Atlanta-based home builder PulteGroup plans to build at least 137 houses at Babcock Ranch, a master-planned development near Fort Myers that will run mainly on solar power.
Pulte and Miami-based Lennar Corp. will build the lowest-priced houses at Babcock Ranch, an 18,000-acre development in Lee County that will draw electricity from a 440-acre photovoltaic power plant built by Florida Power & Light.
In a section of the development called Parkside, Pulte plans to build 131 houses priced in the low- and mid-$200,000s. The one- and two-story houses will range in size from 1,671 square feet to 3,222 square feet.
In another section of Babcock Ranch called Lake Timber, Pulte plans to build at least six one- and two-story houses ranging in size from 1,758 square feet to 3,293 square feet and priced in the upper $200,000s.
Lennar plans to build twin-villa homes priced at about $180,000 and single-family homes with prices starting in the $220,000s. The twin-villa homes will be 1,417 square feet to 1,564 square feet in size, and they will have two or three bedrooms and two-car garages.
The company behind Babcock Ranch, Palm Beach Gardens-based Kitson & Partners, led by developer Sydney Kitson, began site preparation work in November of last year.
Kitson & Partners bought a 91,000-acre ranch in Lee County from the Babcock family in 2006 and subsequently sold 73,000 acres to the state as a natural preserve, retaining 18,000 acres for the Babcock Ranch development, which was slowed by the housing market downturn in the late 2000s.