FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Southward Village Transformation plan is a massive development and redevelopment plan in the Dunbar community.
The project is a collaboration with theHousing Authority of the City of Fort Myers, Suffolk, Tobler Construction, and a design company. It will feature luxury apartments and townhouses, with amenities expected to be "top-notch" with mixed-use housing incentives for new and old tenants.
Watch Fort Myers Community Correspondent Miyoshi Price's report:
One of the construction company's owners grew up in the Dunbar area and wants to bring the people in the community a better quality of life.
The new Southward Village will replace old duplexes with 357 new mixed-income apartments, offering various housing options, including larger buildings and attached townhouses.
John Tobler of Tobler Construction grew up in the public housing system and is now working on this project with his long-time professional partner, Ben Wilson, the Chief Operating Officer of Suffolk Gulf Coast Region.
The project is expected to break ground in 2025 and will create hundreds of job opportunities for the community.
The Southward Village transformation is a significant part of the Dunbar Initiative, which is an even greater plan called Choice Neighborhoods.
Choice Neighborhoods is a program that helps housing authorities get funding for neighborhood improvements.
Before applying, the Housing Authority and Board committed to a year-and-a-half planning process. They wanted to include our partners, nonprofits, and Lee County government in this effort, ensuring everyone had a voice in the neighborhood's transformation.
The Housing Authority of Fort Myers is working with experienced experts in public housing revitalization.
McCormick Baron Salazar is leading the design and construction of the new Southward Village, while Urban Strategies will focus on the people involved in the transformation. Urban Strategies will collaborate with Southward Village residents to create a safe neighborhood.
They will develop programs to support families, such as education and home ownership preparation. This nonprofit organization aims to use housing to drive community change.
Their goal is to work directly with families to help them thrive.
People who live in that area are going to look right across the street and see the new buildings. Your Fort Myers community correspondent Miyoshi Price asked if the folks who lived in the area and once lived in the Southward Village would be able to afford to live in the new Southward Village.
"Anybody's going to have access to to get on the waiting list and to apply for the housing there," Davis said. "Who gets first rights are the folks that we relocated out of there and so that they have the opportunity to move back to the site."
Davis explains that the project aims to be available to all income levels.
"There'll be opportunities where we will introduce ourselves to the community, where we'll introduce the community, to the to the to the group of contractors that's going to be building this project ultimately," Wilson said.
