A site plan shows a proposed Walmart Supercenter anchoring a new shopping center along State Road 82 in east Lee County. The development also includes sites for McDonald’s, 7 Brew Coffee, AutoZone, Panda Express, Wendy’s and other businesses.
Lee County government
Walmart is planning a Supercenter store for east Lee County, the anchor of a shopping center that will serve Lehigh Acres from the south side of State Road 82.
Casto, a development company celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, does most of its work along the Interstate 75 corridor — from Columbus, Ohio, where it has an office, to Sarasota, where it has another — as well as off Interstate 95, with a third office in Raleigh, North Carolina.
But Casto’s work has extended to Southwest Florida, where in January it paid $14.15 million for a little more than 60 acres with about a half-mile of frontage between Parkdale Boulevard and Jaguar Boulevard along State Road 82, across the street from Lehigh Acres.
In early August, Casto sold 18.43 acres to Walmart for $23.9 million, public records show. But what the deed doesn’t show is the millions of dollars Casto already has spent — and will continue to spend — on Walmart’s behalf to entitle and prepare the land for a Walmart Supercenter that will be about 175,000 square feet.
McDonald’s, 7 Brew Coffee, AutoZone Auto Parts, Panda Express, Wendy’s, Mister Car Wash, Suncoast Credit Union, Walmart Gas, Taco Bell and Heartland Dental are all confirmed tenants for the surrounding shopping center, per a public record.
Five other parcels remain available.
Walmart will sit at the back of the site plan, while most of the other businesses will have State Road 82 frontage.
Prior to Casto purchasing the site, a Lowe’s hardware store had been planned as the anchor tenant for what was going to be called Blackstone Corporate Park, according to the original development order with Lee County. Lowe’s will no longer be built on the site, said Matt Drews, development manager for Casto.
“We closed on the land in the very beginning of January,” Drews said. “We had it under contract for a couple of years. It takes a long time to go through all the legal requirements. There’s so much work required to get the property to where you can actually develop it.
“Our deal with Walmart just closed with us for their portion. But we still have years’ worth of work to do on the site.”
Walmart Supercenter should break ground in September and be ready to open by the end of 2027 or early 2028, Drews said.
Casto still owns the remaining acreage and 15 outparcels, where the new tenants will serve a growing population in Lehigh Acres and the forthcoming Kingston development.
“It’s going to be a great retail development in an underserviced area,” Drews said. “We’re excited to bring it to the community.”
Brokers Max Molloy and Alex Henderson of LSI Companies represented Casto in finding the land. Justin Thibaut and Hunter Ward represented the seller, MCIN Bell LLC.
“We work with Walmart and all the other tenants to make sure we deliver what’s required,” Drews said. “A project might take three to five years from start to finish. We have a very good relationship with Walmart. We’re currently working with them on several in Florida and have worked with them across the Southeast for decades.”
Ron Inge, president of Inge & Associates, owns MCIN Bell LLC, which isn’t finished with development activity in and near Lehigh Acres, he said.
Inge said he sold the 60-some acres to Casto because the company has a track record of working with retailers like Walmart.
“That’s where their synergies are at,” Inge said. “These big, massive retailers — you need to develop a relationship with them.”
Inge owns three other nearby parcels he said eventually would be developed.
One of them, about 29 acres on the north side of State Road 82, just west of where the Walmart will be built, lies in Lehigh Acres proper.
In June of this year, Inge paid $6 million for an 8.36-acre parcel on the southeast corner of State Road 82 and Alabama Road South. It has been approved to have buildings of 21,900, 13,200, 10,060 and 2,020 square feet. The retail users of those buildings have yet to be secured, Inge said.
Inge also owns the 31-acre parcel just to the south of where Walmart will be located. He said without the State Road 82 frontage, that likely would be better suited for industrial uses.
The Walmart-anchored shopping center, though, Inge said, should be a game changer for neighboring Lehigh Acres.
“I’ve been involved in that piece for about 14 years with various ownership groups,” Inge said. “I came up with the idea to zone it to something that would be more conducive to the retail needs of Lehigh. Casto took interest and reached out to us through the local brokerage firm. That was exactly what the market needed.
“What Lehigh Acres needs is commercial opportunities. A bigger footprint is what I thought the area needed. It’s close enough to where the folks in Lehigh will be happy to call it their own. I’m really excited about the opportunities coming soon to the eastern side of the county. It’s going to be well-received.”