Former farmland in southeast Lee County has been transformed by heavy machinery into what, for now, looks like a moonscape of dirt at the elbow of Corkscrew Road — where it curves from east–west to north–south near the Collier County border and a wildlife corridor for the Florida panther.
Cameratta Cos. hosted a ceremonial groundbreaking Nov. 13. At the event, family members, who comprise most of the company’s eight-person team, applauded Lee County commissioners Cecil Pendergrass and Brian Hamman, whose rezoning votes helped make the project possible. They also invited leaders from some of the area’s — and the nation’s — largest home-building companies. They will work alongside one another, fostering friendly competition to build one of the region’s largest master-planned communities.
Lennar, Pulte Homes, Neal Communities and Taylor Morrison have each agreed to participate in Phase 1, and Kolter Homes is on board for Phase 2.
After installing water and sewer lines and building roads and other infrastructure, Cameratta Cos. has pledged to restore natural flow-ways on what had been abandoned farms owned by King Ranch. Over the next six months, the first phases of a new community of more than 11,000 homes to be known as Kingston will come to life. A row of model homes should be completed by the end of March, and the first homeowner keys turned by fall 2026. Build-out of Kingston in its entirety will take more than a decade.
Joe Cameratta, founder of Cameratta Cos., speaks at the Kingston groundbreaking in southeast Lee County, where work has begun on an 11,000-home master-planned community described in this story.
Cameratta Cos.
“We believe there has to be a balance,” said Joe Cameratta, founder of Cameratta Cos., referring to facilitating wildlife amid new housing. The Cleveland native’s company paid for a panther crossing underneath Corkscrew Road and will spend what he estimated to be about $100 million in wetlands restoration on the new project, with about 3,300 acres — 60% of the overall land — to be preserved with no taxpayer cost.
Phase 1, Pod 1, will have 554 single-family homes. Pod 2 will have 214 single-family homes plus 90 single-family townhome units. Pod 3 will include 350 units. The community also has room planned for a charter school and eventually a high school.
Kingston’s Phase 2 will include up to 10,000 more homes and up to 700,000 square feet of commercial space, a fact that drew LSI Companies, one of the area’s largest land brokers, to the groundbreaking.
Troon, which manages about 40 homeowners’ associations in Southwest Florida, dispatched Chief Development Officer Scott Van Newkirk to the ceremony. Lee Health also had representatives at the event.
This rendering depicts Kingston’s planned indoor sports complex, including pickleball courts and gathering spaces.
Cameratta Cos.
“The very best builders in the country will be in this development,” said Nick Cameratta, CEO of Cameratta Cos. “We will have 32 pickleball courts, 12 of them indoor. We’ll have indoor and outdoor basketball courts. We’re trying to set a new community standard for living.”
Pulte Homes will build 320 of the new homes, said Josh Graeve, division president of Pulte’s Southwest Florida operations. Lennar is known for its “Everything’s Included” philosophy — packaging new homes with appliances and other bonuses typically not included by other builders. Pulte offers a model that is more personalized, giving buyers greater say over the home’s final particulars.
“The reason why it works so well is, in Southwest Florida, we have a lot of large projects,” Graeve said of the competition. “We’ve found, over the years, that we can each be successful. There’s demand for both. It requires relationships to make these projects successful. We each serve a slightly different buyer.”
A conceptual rendering of Kingston’s planned saloon and social hub illustrates the community amenities.
Cameratta Cos.
Pulte will price its homes starting at about $300,000 and going up to $700,000. Joe Cameratta said the entire community will offer a mix, from starter homes to luxury.
“I wish my dad could have seen this,” Cameratta said of his late father, Dominic Cameratta. “He would have been exacerbated to have seen all of this. The support of national builders has been critical to us. We have, in turn, tried to support Lee County back.”
Luxury homes will be branded by Esplanade, which already has a community off Alico Road and will work with Taylor Morrison in Kingston to provide amenities.
“We’re what we refer to as a wellness resort club,” said Cammie Longenecker, president of Taylor Morrison’s active-lifestyle brand. “We consider our success by our homeowners living on vacation.”
A rendering of Kingston’s main entrance shows the scale of the new master-planned community under development in southeast Lee County.
Cameratta Cos.
Pat Neal, founder of Neal Communities, called Kingston the fulfilment of the “American dream.” “I know that you will build a great community that we’re proud to be a part of,” Neal said.
That dream, however, could become a nightmare for panther advocates. Area environmental groups, including Sanibel‑Captiva Conservation Foundation, have been vocal about the developers’ plans — and the county’s approval — of so many homes in what historically was a density‐reduction, groundwater-recharge area that limited homes to one per 10 acres.
A rendering shows Kingston’s planned resort-style amenity pool complex, part of its expansive recreational features.
Cameratta Cos.
“Specifically, with Kingston, we still have all the concerns we’ve held forever, specific to panthers,” said Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation Environmental Policy Director Matthew DePaolis, noting about 3,300 acres of primary and secondary panther habitat will be destroyed. “I think it’s still going to have a huge impact on these threatened species. Mainly the panthers. There is critical habitat being destroyed.”
With Phase 1 approved and permitted, environmental advocates said they are out of options. “I understand they have those permits now,” DePaolis said. “But it seems like that development will be impactful to panthers. Restoring flow-ways is great, but you’re talking about building thousands of homes that will be using millions of gallons of water and subsequent nutrient pollution. We’re really needing to think carefully about how we’re using our water resources in the future.”