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Couple building homes, dreams in Immokalee Jubilation project targets middle-income families By DICK HOGAN Dick and Florence Nogaj want Immokalee to have what it's never had before: a modern, middle-income subdivision - named Jubilation - where the town's residents can live near where they work. They're aware that the town's reputation is not of a bedroom community but that of a tough agricultural town with a lot of migrant workers - some of them illegal aliens - moving in and out. But Dick Nogaj, who sold his Chicago engineering firm to the employees 1995, thinks things are changing. "There's a whole array of people in Immokalee, 20,000 permanent residents," he said. "The jobs are improving, commercial real estate is improving, the income levels are coming up a little bit. There's a big pent-up demand and there's been somewhat of an exodus to Lehigh Acres." Jubilation, being built by private, nonprofit Jubilation Development Corp. with 105 homes on 40 acres, is one part of the Nogajs' master plan to use their private, nonprofit foundation, Harvest for Humanity, to improve the lot of Immokalee's agricultural workers. |
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They hope to reduce the cycle of transiency and poverty that prevents children and adults alike from getting a good education or the training to move up in the world. The stability their projects will engender should bear a dividend of increased productivity and higher wages, Florence Nogaj said. Elizabeth DeLaRosa, 28, office administrator for Jubilation Development, intends to move into Jubilation when it opens next year. She knows firsthand the hardships of migrant life. "I know from my experience," she said. "I traveled for two years to South Carolina. We found it difficult to get housing. We did it for two years and I wouldn't want to go back to it." Before going to work for Jubilation, she was a social worker with Catholic Charities. "You see families struggle to find a home," she said. "It's pushed a lot of middle-income families out of Immokalee." Nogaj hopes that Jubilation, with homes starting at $69,500, will keep the middle class in Immokalee - not just upwardly mobile farm workers but people such as teachers and firefighters who may have difficulty finding suitable housing now. He suspects that if he's successful there will be a resurgence of interest by for-profit developers in the Immokalee area, but experts say growth there is likely to be slow under current growth planning practices. Collier County probably won't be encouraging growth outside the urban coastal area anytime soon, said Ross McIntosh, a Naples-based commercial real estate broker. Planners are reluctant to encourage development east of the county's urban line ? by widening Immokalee Road, for example, he said. But long term, McIntosh said, it's likely that golf course communities will replace agriculture as they have to the west. The county is currently studying land use in the Immokalee area to determine what the policy should be. Until then, however, developers such as the Nogajs "won't be able to rely on the traditional engines of growth of the coastal communities: tourism, resorts and retirement." Pat Logue, president of Fort Myers-based First Home Builders, said his company as seen a boom in development in Lehigh and east of Gateway but that "I really don't know how long it will take before Immokalee becomes a residential community." He noted that with the Daniels Parkway extension, it's only a 15minute ride from southeast Lehigh to Southwest Florida International Airport. In developments such as Woodridge Preserve, on State Road 82 three miles east of the Daniels extension, First Home is selling record numbers of houses, Logue said - 25 in May, 27 in June. Nogaj said he's happy to provide homes for people in Immokalee and said 80 percent of the 28-unit first phase of Jubilation have been sold preconstruction. He said that Jubilation is built in the "traditional neighborhood" style made popular by Disney's Celebration development near Orlando. There are front porches, sidewalks and a community center to foster a sense of community. Nogaj said he and his wife will stay in Immokalee at least five more years to see their vision through to completion. He offers proof of his faith in Jubilation: 'We'll be living there ourselves." |
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