The Island at West Bay Club Tops Out at 24 Stories in Estero, With Completion Expected Mid-2027

The condominium tower rising inside West Bay Club in Estero has reached its full height. According to reporting by Evan Williams of Gulfshore Business, published October 30, 2026, Kolter Urban held a topping-out ceremony that day after crews reached the 24th floor of the Island at West Bay Club.

A topping-out marks the point where the structure reaches its highest level. It is not the end of construction. Gulfshore Business reports the milestone puts the project at roughly its halfway point, with interiors still being built out and completion expected in mid-2027. Work on the tower began in 2025.

As Gulfshore Business describes it, the tower has 86 condominium residences across 24 stories. Each residence is a corner unit, with four on a typical floor, and the floor plans run from three to four bedrooms, some with dens. The developer describes floor-to-ceiling windows, sliding glass doors opening onto large terraces, and a rooftop pool looking out over Estero Bay, the barrier islands and the Gulf.

The team, as reported:

• Developer: Kolter Urban, the condominium division of the Kolter Group, based in Palm Beach County. The division has built condominium towers in Sarasota and Naples, and Gulfshore Business reports this tower is its first condominium project in Estero's county.
• General contractor: Manhattan Construction.
• Architect: GarciaStromberg. Its CEO, Jorge Garcia, told Gulfshore Business the design was built around the views.

Brian Van Slyke, president of Kolter's Florida West Coast Division, declined to give Gulfshore Business a total project cost. He said the company wants to sell as many residences as it can before completion and has no fixed sales target.

The Estero Village Council approved the project unanimously, according to Gulfshore Business. Mayor Joanne Ribble, who toured the site with Vice Mayor George Zalucki, told the publication she favors limiting future high-rise development in the village and does not see other suitable land for another one. "We don't want to become the East Coast," she said.

For anyone shopping Estero, that is worth hearing in context. Estero is mostly lower-rise, master-planned communities of single-family homes, villas and coach homes set around lakes and golf. A council that leans against more towers shapes what the skyline and the condo supply look like over the next several years, though a mayor's stated preference is not the same as a rule, and future councils make their own decisions.

It is a different purchase under the same gate. West Bay Club already includes single-family custom estates, villas, carriage homes and condominiums across separate neighborhoods, with a championship golf course, a beach club on Little Hickory Island and a River Park on the Estero River. The tower adds a new condominium association on top of that structure.

Practically, that means a buyer in the tower should expect to look at three sets of numbers and rules, not one:

• The tower's own condominium association: its budget, its reserves and its rules. Newer Florida condo law puts real weight on reserve funding and structural inspections, and a new building sets its first budgets before it has any history.
• The master community association for West Bay Club as a whole.
• The club: what membership is required or optional for a tower resident, what it costs, and how it transfers on resale.

My West Bay Club buying guide walks through those layers in more detail, and it applies just as much to a pre-construction contract as to a resale.

This is the question to ask precisely, because bay views and boat access are not the same thing. West Bay Club's frontage on Estero Bay is a view, not a place to keep a boat: there are no docks on the bayfront. The community's boating runs through its River Park on the Estero River, which has a private launch and on-site boat storage based on availability, and the river reaches Estero Bay and the Gulf. The beach club sits on the Gulf, and like any Gulf-front beach it is about the sand, not dockage.

The Gulfshore Business report describes the tower's views and its rooftop pool. It does not describe any private water access for the tower itself. If a boat is part of your plan, ask the sales team in writing what a tower owner's access to the River Park and its storage actually is, and how storage is allocated. My Estero Gulf access homes page explains how this works across the village.

A building that has topped out is past its structural stage, which takes one big uncertainty off the table. What remains is the part a buyer feels most: interior finishes, the final condominium documents, and the delivery date. Things worth tracking if you are considering a residence here, or comparing it with other new construction in Estero:

• The delivery window. Mid-2027 is the stated target. Ask what the contract says happens if it moves.
• Deposit terms. How much is due and when, and where deposits are held under Florida's condominium rules.
• The estimated first-year budget for the condominium association, and how its reserves are planned.
• Insurance. What the association's master policy is expected to cover, and what an owner's own policy will need to carry.

Nobody can honestly put a number on what a new tower does to the value of homes around it, or what a residence in it will be worth at delivery. What it changes is practical: there will be another way to own in West Bay Club, with its own fee structure, its own view and its own trade-offs against a single-family home on the golf course.

I follow construction and development across my nine Southwest Florida markets, and this tower is one of the Estero projects buyers ask me about. If you are weighing it against a resale in the same community, a condo elsewhere, or a home in an Estero golf community, my home buying process starts with the documents and the costs, before anyone signs anything. Get in touch and we can go through it together.

This article summarizes reporting by Gulfshore Business published October 30, 2026. Project details, timing and terms are the developer's and may change.

Kris Asquith, Broker Associate at Premiere Plus Realty, (239) 300-1427.