Red Sox site could be near golf homes

Quattrone & Associates Inc. conceptual site plan for Jeffery Freeman Trust Red Sox proposal.   QAI PowerPoint Presentation for Site Selection Committee

The Boston Red Sox could have some well-to-do neighbors if the Jeffrey B. Freeman Trust site is selected for the team's new spring training stadium.
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The trust is offering to donate 45 acres of a 356-acre parcel near two gated golfing communities. Olde Hickory Golf and Country Club is due north and Fiddlesticks Country Club is to the west.

Al Quattrone, president of Quattrone & Associates, Inc., said the suggestion for Freeman to jump in the Red Sox stadium hunt came from his company.

"We approached him (Freeman) and recommended he put his property into the running," Quattrone said.

The Freeman acreage is contending against eight other locations for the spring-training facility, scheduled to open in 2012. A panel of Red Sox and Lee County officials will review the sites over two days next week and trim the list to three or four. Those names will be sent to the county commission for review and negotiations.

Quattrone and Fred Drovdlic, his company's vice president of zoning and planning, touted the property's advantages, such as its location near Interstate 75.

"Compared to some of other sites, it has the proper size to handle the sports complex," Drovdlic said.

Visions for the Red Sox facility include an aquatics center and a football stadium for Florida Gulf Coast University. Drovdlic said he also envisions the Freeman site including a golf driving range and an RV park.

He said the location could be configured so the stadium doesn't abut the gated communities. Drovdlic said a residential area could be included in the Freeman Trust expanded project.

 

Quattrone has put together a conceptual plan that shows the complex in the middle of the property with a Three Oaks Parkway extension running between the site and Interstate 75. It also shows a football stadium, aquatics and commercial centers and the baseball stadium between the centers.
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One issue, Quattrone and Drovdlic concede, is the property needs a road. Three Oaks Parkway needs to be extended north to reach the site.

"So that is a negotiating point," Drovdlic said.

The road could be privately built, he said.

Gary Tasman, executive director of Cushman & Wakefield's Southwest Florida office, said the site has great potential.

"The internal roadway system is pretty much in the planning phases that will quickly relieve traffic or disperse traffic to and from the site," Tasman said.

Tasman indicated some Olde Hickory and Fiddlesticks residents may not like having the complex nearby.

"I think there will be some issues with the proximity that could be troublesome to those communities," Tasman said.

The Conservancy of Southwest Florida, an environmental organization, ranked the Freeman Trust site fifth in a study of the suitability of the properties. The Conservancy ranked the site No. 5 in environmental impact. Its report noted "80 percent acres of cypress swamp wetlands (90 percent of wetlands low to medium quality wetlands) and 20 percent is pine."

The Conservancy ranked the site sixth for growth management. The report noted the Three Oaks extension hasn't been built but the "Developer agrees to construct roads in exchange for impact fee credits." Impact fees are charged to developers to cover the cost of public improvements and other services related to growth.

The most likely scenario, according to the Conservancy, for I-75 access would be via Daniels Road and Fiddlesticks Boulevard.

A Lee County review of the sites also noted there is no road access, but the developer would build the road for those credits. The county review also noted there could be "significant wetlands" issues on up to 281 acres.

The county's report also noted the site is in the flight path of Southwest Florida International and there would be noise issues.