Cape Coral High School has found itself with a larger student body year after year, reflecting the population boom occurring in Cape Coral. An increase in the city’s population has led to a need for more infrastructure, whether that be shops, healthcare facilities, and housing— all of which are components of the Bimini Square development.
Senior Dakota Downey has lived in Cape Coral her whole life and has noticed the growth in Cape Coral. “There is traffic everywhere and apartment buildings pop up every few months,” said Downey. “It makes me feel like we need to start controlling population in a reasonable way. At least make some roads wider. it’s also made me irrationally angry towards snowbirds and just non-Florida natives in general.”
Bimini Square is a construction occurring down Cape Coral Parkway on the waterfront near Four Freedoms Park that will provide the city with several more amenities for its residents. Bimini Square is expected to have 218 units, 70,000 square feet of commercial space, and a 500-stall parking garage.
The City of Cape Coral is also set up to benefit economically from this construction. Without mentioning the 75 to 150 employees working on the construction on site, Bimini Square will pay $750,000 worth of real estate taxes to the city and has already paid $2,000,000 of impact fees and permit payments.
Penthouse apartments, courtyards with seating and grills, a fitness center, a yoga studio, a dog wash room, and a rooftop infinity edge pool are just some of the amenities that Bimini Square is offering. The company leading this development is Crown Development, a construction company based in North Dakota.
Bimini Square is Crown Development’s third project in Cape Coral, with some of the past ones being the Club on Pine Island and the Cape at Savona. Matthew Nygard, Vice President of Crown Development, was first interested in construction in Cape Coral after vacationing here.
Despite the distance between Florida and North Dakota, Crown Development has relied on partnerships, teamwork, and trust to make these projects a reality. “Over the years we have formed great relationships with local professionals and contractors,” said Nygard. “We have site cameras that we monitor daily and someone from our office travels to Cape Coral every couple of weeks.”
“My family has been vacationing in Cape Coral, Fort Myers, Naples the last 12 years and love the area,” said Nygard. “We noticed the demand for housing and commercial. We have been building homes, apartments, and commercial projects for almost 40 years in the Midwest and we took our experience from developing in the Midwest to Southwest Florida.”
A central aspect of Bimini Square is Crown Development’s partnership with Lee Health System. Lee Health’s presence will consist of two buildings, the first will have 42,000 square feet and will have general pediatrics, pediatric behavioral medicine, cardiology, primary care, and ancillary services which include lab outpatient lab draws and radiology.
There will be a parking garage sandwiched in between the second building that will have 5,000 square feet and will contain a pediatric rehabilitation suite, and a Breast Center for Women’s Health.
Dave Ribicki, Vice President for Outpatient Services, is responsible for radiology and lab services across the health system and has been employed with Lee Health for 31 years. “Cape Coral is the largest population wild in Lee County, and it continues to grow at record levels,” said Ribicki. “And we realize that patients like to access their healthcare through outpatient locations and ambulatory locations, as opposed to going to a hospital campus.”
Beyond adding more access points for patients, Lee Health is also expanding and moving the cardiologist out of the hospital for more patient accessibility in addition to expanding their primary care and pediatric providers. Lee Health has also expanded its Surfside location and is planning more developments in the upcoming years.
“Cape Coral is the second largest landmass city in the whole state, so you have to have multiple access points to make it easier for patients to get to you,” said Ribicki. “We’re eventually going to expand to Santa Barbara and Veterans Parkway within the next two to three years to offer additional services there.”
Lee Health is also going to have 20 studio apartments of lower-cost housing to appeal to future graduate medical students interested in becoming doctors and residents. “We’re going to offer that to them because we have a GME program in Cape Coral through Cape Coral Hospital,” said Ribicki. “And so it’s just another opportunity to bring new medical students to town.”
Downey agrees with the necessity of lower-cost housing however is concerned that Bimini Square’s normal housing will not be accessible to the general public.
“I don’t love the idea of expensive housing that will probably go to people who will only be here for 1/4 of the year,” she said. “I think Cape Coral needs more construction projects that aren’t for the wealthy. Honestly, I just want to see some affordable housing, especially with how prices have been skyrocketing in the past years, just ask my mother who’s in the real estate business.”
Senior Haruna Mescallado agreed, stating, “I think we don’t have enough amenities or housing, and certainly not enough affordable housing. Since my dad is homeless I have a little bit of experience (but not a ton) and to my understanding, the resources available tend to be for more critical groups like women and families, which is great for them but not enough resources for like my father.”
Beyond Lee Health, Bimini Square has also partnered with other local businesses such as House of Omelets, PDS Architecture, and Brooks and Freund Construction. “Having these local experts on our team ensures our projects are designed and built with the end user in mind,” said Nygard.
Although the concept of Bimini Square was created in 2021, it became an official project in 2022, and it is expected to be completed in October or November of 2025 barring any weather or hurricane complications.
