Construction of Ave Maria University, town well under way

Published: 2006-10-10

IMMOKALEE, Fla. (CNS) -- Driving south from Immokalee along Camp Keais Road, it's doubtful most travelers know a town and university are under development just behind the scrubby oaks and weeds that line the two-lane road. But tucked down a side road, on what were once pepper and tomato fields and areas with palmettos and wetlands, Ave Maria University and the surrounding town of Ave Maria are quickly rising. The future 5,000-acre community was conceived by Tom Monaghan, Domino's Pizza founder and chairman of Ave Maria Foundation, who wanted to build a major Catholic university. Ultimately bringing about $285 million to the project, Monaghan partnered in 2002 with Barron Collier Cos., a major southwest Florida real estate and agriculture company, to build his dream in east Collier County, south of a farming town on land already owned by Barron Collier. For the first time since the official groundbreaking ceremony in February, Ave Maria officials invited the media to visit the university and town in the mid-stages of construction.

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