{"id":47000,"date":"2025-11-14T21:56:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T21:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/47000\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T21:56:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T21:56:08","slug":"work-begins-on-kingston-a-11000-home-lee-county-project-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/47000\/","title":{"rendered":"Work Begins on Kingston, a 11,000-Home Lee County Project | Development"},"content":{"rendered":"

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 \u2014 where it curves from east\u2013west to north\u2013south near the Collier County border and a wildlife corridor for the Florida panther.<\/p>\n

Cameratta Cos. hosted a ceremonial groundbreaking Nov. 13. At the event, family members, who comprise most of the company\u2019s 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\u2019s \u2014 and the nation\u2019s \u2014 largest home-building companies. They will work alongside one another, fostering friendly competition to build one of the region\u2019s largest master-planned communities.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Joe<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Cameratta Cos.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe there has to be a balance,\u201d said Joe Cameratta, founder of Cameratta Cos., referring to facilitating wildlife amid new housing. The Cleveland native\u2019s 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 \u2014 60% of the overall land \u2014 to be preserved with no taxpayer cost.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Kingston\u2019s 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\u2019s largest land brokers, to the groundbreaking.<\/p>\n

Troon, which manages about 40 homeowners\u2019 associations in Southwest Florida, dispatched Chief Development Officer Scott Van Newkirk to the ceremony. Lee Health also had representatives at the event.<\/p>\n

\"Rendering<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This rendering depicts Kingston\u2019s planned indoor sports complex, including pickleball courts and gathering spaces.<\/p>\n

Cameratta Cos.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe very best builders in the country will be in this development,\u201d said Nick Cameratta, CEO of Cameratta Cos. \u201cWe will have 32 pickleball courts, 12 of them indoor. We\u2019ll have indoor and outdoor basketball courts. We\u2019re trying to set a new community standard for living.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pulte Homes will build 320 of the new homes, said Josh Graeve, division president of Pulte\u2019s Southwest Florida operations. Lennar is known for its \u201cEverything\u2019s Included\u201d philosophy \u2014 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\u2019s final particulars.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason why it works so well is, in Southwest Florida, we have a lot of large projects,\u201d Graeve said of the competition. \u201cWe\u2019ve found, over the years, that we can each be successful. There\u2019s demand for both. It requires relationships to make these projects successful. We each serve a slightly different buyer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rendering<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A conceptual rendering of Kingston\u2019s planned saloon and social hub illustrates the community amenities.<\/p>\n

Cameratta Cos.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish my dad could have seen this,\u201d Cameratta said of his late father, Dominic Cameratta. \u201cHe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re what we refer to as a wellness resort club,\u201d said Cammie Longenecker, president of Taylor Morrison\u2019s active-lifestyle brand. \u201cWe consider our success by our homeowners living on vacation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rendering<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A rendering of Kingston\u2019s main entrance shows the scale of the new master-planned community under development in southeast Lee County.<\/p>\n

Cameratta Cos.<\/p>\n

Pat Neal, founder of Neal Communities, called Kingston the fulfilment of the \u201cAmerican dream.\u201d \u201cI know that you will build a great community that we\u2019re proud to be a part of,\u201d Neal said.<\/p>\n

That dream, however, could become a nightmare for panther advocates. Area environmental groups, including Sanibel\u2011Captiva Conservation Foundation, have been vocal about the developers\u2019 plans \u2014 and the county\u2019s approval \u2014 of so many homes in what historically was a density\u2010reduction, groundwater-recharge area that limited homes to one per 10 acres.<\/p>\n

\"Rendering<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A rendering shows Kingston\u2019s planned resort-style amenity pool complex, part of its expansive recreational features.<\/p>\n

Cameratta Cos.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpecifically, with Kingston, we still have all the concerns we\u2019ve held forever, specific to panthers,\u201d said Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation Environmental Policy Director Matthew DePaolis, noting about 3,300 acres of primary and secondary panther habitat will be destroyed. \u201cI think it\u2019s still going to have a huge impact on these threatened species. Mainly the panthers. There is critical habitat being destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Phase 1 approved and permitted, environmental advocates said they are out of options. \u201cI understand they have those permits now,\u201d DePaolis said. \u201cBut it seems like that development will be impactful to panthers. Restoring flow-ways is great, but you\u2019re talking about building thousands of homes that will be using millions of gallons of water and subsequent nutrient pollution. We\u2019re really needing to think carefully about how we\u2019re using our water resources in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former farmland in southeast Lee County has been transformed by heavy machinery into what, for now, looks like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[30629,209,211,210,1903,19393,356,5875],"class_list":{"0":"post-47000","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-cameratta-cos","9":"tag-cape-coral","10":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","11":"tag-cape-coral-news","12":"tag-housing-development","13":"tag-kingston","14":"tag-lee-county","15":"tag-master-planned-community"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}