Eagle View Village, a faculty housing complex built behind West Lake Village, is being constructed to make FGCU a preferred employer for future faculty and staff. However, the university’s goal to align itself with its future employees is instead affecting the current student body.  

“I remember when [construction] first started, and I was woken up at 5 a.m. to it, and it was just loud, clanking and building sounds,” senior Zoe Duncombe said. 

Phase one of Eagle View Village broke ground on Nov. 27, 2025, with physical construction activity starting over the last few weeks. The first portion of the project encompasses 74 units of detached one and two-bedroom cottages and two to three townhomes split between 44 buildings. These homes will be priced 20% below market price.

“The tangential benefit to students will be the recruitment of more quality faculty and staff that may historically turn down employment offers because of the cost of living in [Southwest Florida],” FGCU Housing Services said in an email.

Story continues below advertisement

For many students, the construction phase couldn’t be more disruptive, as noise and traffic to and from the site have caused issues for students at all hours of the day.

“[West Lake Village housing staff] said that they had no control over [the noise], but they’ve been getting a lot of calls, and they all definitely felt for the students, and they were telling me to go and file a report,” junior Renee Hoague said.

“A piece of scrap metal or wood hit our window. I only wonder how much damage has probably happened to people’s cars that are in the lot right next to it,” Duncombe said. 

While current residents are dealing with disruptions caused by the construction site, future residents will live alongside the faculty and staff in Eagle View Village during the first set of move-ins in January 2027.

“I think it would feel kind of like you’re being washed over by your teachers, like in high school again,” Hoague said. “I just don’t think it’s very appropriate, especially if they’re having their families live here, and then their families are living with college kids. I just don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Phase one of the project is still on track to be completed in December 2026. The start date for phase two of the project is undetermined, with the flexibility to build housing in future phases varying based on demand.

“I firmly believed that [housing] should have been mainly for students, because housing at FGCU has always been an issue,” Duncombe said. “I’m not sure how to deal with the issue of housing in general for Southwest Florida, because that’s, I feel like a bigger problem than FGCU can handle.”