Lee County broker calls the Southwest Florida retail buildout 'infill,' not a boom

Southwest Florida is in a new phase of commercial construction, with restaurants, home improvement stores, car washes and shopping plazas rising across Lee County, WGCU reported on July 16. Chase Mayhugh, president of Mayhugh Commercial Advisors, whose family has worked in local commercial development for more than 50 years, told the station the activity is better described as infill than as a building boom. He said development in the region has shifted toward what he called "purpose-type development," meaning projects built to fill specific gaps rather than to chase speculative growth. National retailers, he said, have concluded that the area's population and demographics now justify building here, and many are moving at once to claim locations. Lehigh Acres, long underserved by retail, was one place he named as finally drawing that investment, which he argued could also ease commutes and road congestion by bringing goods and services closer to where people already live. Not everyone agrees. Carolyn Hunter, a homeowner in South Fort Myers, told WGCU the growth is too much too soon, and warned that paving more land could send stormwater toward properties that sit outside today's flood zones. Mayhugh said he believes Lee County leaders are managing flood risk and guarding against the density that reshaped Fort Lauderdale and Miami. No public filing accompanies the account; it rests on WGCU's interviews with the people it named.