The return of spec

Although the Gulf Coast's office market hasn't fully recovered from a recessionary glut of the past decade, at least one Collier County developer is poised to take advantage of incremental improvement.

Fresh from its $239 million sale of the mixed-use Mercato development in Naples, Lutgert Cos. is planning to construct a 38,000-square-foot office building there on Tamiami Trail, just south of Pine Ridge Road.

And while the size of the three-story project isn't necessarily extraordinary, it stands out because Lutgert intends to move forward without tenants. That makes it the first speculative office development in Naples in roughly a decade.