The Cove at 47th combines apartments with restaurants and retail in downtown Cape Coral as developers navigate rising apartment vacancies across Southwest Florida.
Brian Tietz
Cape Coral exemplifies what happens when two luxury apartment complexes get built just as demand falls and supply rises.
Located about half a mile apart along Cape Coral Parkway, The Cove at 47th and Bimini Square are courting similar customers, with the latter pricing above market rate and featuring amenities including a fifth-floor rooftop infinity pool overlooking adjacent Bimini Basin and an on-site Lee Health clinic.
The Cove at 47th rents start at $1,915 for a two-bedroom, two-bath unit with 979 square feet; Bimini Square rents start at $2,640 for a two-bedroom, two-bath unit with 1,146 square feet. That’s $1.96 per square foot at the Cove as compared to $2.30 per square foot at Bimini Square, about 17% more.
Both complexes began the year by offering two to three months’ free rent, depending on the lease terms. The Cove at 47th sweetened the deal by offering free tolls over the Cape Coral Bridge.
Flaherty & Collins, based in Indianapolis, developed 327 units at The Cove at 47th. It builds apartments across the upper Midwest, making The Cove its first foray not just into Cape Coral, but into Florida.
“This was one where we were connected with the community,” says Robert Flaherty, CEO of Flaherty & Collins. “We recognized the demand at the time. We saw this as a great opportunity, jumping on the growth of the area, record-low vacancies. We wanted to be a piece of that with a shared vision with the city.”
Flaherty recognized the irony of vacancy rates shifting from record lows to record highs concurrent with construction of The Cove.
Bimini Square in Cape Coral offers luxury amenities and workforce housing as developers compete for renters in a softer Southwest Florida apartment market.
Brian Tietz
“The true secret to affordability is delivering more units,” Flaherty says. “That’s applicable across the nation. Right now, Southwest Florida is a good case study of what happens when you do increase the supply, and what that does for affordability.”
The Cove also furthered its connectivity to Cape Coral by incorporating a restaurant row: Aqua Seafood Steaks & Raw Bar, Big Nick’s BBQ, Seed & Bean Market and Oak & Stone are located in a row along SE 9th Place. They are sandwiched between Cape Coral Parkway and 47th Terrace, just beneath the apartments.
“It’s unique in the market,” Flaherty says. “You can go to Aqua and get a rooftop dinner. We like how that carves us a niche in the market.”
Crown Development, based in North Dakota, developed its own niche at Bimini Square, just down the road. There are 218 units, with 20 reserved as workforce housing for Lee Health employees.
“You have to look at the niche you’re going after,” says Larry Nygard, president of Crown Development. “If you go after that niche, I think there are still opportunities out there. On a macro level, there’s going to be some pain in the market. But that doesn’t mean we’re not looking at doing more projects in the Cape Coral-Fort Myers area.”
Crown Development also built The Club on Pine Island, a 195-unit complex at 315 SW Pine Island Road. A two-bedroom, two-bath unit with 1,169 square feet starts at $1,499 per month with up to two months free.
“We finished that in mid-2024,” Nygard says. “That one sits today at 94% leased. That’s a market niche that we went after at the lower end of the spectrum. I think we met all the marks on that one.
“Bimini Square, I put that on the exact other end. Bimini Square isn’t a live-work kind of place. It’s a lifestyle choice. Every one of the tenants could have lived in a house or a condo. They have their choice to pick from. Why would they pick Bimini Square? It’s highly amenitized. It’s very convenient. It’s got the same things they’re used to seeing in their homes.”
Nygard said he has no regrets about building apartments at either end of the spectrum, from market-rate to luxury.
Developers say resort-style amenities and long-term investment strategies will help luxury apartment communities compete as Southwest Florida works through an oversupply of new multifamily housing.
Brian Tietz
“What is your objective when you build an apartment?” Nygard says. “Is it to fill it up and sell it? That’s being a merchant builder. We were and are inundated with merchant builders. They want to build something. They want to stabilize it, which is fill it up. Once they get it built and fill it up, they try to find investors.”
But Nygard said his company doesn’t tend to do that.
“Those kinds of guys, they’re in a tough spot right now,” he says. “There are not a lot of buyers out there today at the prices they need to get out of it.
“The other owner is kind of a guy like me. I’m always building with the idea I’m going to hold long-term. We’ve seen these ups and downs as kind of hiccups. Every ‘up’ creates a down opportunity, and every ‘down’ creates an up opportunity. That’s the cycle.”
Flaherty & Collins sometimes sells its assets. But not The Cove at 47th, at least not now.
“As operators, we’re looking to buy time,” Flaherty says. “It’s all about getting through this wave of oversupply. Because the underlying trend in Cape Coral and Southwest Florida of population growth, lifestyle and regional connectivity, those are all still there. Those aren’t going away. This is a tight window. Real estate is cyclical. It’s all about getting through it to the next cycle.”