Featured In Gulfshore Life: Southwest Florida’s Defenders of the Gulf
Amy Wicks, Civil Engineer, Babcock Ranch Amy Wicks had just graduated with a civil engineering degree from Indiana’s Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and made the trek to the Sunshine State when her new boss at Johnson Engineering dropped an assignment on her desk. “Don’t mess it up,” he said. It was 2006, and the assignment […]
Home Sales Surpass 3,000 as Babcock Ranch Kicks Off a Milestone Year
Babcock Ranch is experiencing another banner year in 2023, surpassing over 3,000 homes sold just as it introduces new neighborhoods, builders, amenities and a second retail center. Ranked the nation’s No. 5 best-selling master-planned community in 2022, Babcock Ranch is America’s first solar-powered town developed with the philosophy that respect for the natural environment, smart […]
Babcock Ranch lauded as a Game Changer in prestigious 2023 Edison Awards
Babcock Ranch’s resilient design earned the sustainable new Southwest Florida town top honors in the internationally recognized Edison Awards ceremony in Fort Myers on April 20. The Game Changer designation honored Babcock Ranch for its groundbreaking innovation in the resilient design category. The Edison Awards, named after American inventor Thomas Alva Edison, not only recognizes […]
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 […]
