Land purchased for 1st Street Plaza, Zocalos to follow

Posted At : January 24, 2012 4:13 PM | Posted By : Steve Hart
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They are intended to be bookends – plazas or zocalos; public gathering spots at either end of Immokalee’s Main Street and central business district.

Collier County Commissioners agreed January 24 to the purchase of two parcels at Main Street and First Avenue that will be the site of the First Street Plaza. The $810,000 purchase means the Immokalee Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) will now own the two parcels on which will the two zocalos will be built.

The CRA purchase the other property, at Main and Nineth Street, early last year from the Immokalee Pioneer Brown Family.

“It was a great day for Immokalee,” said CRA Executive Director Penny Phillippi, following the county lawmakers’ agreement on the First Street property.

With both tracts in hand, CRA planners can now move forward on final design and construction of the Immokalee plazas, both key ingredients in the CRA's award-winning Public Realm Plan for Immokalee redevelopment.

“Public gathering places, such as zocalos, are in the Mexican-Tenochtitlan the heart of the community and are often anchored by a church or market place,” explains the Immokalee Public Realm Plan. “In Immokalee, the two proposed plazas are intended to inspire civic pride and revitalize the central business district by creating a more livable and walkable community.”

Click here to read the Public Realm Plan and to see more detailed drawings and a slide presentation of what the plazas will, eventually, look like.