New luxury home community coming to North Naples

A new luxury home community will be coming to North Naples — and it's right off I-75.

Toll Brothers — builders of area communities including Bonita Lakes and Cordova at Spanish Wells — will start work on Palazzo at Naples, an 85-home luxury gated community off Immokalee Road on Valewood Drive.

The announcement came Thursday and the single-family homes are slated to go on sale by the first of the next year, said Ken Thirtyacre, president of Toll Brothers' Florida West division.

Thirtyacre said it is too soon to give a price range on the homes. He is expecting the location to be a popular draw.

The 21.75-acre tract was purchased for $7.5 million on April 17, according to Collier County property appraisal records.

With easy access to beaches, shopping and a more intimate community of only 85 homes, potential home buyers can be in the heart of Naples' attractions without some of the bigger housing community downsides, Thirtyacre said. "You can be off the interstate without having 500 or 1,000 cars driving by."

Housing association fees will also be competitive, he added. Amenities planned for the site include natural gas, custom landscaping and security monitoring.

Tracts this size are becoming more and more scarce in the area, said Naples-based land-use consultant Michael Timmerman, president of MJT Realty Economic Advisors. This often causes shifts in development to other areas, making Palazzo's location ideal. The area around Immokalee Road and I-75 is a high-development corridor, Timmerman said.

"Anything around 75 is going to be a desirable location," he added.

Another benefit is much of the immediate area is built out, buyers already know what businesses are around, Thirtyacre said. "That takes a lot of the concern away."

Construction equipment is on-site and building will be in full swing next week, he added.

Toll Brothers, based in Horsham, Pa., is a Fortune 1000 company building in 19 states. Its stock, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange, closed Thursday at 36.03, down 37 cents.