Fort Myers CRE firm hires Babcock Ranch overseer

Luke Kenzik, who oversaw Babcock Ranch for Capital Consultants Management Corp., has been named vice president of property and asset management at Mayhugh Commercial Advisors in Fort Myers.

The firm did not say when he started, though his name and picture are up on the website, or what his duties will be.

Kenzik comes with a wealth of experience and has been on the ground for the development for one of the largest — and most technically advanced — planned communities in the country.

According to a statement announcing his hiring, Kenzik spent 11 years working for Capital Consultants, most recently as executive director with oversight of Babcock Ranch, the massive self-sustaining, eco-friendly master planned community in Lee and Charlotte counties.

In that role, he managed more than 60 employees and oversaw the community’s residential association, commercial association and field operations for the Community Development District.

Babcock Ranch is a 18,000-acre planned community of energy-efficient homes that some call a city of the future. It is a sustainable community with an 870-acre solar panel farm powering it and its own water reclamation facility.

Courtesy photo

The community has a school, lakes and a downtown as well as a Publix-anchored shopping center. Earlier this year, developers announced that a new 120,000-square-foot center is being planned that will include a lakefront restaurant as well as space for retail and commercial and office tenants.

When complete, Babcock Ranch, which plans to one day have its own government and services, is expected to have 19,500 homes and a population of about 50,000 people.

Beyond Babcock Ranch, Kenzik, who graduated from Florida State University with bachelor’s degree in economics, has managed large-scale, master-planned communities in Austin and Plano, Texas, and Tallahassee, Florida, according to the statement.

Chase Mayhugh, a broker associate and senior advisor of Mayhugh Commercial Advisors, says in the statement that Kenzik will be “instrumental in our continued growth throughout Florida.”

Mayhugh, which was founded by Chuck Mayhugh, Chase’s father, specializes in among other services brokerage and consulting, property acquisition and disposition, property management and tenant representation.