Cape Coral growth mushrooming. Here are 11 game-changing developments coming to the city.

Long-awaited developments including the much anticipated Seven Islands project are finally making headway in Cape Coral.

The 13th annual real estate show, Catch The Vision, showed a glimpse of the city's future developments, new housing, restaurants, and commercial projects.

Gloria Tate, event organizer and owner of Raso Realty, and Bill Johnson Jr., executive director at The Horizon Foundation, hosted the event Monday night.

Last year's program showcased the likes of Nor-Tech Hi-Performance Boats, Mellow Mushroom, and unveiled Red Fish Point.

Johnson said the event reflects the changing nature of Cape Coral itself as commercial projects become the main highlights.

"We're focusing more on bringing more commercial projects," Johnson said. "The ability for our residents to have all the amenities here in Cape Coral and not having to go across the bridge."

Cape Coral has a population of more than 200,000 and is estimated to get more than 100,000 new residents by 2050, for a total population of 318,503.

He's especially excited about the Seven Islands project, which he said will transform the city into a "whole destination."

"We will have a little something to do in each quadrant of the city," Johnson said. "Having amenities to where you can go downtown Cape Coral, but you don't have to anymore."

Here's what developments were highlighted:

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Seven Islands/Gulf Gateway Resort and Marina Village

Seven Islands, now renamed Gulf Gateway Resort and Marina Village, is a mixed-use waterfront development of 995 residential units, commercial and retail, a 240-room hotel, restaurants, a public marina, a community center, and more on 47 acres along Old Burnt Store Road North.

"Anyone who is living in that area already will have multiple different options to go visit, dining, events," said Peter Baytarian, founding and managing partner of Forest Development, which is a team of real estate development professionals. "It's going to be a real attraction."

Forest Development is the manager of Gulf Gateway Resort and Marina and will seek variances in their development, to deviate from standard zoning, for seawalls to ensure the protection of the mangroves in the area.

The project's designs are in the final development stages and are expected to go before the council within the next 30 to 60 days, then a planning and zoning meeting, and back before the council for approval.

"Even though their zoning doesn't work for the seawall, we went ahead and developed the plan, (the city) approved it, and we went into permitting," said Sam Bauer, senior vice president of development at Forest Development. "So we are really ahead of the game."

Work cannot begin until the permits from the Army Corps of Engineers and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection are approved, and the developers anticipate a groundbreaking between 1 year and 6 months to 2 years from now.

Cape Christian

Cory Demel, the lead pastor for Cape Christian, hosts the event but also announced an expansion.

"We here at Cape Christian are a microcosm of what's happening in Cape Coral in that we have growth problems, we are growing faster than what we know what to do with," Demel said. "You are never going to find a place that's free of problems, but I think you can agree that ours are good ones because they are growth problems.

The church will break ground on a 1,300-seat auditorium that will be used for weekend services, but also by schools, cities, and different organizations.

Demel said there's a deficit for large meeting spaces in the city, so he's excited that the entire city can benefit from this project.

Paraiso at North Cape Coral

Paraiso, or Paradise, at North Cape, is a commercial plaza offering executive offices, retail stores, and restaurants with a water lookout.

The 5-acre project will be in northeast Cape Coral at 2601 Del Prado Blvd. N.

"Passing by that area, we noticed that there was a lot of residential housing and not that many plazas," said Dario Peretti with The Silver Group, a home builder group. "We are trying to make this a paradise in that area."

It's described as modern and family-friendly and will help elevate the community in northeast Cape Coral.

It will be groundbreaking in the next few months, with a plan to finish within a year, possibly by 2025.

Victory Park

Victory Park, a 138-acre life science campus in northeast Cape Coral, will include a main medical office complex, hundreds of housing units, a hotel, and a multi-use path.

It is between Diplomat Parkway East, NE 24th Avenue, Littleton Road, and Corbett Road, next to the VA Clinic Cape Coral.

Blue Waters Development Group is in the permitting process as it waits to build a 126,000-square-foot medical office campus, 308 apartment units, 112 townhome units, and a 125-room Wyndham Garden hotel.

"This will be a class A medical office building, and the adjacency to the VA clinic is so crucial to this," said Frank Nader with Blue Water Development Group.

Pre-leasing for phase 1 is underway for the medical office building.

Civitas

Civitas of Cape Coral is a 4.65-acre, affordable, workforce multifamily community with 96 units at 123 Civitas Court, near Pine Island Road.

Michael Allan, president of ReVital Development Group, said the first residential building will be completed in late April or early May.

"The rents are gonna range anywhere from the low side about $475 to just under $1,800 for a three-bedroom," Allan said. "There's different income brackets per unit."

The remaining two buildings will be completed shortly afterward with the full project being completed in late June or Early Jully.

Allan said the government at every level is involved in this project as it received $9.9 million from the CDGB disaster recovery fund, state-issued bonds for low-income housing tax credit, $1 million from Cape Coral, and $2 million from Lee County to offset the cost of construction.

Shops of Del Sol and Shops of Del Mar

Shops at Del Mar and Shops at Del Sol are multi-use shopping plazas by TLD Developers, a developer in Aventura Florida.

They will be at 1019-1027 SW Pine Island Road, between Chiquita Boulevard and Santa Barbara Boulevard in Cape Coral.

"Del Sol is a little bit larger with 70,000 square feet of retail space, and Del Mar with about 30,000," Said Gaston Lulinski with TLD Developers.

They will bring restaurants, retail, medical, and recognizable brands and shopping with a sleek and modern design.

Lulinski said stores will begin opening in June 2025 in Del Mar, and June 2026 in Del Sol.

Cape Coral Grove

Cape Coral Grove is a "town center" project bringing more than 1,234 multi-family apartment units, two public parks, a hotel, and parking spaces.

The 131-acre parcel is next to Bubba's Roadhouse on Pine Island Road and will be 767,000 square feet.

Jim Zboril, president of L&L Development Group, said he expects to start construction in the next 90 days.

"We are very close with the city getting our permits for infrastructure," Zboril said.

He said the project will offer retail, restaurants, and offices, with a fitness and bowling center planned.

Gilbane

A 35-acre parcel at Pine Island Road and Veterans Parkway will bring a three-phased project with a 120-unit hotel, freestanding restaurant, and 10,000 square feet of retail.

Additionally, 600 apartments are planned in two phases.

"We hope that the project is able to create dozens of high-paying jobs because we focus on the hotel," said Ana Daniela Rodriguez, development manager at Gilbane Development Company. "It's something that Cape Coral really needs, there's very few hotels with high occupancy. We see a lot of need for more hotel rooms in the market."

The first phase, the commercial component, the hotel, restaurant, and retail space, is planned to be under construction at the end of this year.

Lake Shadroe

White Stone Developments, a Cape Coral-based real estate developer, is developing a 48-unit Airbnb vacation resort for the growing northwest part of Cape Coral.

"We are going to have amazing sunset views out over the water," Robert Knight, founder and CEO of White Stone. "We are just looking forward to adding a little bit to Cape Coral, to putting Cape Coral on the map for tourism."

The site is surrounded by residential areas and next to the city's Burnt Store Boat Ramp, a 4.5-acre boat launch facility that provides access to the North West Spreader canal.

Other amenities would include a waterfront restaurant, a gourmet café, a marina, a spa, and a cigar bar.

Plans for a mini marina will include 12 boat slips that will be rented out and reserved for different water-based activities like fishing and kayaking.

Knight said they are looking to break ground in May with a 16- to 18-month construction cycle for a late 2025 or early 2026 completion.

Lee Health and Bimini Square

CEO of Lee Health Dr. Larry Antonucci said the organization plans to invest more than $150 million in Cape Coral over the next few years.

"We are facing unprecedented growth here and as a result, we want to continue to grow to grow with the community as we have since 1996 when Cape Coral Hospital became part of the Lee Health family," Antonucci said.

Antonucci spoke on several plans for Cape Coral Hospital including adding fast-track rooms and observation beds to the emergency department, supplying more beds to have 34 beds in intensive care units, and the expansion of the dialysis program.

He also spoke on the shortage of providers saying that the recently begun internal medicine residency program at Cape Coral Hospital will bring 36 residents working and potentially staying there after the program ends.

"What we've learned is that about half of the doctors will stay where they do their residency training," Antonucci said. "We hope to retain many of those."

He also said he was excited about Bimini Square, which broke ground in October and will bring 47,000 square feet of medical space.

Bimini Square is a mixed-used development west of Four Freedoms Park that will include luxury apartments, a Deep Lagoon waterfront restaurant, and shops on three sites south of Cape Coral Parkway and west of Sunset Court.

The project consists of 13 parcels with five-story buildings on nearly 6 acre and includes a 25-slip transient boat dock, a parking garage, 500 spaces, and a commercial parking lot for the restaurant.

Medical office space compromises about 95% of the street floor frontage along Cape Coral Parkway.

"When we analyzed where the need was for outpatient ambulatory care, that lit up as the number one location," Antonucci said.

Lee Health is also planning a care center facility akin to the one at Coconut Point on Pine Island Road that would include an emergency department, physicians' offices, testing, a pharmacy, a lab, outpatient, surgery, and an observation area.

Additionally, a 13-acre parcel on Veterans Parkway will be developed into a comprehensive outpatient facility in the next few years.

The Cove

The $103 million mixed-use project broke ground on Aug. 23, 2022, in downtown Cape Coral and will welcome its first resident in late summer.

The 3.9-acre site will have 19,000 square feet of retail, commercial, and office uses on the first floor, four restaurants, 327 luxury residential units, and a 611-space parking garage, with two floors reserved for the public.

Luis Zambrano is a Watchdog/Cape Coral reporter for The News-Press and the Naples Daily News. You can reach Luis at Lzambrano@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @Lz2official.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Cape Coral residents: Here's what you missed at Catch The Vision