It’s hard to imagine only a few years ago Cape Coral was at the epicenter of the housing bust.Even in 2012, luxury homebuilder Don Koogler surprised everyone with a $2.3 million Cape Coral home in the Lee County parade of homes, the priciest in the building industry’s annual showcase.But there are few doubters today. “We’ve doubled our gross each year,” Koogler says. “We’re doing beyond phenomenal.”Koogler is so busy building multimillion-dollar homes in Cape Coral and other parts of Lee County that he’s promoted his son Dan Koogler to oversee a line of custom homes called the Island Series. “I’m getting old enough that I can’t do this forever,” says Don Koogler, 62.Dan Koogler, 30, joined his father at Koogler Homes in 2014 and became a construction supervisor. The younger Koogler completed his first house in January, a 2,500-square-foot home called Amador, the first in the Island Series.The elder Koogler is bullish on the outlook for real estate and homebuilding. The Cape Coral resident says there’s more work than he can handle himself, but remains wary of getting stretched too thin, even with the next generation in training.“You can only do so much,” Koogler says. “I believe in going to see every job.”
