FRP and Woodfield break ground on $81.5M Estero mixed-use

FRP Development Corp and Woodfield Development have started construction on the first phase of the Coconut Road mixed-use project in the Village of Estero, Florida, with an $81.5 million construction loan from Santander Bank that works out to roughly $275,000 per first-phase apartment home. The initial build-out at 23281 Lyden Drive, across from Coconut Point, includes 296 apartment homes in three- and four-story buildings and 30,000 square feet of retail space. The first residences are scheduled to deliver in the third quarter of 2027.

That phase is the opening slice of a larger plan calling for approximately 600 apartment homes, 80,000 square feet of retail, 20,000 square feet of office and a 190-room boutique hotel, with Dover Kohl & Partners on the design. Brooks & Freund is the general contractor for the first phase, working alongside Humphreys & Partners Architects and interior design firm ID & Design International. Estero sits south of Fort Myers.

Santander's loan makes rental income the piece that has to perform; the 30,000 square feet of retail in the phase is a supporting use, and the planned office and hotel come later. Mixed-use is drawing public money elsewhere too — Sandy Springs approved $4.3 million in incentives for a mall-to-mixed-use conversion, as this publication reported — but this project is running on private debt.

The loan is sized only for the phase now breaking ground; the next construction loan will show whether lenders see the same math once the 2027 apartments are delivered.