunt, who until recently has been primarily involved in residential development. “That is going to be more than enough to support us. We are already surrounded by several thousand new homes on Estero Parkway.”

It was precisely because of the location that Toth would have rather seen the property turned into a mixed-use project. The plan had been to partner with a developer to create some commercial space and small to mid-size apartments or condominiums that would have served professors or students from FGCU, Toth said.

“Since we can recoup our cost in commercial, it would have allowed us to make good, small size affordable units,” he said. “And we would put relevant retail development under it.”

But with little enthusiasm from the county for a mixed-use project and carrying costs growing with increasing interest rates, it was no longer feasible to hold onto the property, he said. He is setting his sights on another 35-acre property the company owns on either side of Sandy Lane on Corkscrew and Williams Roads.

“It was time to move on. We still have high hopes for the Sandy Lane property, and hopefully the timing is better on that,” Toth said.