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The largest private employer in Sarasota County is making in-roads into Lee County.
PGT Innovations, which stands for “Progressive Glass Technology” and makes windows and doors, has agreed to a five-year lease of a new, 130,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Lee County off Ben Hill Griffin Road, not far from Southwest Florida International Airport.
The building, known as Meridian Center North, is located at 10400 Meridian Center Parkway and has a current tenant in Wayfair, with PGT Innovations to take over the remaining space.
PGT Innovations already has confirmed the hiring of 100 new workers for what should generate about 240 jobs. The factory will be operational by June and modified over the rest of the year.
In a seller’s market unlike anything seen in Lee County, lots of land is being cleared and marketed to circling suitors.
One such, massive lot can be seen looking east of I-75, just north of Alico Road and south of the exit to Southwest Florida International Airport. Trees have been cleared, and some were under a controlled burn last week.
What’s that lot going to become? We don’t know yet.
But I’m not leading a column with nothing. There’s plenty to be said about the 283.75-acre lot purchased for $5.75 million in 2017 by longtime Lee County real estate developer and rock miner Harvey Youngquist.
The move is part of the day s larger expansion, with nine new destinations and 18 fresh nonstop routes.
A third of those routes connect through the Gulf Coast, and many involve its home base of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The scheduled start dates largely fall during the traditional snowbird season later this year, usually operating twice weekly.
The upcoming Fort Myers trips include a pair in Minnesota, Duluth and Rochester; and two in Wisconsin, Green Bay and Milwaukee, where Southwest Airlines currently flies.
Sun Country s now offering service to five locations in Southwest Florida, the other two being Sarasota–Bradenton International Airport and Tampa International Airport.