A plan to turn a 542-acre former Ford test track in eastern Collier County into a private motorsports club with homes has drawn close to 10,000 petition signatures and objections from two conservation groups

A plan to convert a 542-acre former vehicle test track in eastern Collier County into a private motorsports club with homes has drawn close to 10,000 petition signatures and formal objections from two conservation groups, WINK News reported on Thursday.

The site is the old Florida Evaluation Center at 5301 34th Avenue Southeast, near the Alligator Alley leg of Interstate 75 and DeSoto Boulevard South. It has operated as a fenced, private test track since the mid 1980s, built for Ford and used over the years by Chrysler, Harley-Davidson and racing teams. It sold for 10 million dollars in March 2024.

What is being asked for

The applicants have filed with both Collier County and the Army Corps of Engineers. According to Gulfshore Business, which reported the filing on August 4, the county request would amend the planned unit development originally written for a car manufacturer's test facility to allow up to 100 residential dwelling units, up to 20 transient lodging units including casitas for manufacturer testing, two interconnected performance driving circuits, individual vehicle storage units, a private members club with dining and wellness amenities, a pool and pickleball courts, and a 35,000 square foot public safety facility with a K-9 training area and a shooting range.

The developers say more than 70 per cent of the property would remain natural habitat.

Because the plan involves wetlands, it also needs a federal permit under the Clean Water Act, and that review is taking public comment. No Collier County petition number and no Army Corps application number is given here, because this desk could not confirm one against the agency listing.

The objections

The South Florida Wildlands Association has filed a petition and comment letter with the Army Corps asking it to refuse the federal wetlands permit. Gulfshore Business reported the petition at more than 8,900 signatures on August 4. WINK put it at close to 10,000 on Thursday.

The association's letter says the project would affect about 142 acres of wetlands and sits in critical range for the endangered Florida panther. Its executive director, Matthew Schwartz, told WINK the species is already in jeopardy and cannot recover if the habitat shrinks every year. Those figures and that assessment are the association's.

The Conservancy of Southwest Florida objected separately, telling WGCU that the area is "simply not appropriate for more development and intensification" given how close it sits to major public conservation land.

What the applicant says

Chief executive Bruce Bond told WINK News that the site is already developed and already zoned for this kind of use. His argument, as he put it to the station, is that the property has been there for 40 years, that it has been fenced that whole time, that there have been no occurrences on it, and that the zoning already permits what the applicants are asking to do.

The Hyper Club was founded by Bond and John DeAngelis, a co-founder of the Naples construction management firm DeAngelis Diamond. Gulfshore Business names Hyper Club LLC as the applicant and Naples Racing Resort LLC as the purchasing entity.

No agency has ruled. The county application and the federal permit are both under review, and the public comment window on the federal side is still open.