Video: On The Bay at Matanzas Inn & Resort opens on Fort Myers Beach
The longtime waterfront restaurant had been closed for three years with damage from Hurricanes Ian, Milton and Helene
The Dunes Golf & Tennis Club on Sanibel Island was sold for $3 million to Fort Myers Future.The acquisition will serve as an amenity for the developer’s Grande Calusa project, which is replacing the old Sanibel Outlets.Grande Calusa will be a mixed-use development with condos, affordable apartments and commercial space.This marks the second sale of a golf course on Sanibel Island in recent months.
The Dunes Golf & Tennis Club on Sanibel Island is under new ownership.
The club, including its recently refurbished championship 18-hole golf course, has been acquired by Fort Myers Future, a local real estate development company.
Property records show a purchase price of $3 million. The sale closed Oct. 15. It follows another Sanibel golf club that was bought in September by a different group.
The Dunes transaction included tennis and pickleball courts, a swimming pool, a clubhouse and a pro shop.
Edgar Wilson II, a director at Fort Myers Future, said the previous owners – the Dahlmann family – offered up the property for purchase, seeing it as a perfect fit with Grande Calusa,a project his futuristic group is developing near Sanibel.
“It will be a great amenity for our project, and really kind of connect Sanibel and our project together,” Wilson said.
Grande Calusa will replace the old Sanibel Outlets in Iona, two miles from the Sanibel Causeway. That 22.6-acre property – at the corner of McGregor Boulevard and Summerlin Road – was once owned by the Dahlmanns, too.
“We have been working with the Dahlmanns quite well the last few years. Since Hurricane Ian,” Wilson said.
The Dahlmanns still own other property on Sanibel, including four hotels.
Fort Myers Future formed after Hurricane Ian, with a mission to build a more resilient future for Fort Myers and the surrounding communities, devastated by the ferocious and deadly storm.
Ian shuttered the Sanibel Outlets for good, leaving it in shambles.
More to know about Grande Calusa
With a name inspired by the Calusa Tribe, the mall’s replacement will be a mixed-use and mixed-income development built to last. There will be market-rate condominiums along with affordable rental apartments – and a variety of commercial uses, including restaurants and shops, a hotel and a performing arts center.
“It’s a pretty big lift,” Wilson said.
The development is being built under the state’s Live Local Act, which offers developers a myriad of incentives, including the ability to bypass local zoning rules, in exchange for setting aside 40% of their project’s rental units as affordable/workforce housing.
These affordable units are for households earning a maximum of 120% of the area median income. Lee County’s median household income is estimated to be around $92,500.
With a development order already in hand from Lee County, Fort Myers Future expects to break ground on the workforce housing by January, following the recent award of a $20 million federal and local grant to help finance it, Wilson said.
Plans include a pair of 20-story condo towers, up to 220 feet tall, along with a five-story complex for rentals, with less than 25% of the acreage used for buildings. Allowed by right, the height would match the Mastique condominiums less than half mile away.
The development would have about 500 homes. About 200 of them would be set aside for workforce housing, with monthly rents that could be 20% of a tenant’s wages, Wilson said.
“We worked with the county for the last 2 1/2 years. This has been a very positive, cooperative, working toward the future project. We’ve had very little negative,” he said.
Dunes golf course is the “cherry on top”
While the Calusa Grande development promises to be grand, there isn’t room for a golf course and clubhouse on the site – so the Dunes purchase makes the project even grander.
“This is the cherry on top,” Wilson said of the acquisition.
The acquisition includes 92.49 acres for the golf course, and 53.37 acres of land reserved for buffers, conservation and water retention.
Wilson described the golf course and club as gorgeous. The course has new saltwater-resistant greens, designed to be more resilient in the face of future hurricanes, Wilson said.
The course, clubhouse and courts took a beating from Ian, but they’ve since been restored. The Category 4 storm left a hot tub on the 18th green, but you wouldn’t know it now.
“Everything looks really sharp,” Wilson said.
Developed by the Mariner Group in 1981, the golf course was designed by Mark McCumber, a 10-time PGA Tour winner. It was the last course in Southwest Florida to reopen after Ian.
The club is semi-private, allowing for public play. Annual memberships will continue to be offered for priority treatment, and remain “reasonable,” Wilson said.
He did not say whether residents of Calusa Grande would be offered any special discounts, but they won’t have to drive far to get to the club.
“The Sanibel Causeway is beautiful and it’s just a nice ride, whether by bike or by car, across the causeway. Then you are right there – at our golf course,” Wilson said.
He estimated the construction costs for Calusa Grande at $850 million, saying he never thought he’d be involved in such a big project in his golden years.
“I didn’t realize I would wake up at this age and be this busy,” he said. “But it’s all so exciting.”
A fifth generation Fort Myers resident, he was inspired to get into real estate development after Ian, in hopes of restoring some of his father’s work as a mid-century modern architect in town.
“My family has been here since the 1870s, so I have a little bit of history here,” Wilson said.
Whatever he builds, he wants to make sure it’s built stronger to withstand Mother Nature.
“We’ve got to build something better,” Wilson said. “We really do, and we’re doing it.”
A second golf course sale on Sanibel
The Dunes isn’t the first golf course to change hands on Sanibel this year.
“This is the second sale of a golf course in the past 45 days on Sanibel; times continue to change,” said Paige Rausch, a real estate broker, observer and analyst with Aslan Realty Advisors in Fort Myers.
In September, the Sanibel Island Golf Club, off Par View Drive, sold for $5.6 million. The new owner: XUDE.
The local club is part of a portfolio of dozens of national and international operations across the country that XUDE has owned or managed, including Riviera Golf Club in Naples, Paradise Golf Club in Arcadia, and The Preserve Golf Club in Bradenton.
Dating back to 1975, the Sanibel Island Golf Club was previously known as the Beachview. This year, it’s been in the news for rare crocodile sightings.
The club and golf course also took a beating from Ian, but bounced back.
The semi-private club’s 6,400-yard championship course stretches across 150 acres.
In an official announcement last week, XUDE’s CEO Michael Miraglia said: “This is more than just an acquisition – it’s an opportunity to steward one of Florida’s most iconic destinations and elevate it into a true golf and leisure sanctuary.”
XUDE plans to “thoughtfully reimagine both the course and clubhouse, preserving the unique charm and character that make Sanibel so special,” he said.
He added: “We are committed to investing in both tradition and technology by enhancing the golf experience with upgraded fairways, greens, facilities, and state-of-the-art equipment. XUDE is dedicated to sustainability, ensuring that every swing is made responsibly towards this beautiful environment.”
Improvements are already underway.
“From partnering with local businesses to hosting community events, we envision this club as a vibrant hub at the heart of Sanibel Island,” Miraglia said.
In the Know columnist Phil Fernandez contributed to this story.
