As Royal Palm Coast Realtor Association’s president pointed out, about 1,000 people are still moving to Florida every day, and many of them are finding their way to Southwest Florida.
The association realized five years ago it had been running out of space given the area’s growth. Timetable speedbumps, such as the pandemic, accelerated construction costs and Hurricane Ian, all delayed the project — until now.
Association President Marlissa Gervasoni and her team, plus members of Studio AD architects and Stevens Construction, Fort Myers Mayor Kevin Anderson and Lee County Commissioner Cecil Pendergrass commemorated the groundbreaking Dec. 13 of the association’s new headquarters.
Stevens Construction will manage construction of a 23,384-square foot, two-story building to be built at 5265 Summerlin Commons Blvd., just south of where Summerlin Road connects with Boy Scout Road.
Stevens Vice President Dan Adams crunched some of the numbers in the details.
The project will generate dozens of jobs. It will employ 23 subcontractors, each with five to 20 people on the site.
About 765 cubic yards of concrete will be poured. There will be 23,000 concrete blocks, 21 tons of rebar, 15 miles of wiring and 400 light fixtures.
“We couldn’t be more excited to start his project,” Adams said.
The association has about 25 employees who serve as a support system for more than 10,000 real estate agents, who are members. It is a nonprofit organization supported by membership fees.
The RPCRA, which paid $700,000 for the new property in 2022, declined to divulge the construction budget. The RPCRA sold its previous headquarters off Winkler Avenue in August for $2.2 million, using the profit as seed money for the new construction.
The new headquarters will include training rooms, conference areas, offices, multipurpose rooms, a kitchen, storage and a covered patio allowing for networking opportunities.
“We are there for our members,” Gervasoni said. “We help them with education. We provide them with tools and services. The MLS. We have so many features. We have a hotline. We have tech help.”
All of that required more space, plus room for training classrooms.
“Building this new facility, we’re going to meet our member’s needs,” Gervasoni said. “We’re preparing for the future, and we think this building is the right fit for us.”
Regional growth always tends to stay parallel with the growing number of real estate agents, she said.
“People come down here and find that they do like the real estate aspect of it,” Gervasoni said. “And they get their real estate license. And they determine they want to be a realtor. And they come in, and they join our association.”
