Alessio Trade Center will be doing more than bringing 600 jobs to the city of Fort Myers, said Sawyer Smith, an attorney and spokesperson for Alessio Development. He said it will activate needed business development along all of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard corridor.  

“This is an important project because it turns over a piece of land that was otherwise holding up development,” Smith said of the southwest corner of Interstate 75 and State Road 82.  

The land was part of 159 acres Alessio purchased for $10 million in 2022 from Buc-ee’s, a Texas-headquartered gas station chain that sold the site because of traffic flow concerns.  

Alessio sold part of the land on the south end off Ortiz Avenue to an apartment developer and is building two warehouses totaling about 250,000 square feet on the northern end, parallel to the interstate. The construction project will cost almost $50 million.  

“This shows the rest of the corridor that we’re ready,” Smith said. “And the corridor is ready to bring jobs and bring industry and bring development to the neighborhood.”  

On Dec. 14, Mickey Alessio, business partner Frank DeFiore and Smith put their ceremonial shovels in the dirt along with about a dozen of their business partners and Fort Myers dignitaries.  

The first of two warehouse buildings will begin vertical construction in about 10 days, Alessio said.  

Alessio doesn’t just own and manage the company. He works alongside the construction crews, too.  

“There’s people in this world who build, and there are some people who actually build,” Smith said. “Alessio is one of those guys who gets down and gets dirty. You know, I wish I could keep Mickey in a boardroom. But instead, he’s on a tractor. He’s on a backhoe. He’s on a dozer. That’s what he’s like.”  

Ace Pickleball Club is the first announced tenant and plans to build 16 pickleball courts within about 33,000 square feet of space, Fort Myers franchise owner McKinley Cooper said. 

“I couldn’t be more excited,” Cooper said. “What a great place to be in Fort Myers.”  

The first building should be finished by the end of 2024. The second building, to be built parallel to the first, will begin construction about six months later.  

“We’re not only the developer,” Alessio said. “We’re also the general contractor.”