Esplanade Lake Club

Esplanade Lake Club is a gated community in Fort Myers, near the airport and Gateway area off Alico Road, developed by Taylor Morrison as master developer with Pulte Homes and Seagate Development Group also building within the community. It spans 778 acres centered on Lake Como, a 352-acre lake reported in marketing as "one of the largest lakes in Southwest Florida" — though this claim carries an important nuance: Lake Como is a former sand-mine lake physically connected via a recorded lake-use agreement, involving Florida Gulf Coast University, to the adjacent Miromar Lakes community’s lake system, meaning it is a shared, contiguous lake system rather than an exclusively private, self-contained body of water, with the two communities’ combined lake system reported at roughly 700 acres. The community’s amenities center on this water feature, including a private beach, marina, boat ramp, kayak launch, and resident boat docks, alongside a more conventional clubhouse, resort-style pool, Bahama Bar poolside dining, tennis, pickleball, and bocce courts. Esplanade Lake Club has no golf course, distinguishing it from Taylor Morrison’s golf-branded "Esplanade" sister communities elsewhere in Florida. The community’s age-restriction status is a genuine, unresolved conflict worth disclosing plainly: 55places.com and TopRetirements list it as a 55-plus community, but Taylor Morrison’s own marketing and most local real-estate-agent sources describe it as all-ages and general-population, and it is not part of the developer’s separately branded, explicitly age-restricted Esplanade product line — this research leans toward general-population as the better-supported answer but flags the aggregator-site conflict for buyers researching 55-plus options near Fort Myers who might otherwise be misled. Fee figures likewise conflict substantially: one source cites HOA dues of $554 per month, while a specialized community-focused source instead describes a layered structure of $217 to $652 per month in basic sub-association dues plus a separate Master HOA fee of $1,200 to $1,400 per quarter, plus a reported (but only single-sourced) $5,000 one-time transfer fee at resale closing, on top of an annual Community Development District assessment of roughly $2,500 to just over $3,000. This combination of a sub-HOA, a Master HOA, a CDD assessment, and a possible five-figure transfer fee represents a genuinely complex, multi-layered carrying-cost structure that prospective buyers should have confirmed directly and precisely before purchasing, rather than relying on any single web listing. This research found no source documenting Hurricane Ian’s specific impact on Esplanade Lake Club in September 2022, despite severe, well-documented county-wide damage in Lee County during that storm; the community’s inland location away from the coastal storm-surge zone that devastated Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel suggests it likely avoided the worst of that damage, and a neighboring community sharing its lake and drainage engineering has separately marketed itself as being outside a flood zone due to intentional elevation and stormwater design — but no source made an equivalent explicit statement about Esplanade Lake Club specifically, so this should be treated as an information gap rather than a confirmed flood-zone determination. The community won a 2022 Collier Building Industry Association Sand Dollar Award for Community of the Year, and continues active custom-home building through at least 2024-2025 via builder Seagate Development Group. Given the many similarly branded Taylor Morrison "Esplanade" communities across Florida, buyers researching Esplanade Lake Club online should double-check that any pricing, fee, or award information they encounter actually names this specific Fort Myers property rather than one of its differently located sister communities.

Age Restriction

Esplanade Lake Club’s age-restriction status is genuinely conflicting across sources: 55places.com and TopRetirements categorize it as a "55-plus community," but Taylor Morrison’s own marketing and most local real-estate-agent descriptions describe it explicitly as an all-ages, general-population community with references to schools and family-oriented programming, and it is not part of Taylor Morrison’s separately branded, explicitly age-restricted "Esplanade" active-adult product line. This research treats it as most likely general-population per developer-level sourcing, while flagging that some retirement-community aggregator sites list it as 55-plus, likely because those directories catalogue "Esplanade"-branded communities under one umbrella without verifying each community’s actual deed-restriction status. Important disambiguation: Esplanade Lake Club is a distinct community from Esplanade Golf & Country Club (Lakewood Ranch), Esplanade at Azario, and Esplanade by the Islands, all separate Taylor Morrison "Esplanade"-branded properties elsewhere in Florida.

Housing Types

• Single-family homes
• Attached twin villas
• Custom estate homes

Pricing

The Esplanade Lake Club Community Development District was created September 18, 2018 by Lee County ordinance, and home sales began in 2019. The community spans 778 acres sited around Lake Como, a 352-acre lake; total planned homes are consistently reported at 650 single-family homes and twin villas, though this figure has been repeated since 2019 marketing materials and no source confirmed how close the community is to full build-out as of 2026. Single-family homes run roughly 1,856 to 3,502 square feet across nine Taylor Morrison floor plans, with attached villas around 1,500 square feet; current resale listings (as of a 2026 snapshot) span roughly $417,900 to $3,199,000, with roughly 69 homes sold over a recent 12-month period at an average selling price around $958,419.

Fees & Assessments

HOA Dues: Fee figures conflict substantially across sources and likely reflect the community’s layered structure of sub-association dues plus a separate Master HOA fee: one source cites HOA fees of $554 per month, while another cites a basic range of $217 to $652 per month plus a separate Master HOA fee of $1,200 to $1,400 per quarter. A one-time transfer fee of $5,000 due at closing is reported by one specialized source but was not independently cross-verified against a second source. A separate annual Community Development District assessment is reported at roughly $2,567 to just over $3,030 depending on lot size and phase, billed via the property tax bill. Master HOA dues reportedly cover the gated entry, sidewalks, community boat slips, the clubhouse, the resort-style pool, Bahama Bar, tennis, pickleball, bocce and flex courts, a wellness center and spa, the walking trail, the boat ramp, wet slips, and dry boat storage.

Amenities

• Lake Como, a 352-acre lake at the community’s center, physically connected via a recorded lake-use agreement to the adjacent Miromar Lakes community’s lake system, allowing boat passage between the two
• A private sandy beach area, a marina and boat ramp, kayak launch, dry boat storage, and resident boat docks/wet slips
• Clubhouse, resort-style pool, resistance/lap pools, and Bahama Bar poolside dining
• Spa and wellness center, and a fitness center
• Tennis courts, pickleball courts, bocce courts, and a "flex court"
• A dog park ("Bark Park") and walking/biking trails around the lake
• Full-time Lifestyle Manager
• No golf course; the community carries no golf amenity, distinguishing it from Taylor Morrison’s golf-branded Esplanade communities elsewhere

Getting Around

Healthcare: Gulf Coast Medical Center, a 699-bed Lee Health hospital, is cited as a nearby major hospital, though this research could not confirm a specific driving distance or time from Esplanade Lake Club.

Airport: Southwest Florida International Airport is reported inconsistently at either roughly 4 miles or a 10-to-15-minute drive; both figures are plausible together given surface-street routing, but neither was independently confirmed via a mapping tool. Miromar Outlets is described as "just a few miles away," with Gulf Coast Town Center and Coconut Point also accessible via I-75.