FORT MYERS – One of Florida’s biggest citrus growers is set to build a 3,000-acre community in southwest Florida a few months after announcing it had abandoned its citrus cultivation operation at the end of this season.
Alico Inc. said it has submitted development applications to the first village of the first village of two villages near the intersection of Collier, Lee and Hendry counties. Each village has around 4,500 homes and will be integrated into 6,000 acres of protected reserves, the company said.
The Fort Myers-based company owns 53,371 acres of oil, gas and mineral rights in eight counties in Florida and 48,700 acres of oil, gas and mineral rights in the state. When it announced its decision to end Operation Citrus last January, the company said its production had dropped by almost three-quarters in 10 years.
Alico’s misery is part of the greater struggle facing the citrus industry in Florida.
Hurricanes and vicious citrus greening disease have contributed to a 90% decline in the state’s orange production over the past 20 years. Meanwhile, with a huge number of people moving to Florida, developers are increasingly building houses where orange groves once stood.
Citrus groves covered more than 832,000 acres in Florida at the turn of the century last year, with a population of 275,000 acres last year, and California overturning Florida as one of the nation’s leading citrus producers.
