Go down under

High land prices have forced developers to make lots of decisions of late, but the situation is particularly acute in downtown Naples.

To wit: Prolific area developer Philip McCabe is going underground for parking, building what officials call the first subterranean garage in downtown Naples. McCabe says the price of land forced him to go underground. (Underground parking is common on the east coast of Florida, McCabe says, but is rare on the west coast of the state.)

Above ground, meanwhile, crews are working on a high-end, mixed-use building McCabe says will bring new life to downtown Naples' Fifth Avenue South. At its scheduled completion in December, the $15 million Residences at Fifth and Fifth, 492 Fifth Ave. S., will feature 42 parking spaces below ground, a street-level floor of retail and two floors of luxury condominiums with a rooftop pool and garden. The 11 condos will range from 2,200 square feet to 3,200 square feet, McCabe says in a recent interview. “They are all priced at about $1,000 a foot,” he says.

The structure, rising 42 feet from ground level, “is definitely a vision we have all put in place for Fifth Avenue to redevelop and improve it,” adds McCabe, who built the Inn on Fifth and runs his development company from the luxury property.

The Fifth Avenue South business district needs a turnaround, McCabe says. Nearly a dozen stores, including the Fresh Produce store in a building he owns, have closed in recent years.

To make way for Residences at Fifth and Fifth, McCabe demolished Avenue Wine Cafe and Bella Maria Cafe. The McCabe-owned buildings there were nearly 50 years old and “needed to be replaced with a higher and better use,” he says.

McCabe has not yet announced retail tenants for the first floor.