Estero Planning, Zoning and Design Board members were underwhelmed April 9 by the proposed design from a Texas-based developer for a planned entertainment complex on a 20-acre property on Williams Road.
High 5, a provider of multigenerational recreational activities with facilities, made one of the four original proposals the village considered when it sought unsolicited offers for private-public partnership on the property that encompasses the site of Golf Coast Driving Range and wooded area.
One of two private developers to anchor the entertainment campus of the overall Village Center Hub, the company’s proposal consists of two floors of indoor/outdoor entertainment space. It includes but is not limited to 16 full-size United States Bowling Congress bowling lanes, eight lanes of duckpin bowling, bocce, 18 holes of outdoor miniaturized golf, axe throwing, laser tag, arcade and virtual reality and escape rooms.
Michael Comparato, CEO of Bonita Springs-based Vieste program management firm, has been working alongside the village throughout negotiations and presented the architectural design of the building, which includes Mediterranean-style architecture.
“This gives you an early-stage representation of some of the direction for some of the building architecture,” he said. “The buildings themselves will be surrounded by outdoor recreation areas.”
Since the village has been working on this project for a year now, planning board members were ultimately disappointed with the design presented.
“I love the concept, and I love what you’re doing,” board member Jim Wallace said. “I love what the [Village] Council is trying to do. With that said, what I’m looking at here, I find looks like a storage facility or distribution warehouse.”
Board members expressed that if this project was going to be dubbed Village Center, it needs to be iconic.
“They need to have diagonal shear walls or 40– or 50–foot towers, that cars see when they’re driving down Via Coconut [Point] and Williams Road, so we all know that this is the village center,” Wallace said. “I think there’s a huge lost opportunity here to do great design.”
The board is seeking a building that has life and energy. “Let the architect have fun and not be constrained by this Mediterranean code,” board member Barry Jones said.
No vote is taken at public information meetings.
“Coming back to the architectural discussion on the buildings for the entertainment campus, that was excellent feedback,” Comparato said. “You’ll see something very different next iteration.”
