Developer Hardy, investor buy Estates at Entrada

BUYER: Angel Aramis LLC, Naples

SELLER: Entrada Estates LLC

PROPERTY: 16701 N. Cleveland Ave., North Fort Myers and additional land on a portion of U.S. 41 just south of Del Prado Boulevard, Cape Coral

PRICE: $3.35 million

PREVIOUS PRICE: $22 million, February 2006

LAW FIRM ON DEED: Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP, Birmingham, Ala.

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Prominent Naples developer Paul Hardy is getting back into the real estate game.

Hardy and an undisclosed investor purchased the 292.91-acre Estates at Entrada property in Cape Coral for $3.35 million.

The price equated to $11,437 per acre.

That property included a partially built road and entitlements for a mixed-used development of single- and multifamily units and associated commercial space. Hardy and his partner already own the adjacent Villages of Entrada property.

Randy Thibaut and William Rollins of Land Solutions Inc. represented the seller Entrada Estates LLC, an affiliate of Regions Bank.

“There's a trend going on right now of people buying entitled land ahead of the market,” Thibaut says. “With builders like Taylor Morrison coming out of the ground in Cape Coral there's a considerable amount of inventory. It's not the time to open this yet. The market needs to burn off some of that inventory first.”

Hardy says the partners plan to digest their entitlements and approvals before determining their plans for the properties over the next several months.

Currently entitlements allow 721 residential units on the Villages of Entrada property and 1,600 on the Estates at Entrada portion.

“My personal feeling is that we've hit bottom and that we can only go up from here,” Hardy says. “We were very fortunate to have divested our land holdings just before [the real estate crash]. We are searching for opportunities in the marketplace.”

Hardy, the son of similarly well-known real estate developer Bob Hardy, was the developer behind The Strand and Old Cypress Naples golf course communities.