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3A | GROWING FAST
Ave Maria continues to meet a growing
demand with restaurants, retail stores
Tim Aten Knows Tim Aten
Many more businesses coming to Randall Curve
J A N . 1 0 - 1 6 , 2025
6A | PUSH-BUTTON BID
3B | NOTEBOOK ART
Festival's online auction, which runs Jan. 17-28
assignment became his art; see it now
Artist Dani Papa's college sketch
Exquisite lots dot the Naples Winter Wine
SHARING THE WEALTH Golisano talks business, philanthropy
By Therese McDevitt terry.mcdevitt@naplespress.com
For billionaire businessman and philanthropist Tom Golisano, the closing months of 2024 were filled with reminders about the sometimes-fleeting nature of health and the importance of high-quality health care. Within a period of six weeks, his 96-year-old sister had a hip replacement — and ended up as active as ever. His great-granddaughter underwent a successful heart transplant, and he himself needed to have a pacemaker installed. Golisano shared these personal reflections on his and his family’s recent health events at a late-November announcement in Naples where he surprised 41 Southwest Florida nonprofits with unrestricted gifts totaling $85 million, including $15 million to health care systems. The gifts came just a couple of months after Golisano gave 82 major gifts totaling $360 million to organizations in upstate New York, including $52 million to the Golisano Foundation, increasing its assets to $120 million. Those combined gifts brought Golisano’s philanthropy for 2024 to half a billion dollars and his lifelong philanthropy to $860 million, according to figures provided by the Golisano Foundation. The gifts bestowed in Naples spanned five categories: Health care, education, intellectual and developmental disabilities, other critical community needs and animal welfare, with pledges ranging from $150,000 to $10 million over four to five years. As The Naples Press reported at the time, Golisano told the nonprofit leaders assembled at the November event at arts venue Artis—Naples that he understood how difficult it is to raise money, and that he had been
Q: I see they added the Aldi and AutoZone signs on the Randall Curve marquee. I see where Ace is going; what is the new building being built in front of it? Where are Aldi and AutoZone going? Thank you. — Luanne Skoglund, Golden Gate Estates A: Vintage Naples Apartments, Aldi discount grocer, AutoZone and Brickyard Car Wash are the latest breaking ground in The Randall at Orangetree development on Immokalee Road’s Randall Curve between Randall and Orange Tree boulevards in Golden Gate Estates. The Randall at Orangetree mixed-use development abuts Winchester Center directly to its north at the traffic signal intersection of Orange Tree Boulevard and Immokalee Road. So far, the separately owned and operated developments have built and opened only one business each: 7-Eleven in The Randall at Orangetree and McDonald’s in Winchester Center. Both franchises have been blessed with brisk business since opening last spring.
Winchester Center
The only vertical construction visible now on the Randall Curve is north of Orange Tree Boulevard in Winchester Center. The larger building taking shape will be Sunshine Ace Hardware; the smaller building under construction nearest Immokalee Road will be a See ATEN KNOWS, Page 10A
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Tom Golisano is seated for a portrait in the courtyard of Artis—Naples after a Nov. 19 event at which he awarded 41 SWFL nonprofits $85 million in grant funding. Photo by Liz Gorman
See GOLISANO, Page 8A
Bonita Springs, Estero councils affirm support for rail trail in Lee, Collier By Therese McDevitt terry.mcdevitt@naplespress.com
As 2025 begins, recent actions by the Village of Estero Council and the City of Bonita Springs Council promise to keep the proposed Bonita Estero Rail Trail project on track as it seeks funding, accord-
ing to Friends of BERT President Deborah Orton. The project would convert a 14.9mile segment of the unused Seminole Gulf Railway rail corridor stretching from Alico Road to Collier County into a hiking and biking trail, connecting to the John Yarborough trail to the north and the Paradise Coast Trail to the south. When
complete, according to the Friends of BERT website, the trail would become part of the planned 42-mile Florida Gulf Coast Trail and ultimately part of the more than 400mile Florida Gulf Coast Trail from Collier County to Tampa. Proponents of the trail see it as a way to provide pedestrians and cyclists with a safe alternative to
the region’s increasingly congested roadways. The Estero and Bonita Springs councils both previously pledged $5 million toward the project. They passed resolutions affirming their support for moving the project forward on Dec. 18, in their last meetSee TRAIL, Page 11A
MORNINGS Taylor Petras
Corey Lazar
Lindsey Sablan
Zach Maloch
Rachel Cox-Rosen