Babcock Ranch Featured on “How I Built This” Podcast
Credit: NPR/How I Built This Podcast “How I Built This” Podcast with Guy Raz – Episode 513 – Babcock Ranch: Syd Kitson What would it take to build America’s first solar-powered town? What about a town that could withstand a direct hit from a hurricane? In the early 2000s, Syd Kitson, a former NFL football […]
The History of Park Square Homes and Plans for the Future
For 40 years, Florida-based Park Square Homes—No. 82 on the 2022 Builder 100—has been in the business of building both traditional and resort-style single-family communities in the Sunshine State. Family-owned and headquartered in Orlando with offices in Tampa, the company is led by CEO Suresh Gupta. To learn more about the company, its history, and […]
Babcock Ranch Featured at Aspen Ideas: Climate Conference
Babcock Ranch, which is powered entirely by solar, was designed for resilience, said Kitson as he spoke to the crowd on the final day of the conference. The 150-megawatt solar facility has 700,000 panels, and weathered the hurricane well. Kitson took a rare approach to developing land. The firm bought the 91,000-acre ranch in 2006, […]
How Newer Construction Homes Fared in Hurricane Season
A recent success story is Florida’s Babcock Ranch. The master-planned community straddling Charlotte and Lee counties withstood hours of sustained winds over 100 miles per hour (161 kph) when Hurricane Ian made landfall in September 2022. The damage was so minimal, inspectors from the Federal Emergency Management Agency officials determined the storm had missed the […]
Babcock Ranch featured in The Wall Street Journal
Neighborhoods powered by solar panels with backup batteries weathered the direct onslaught of Hurricane Ian in Florida, utilities and developers said, keeping the lights on throughout the storm while millions of others lost power. At least three solar-powered communities near Fort Myers and Tampa made it through Ian without losing electricity. Some also had hardened electrical […]
Babcock Ranch featured in The Hill
As Hurricane Ian made its way to southwestern Florida on Sept. 28, Mark Wilkerson put up his metal hurricane shutters, locked his door and hunkered down to wait out the Category 4 storm. Wilkerson’s home, in the center of the entirely solar-powered town of Babcock Ranch, was made for this. But he still feared the […]
Babcock Ranch featured in Business Insider
As Hurricane Ian battered Florida and left millions without power last week, one forward-thinking community managed to keep the lights on. Babcock Ranch, a planned community of roughly 2,000 that bills itself as “America’s first solar-powered town,” skated through the storm without power loss or significant damage, CNN reported. A spokesperson for Babcock Ranch confirmed that residents didn’t […]
Babcock Ranch featured on NPR’s All Things Considered
BABCOCK RANCH, Fla. — Like many others in Southwest Florida, Mark Wilkerson seemingly gambled his life by choosing to shelter at home rather than evacuate when Hurricane Ian crashed ashore last week as a Category 4 storm. But it wasn’t just luck that saved Wilkerson and his wife, Rhonda, or prevented damage to their well-appointed […]
Babcock Ranch featured on BNN Bloomberg
Syd Kitson, chairman and CEO of Kitson & Partners, joins BNN Bloomberg to discuss how Florida community Babcock Ranch successfully endured Hurricane Ian nearly unscathed. Kitson says that instead of fighting nature, Babcock Ranch works with nature – using native plants and natural watercourses as sustainable methods of combating the storm. He also discusses keeping […]
WPTV West Palm Beach features Babcock Ranch
WPTV West Palm Beach spotlights Babcock Ranch: How America’s first solar-powered town weathered Hurricane Ian. Read the full story and watch the segment here.
