New details in proposed Village Square development

CAPE CORAL, Fla.- A major development project in downtown Cape Coral could break ground by the end of the year.

Plans proposed for Village Square could forever change the Cape skyline.

A developer has had his eyes on an empty lot near the corner of Southeast 47th Terrace and Southeast 8th Court. Now, things are finally starting to fall into place.

Shops, restaurants and condos reaching high into the sky are all part of the plan.

The project was originally approved by City Council in 2010 but the developer didn’t have the funding until now.

“They could’ve walked away from this whole thing, but they never did. They always believed that they could do this, they always believed it would be a good project for the City of Cape Coral,” said Councilman Jim Burch.

South Cape Coral falls inside Burch’s district. He says the project is the perfect catalyst for downtown development.

“Here we come up to the first project, and I mean the first project that we can actually say where we have a multistory garage, we have multistory buildings, we have all of the elements of the CRA, live, work and play type of stuff,” said Burch.

According to the developer, the roughly $120 million project would include three, six-story buildings along Cape Coral Parkway, featuring retail stores, restaurants and business offices.

On the other side, along 47th Terrace, would be a six-story parking garage with two, eight-story condo towers above it.

WINK News has learned the developer, a man named Robbie Lee based out of New York, has built in the Cape before.

He built a shopping center on Del Prado Boulevard near US 41 several years ago.

While many residents are excited for the new development, others think it could cause traffic nightmares.

“You get more people around here, and more traffic, it’s bad enough you know?” said one resident.

The developer will be meeting with the city next week.