Almost 500 new single-family homes are being planned for south Fort Myers on land sandwiched between Interstate 75 and Treeline Avenue, north of Daniels Parkway.  

Champaign, Illinois-based developer Hartman Capital paid $25 million for 115 acres that had been owned by B.J. Holdings of Fort Myers LLC, which was owned by longtime Fort Myers land investor Brian Freeman. In 2019, Lee County Commissioners voted to rezone the land, allowing for up to 487 residential units and up to 100,000 square feet of commercial development.  

Hartman Capital said it is not yet prepared to share renderings of the future subdivision slated to be across Treeline Avenue from the Plantation Somerset where single-family homes are listed in the $600,000 to $700,000 range. Haris Kurbasic, a former real estate analyst with Hartman Capital who helped negotiate the deal on behalf of his former company, said the new homes being planned would be less expensive than the ones in Plantation Somerset.  

“They’ve got big plans out there,” said Kurbasic, now an analyst with Roofstock, a financial technology company. “Florida’s a hot market. There’s a lot of demand for people. This plan looks at providing good, quality housing for younger families.” 

Gary Fluharty, a broker based in Fort Myers, said he was the only broker involved in the deal, listing the land in December and getting it under contract just days later. 

“A short time,” Fluharty said. “Everything’s a short time in this market. It’s just the market we’re in. They’re doing a series of developments in South Florida. This is one of them.”  

Kurbasic recalled the window of negotiating for the property as short and intense. “It’s a very hot market,” he said. “A lot of different parties tried to get in on this deal. At one point, there was another party that Gary was going to go with. But I used my deal-making skills to make it happen.”