The newest luxury RV resort in Southwest Florida held its ribbon cutting in Cape Coral on Saturday to signify it is ready for business.
Although stormy conditions forced a toned-down event as Encore Tranquility Lakes at 4100 Burnt Store Road celebrated the opening in the resort’s clubhouse, it’s a project that has been years in the making and there still was plenty of excitement.
Scott Warmbein, general manager of Tranquility Lakes, said the event was an opportunity to introduce the resort to the community.
“We’ve been open since October, but we finally opened our clubhouse and we’re using local vendors to allow them to showcase what Cape Coral has to offer,” Warmbein said.
A luxury RV resort has been talked about at the site at Cape Coral City Council meetings since 2012. After several starts and stops, ground was finally broken in 2019.
The RV resort took four years to complete because of COVID and later, Hurricane Ian, which delayed the opening, Warmbein said. The soft opening was in October. On Saturday there were 40 to 50 RVs on the site.
The new 200-acre development — 90% of which are the two picturesque lakes on which the resort is located — will feature 500 full hookup RV sites when fully completed and will provide RV guests with more than 180 RV sites facing the water.
Currently, only 145 slots are open as part of the first phase of construction. Phase two will build late next summer.
Each site will feature concrete pads with 50-amp Marine Grade pedestals, along with individual concrete picnic areas. Tranquility Lakes amenities include a 10,000-square-foot clubhouse that contains a fitness center overlooking the lake, a billiards room, card room, kitchen, more than 2,000 square feet of covered outdoor space for dining and relaxing, as well as a gathering space overlooking the pool.
Along with the state-of-the-art clubhouse, the resort offers a dog park and is highlighted by its recreational activities including a swimming pool, lap pool, hot tub, a bocce court and 10 pickleball courts.
RVs have a maximum occupancy time of six months. Rates depend on the time of season. From Oct. 1 to April 1, rates will be $3,000 per month with everything included such as power, trash pickup, etc…. Off-season rates are $1,100 per month. Tranquility Lake is running a special for discounted rates.
“It’s a beautiful resort. We’re up and running and have a lot of amenities. A lot of work went into the design of this resort,” Warmbein said.
Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate with plans to give tours of the resort or hold an open house. Rather, most gathered in the clubhouse to play pool and eat some of the goodies they had for their guests.
David Palmer, of Punta Gorda, decided to take a test trip before heading out next week in their new RV they bought a few months ago. They like the new resort, though they haven’t been able to enjoy much of it because of the weather.
“It’s beautiful. We haven’t been able to utilize it because of the terrible weather, but the pool looks lovely, the parking is great,” Palmer said, who was with his neighbor and wanted to do an RV Christmas. “We came up with this on the fly and stayed for the weekend, but we’ve just been sitting around playing board games.”
Jeff McNett and his wife, Cindy, from Ohio, wanted to find a place to go, as they have family in St. James City and Fort Myers on Cindy’s side of the family.
“I’ve watched this being built over the last two years. We’re down here all the time and we helped my brother-in-law rebuild after Ian,” McNett said. “We’ll ultimately find a place down here, but for now, this is nice. It’s a nice place to go.”
Warmbein said they plan to hold another event in January, hopefully when the weather is better, so people who couldn’t attend Saturday can come and enjoy themselves. They also plan to hold a fishing tournament in July for the kids along with the Cape Coral Police Department.
