Sanibel & Captiva, Florida
Mainland storage for Sanibel and Captiva owners.
On 28 September 2022 the Sanibel Causeway was severed in several places and the islands were reachable only by boat and helicopter for weeks. Whatever was on Sanibel or Captiva stayed there, and whatever was on the mainland was reachable.
That is the specific reason island owners call us, and it deserves a straight answer rather than a marketing page.
Getting here from Sanibel & Captiva
13461 Shire Lane
About 40 minutes from Sanibel, longer from Captiva · Roughly 25 miles from Sanibel
About 40 minutes from Sanibel, longer from Captiva · Roughly 25 miles from SanibelPeriwinkle Way to the Sanibel Causeway, then Summerlin Road east to Daniels Parkway and Shire Lane.
- Inland from the open Gulf
- 9 miles
- FEMA flood zone
- Zone X
- Wind design
- 170 mph
Flood
The flood zone in Sanibel & Captiva, and the flood zone here.
Zones are assigned parcel by parcel. Check your own address before relying on any general description.
Current exposure
Sanibel & Captiva
- FEMA flood zone
- Sanibel and Captiva are barrier islands and lie almost entirely within FEMA Special Flood Hazard Areas, VE along the Gulf front, AE across the interior.
- Surge pathway
- Roughly 10–15 ft of storm surge was recorded on the islands during Hurricane Ian; the causeway was severed.
The Excalibur position
Excalibur, Fort Myers
- FEMA flood zone
- FEMA Flood Zone X, outside the Special Flood Hazard Area
- Surge pathway
- Roughly nine miles inland from the open Gulf
Verify your own address
Flood zones are assigned parcel by parcel. The figures above describe each community in general terms and must be checked against Lee County GIS and the FEMA Flood Map Service Center for any specific address.
What Hurricane Ian did to Sanibel and Captiva.
The islands sat inside the northern eyewall of a 150 mph Category 4 landfall. Surge of roughly 10 to 15 feet crossed them, Blind Pass and the shorelines were reshaped, and the Sanibel Causeway lost sections of roadway and approach fill, cutting the islands off from the mainland entirely.
Ground-level and elevated-but-open parking made no difference to vehicles in the flooded areas. Salt water immersion is a total loss on almost anything modern. Even where a vehicle survived, getting it off the island afterwards was not possible for a long time.
There is no comfortable way to write this section. It is here because it is the honest context for the decision island owners are making.
The mainland base island ownership demands.
Island homeowners, often seasonal, who keep a mainland vehicle, a collection, or a boat, and who have decided that the mainland is where the valuable things sleep. Several of our owners keep an everyday car on the island and everything irreplaceable inland.
The other pattern is the owner who now stages from the mainland: fly into RSW, collect a car from the unit, drive out to the island, and reverse it on the way home. The site is three miles from the I-75 off-ramp to RSW, roughly a ten-minute drive.
The island car, kept on the mainland
Sanibel and Captiva sit in VE and AE flood zones. Excalibur is roughly nine miles inland from the open Gulf, in FEMA Flood Zone X, outside the Special Flood Hazard Area entirely.
The constraint islanders understand better than anyone is the causeway. A car kept on-island is a car that cannot leave once the bridge closes, and the decision about whether to move it has to be made days earlier than anyone wants to make it. Kept on the mainland, that decision stops being yours to make in a hurry.
What we can point to is the map: Zone X, outside the Special Flood Hazard Area, and engineered to a 170 mph ultimate design wind speed.
That is a location argument rather than a track record. For a car that has to leave an island, it is the argument that matters.
A mainland room, not just a mainland garage
The mezzanine is 320 square feet on the smallest plan, finished, with wet-bar plumbing roughed in and a luxury full bathroom with shower in every unit, and for island owners it tends to do something the mainland versions of this conversation do not.
If you are coming off the island to collect a car, you have already made a trip. Owners here build the second floor out as somewhere to be at the end of it: a base on the mainland side of the bridge, with the tools, the paperwork, a chair and somewhere to wash up. The gate is open 24/7 with camera monitoring and no office hours, which matters more when your arrival time depends on a bridge.
What it is not: a residence, or anywhere you are permitted to live.
The plans Sanibel & Captiva owners choose for serious storage.
Baron
1,350 sq ft · 320 sq ft second floor · From $399,000
1,350 sq ft with a 320 sq ft second floor, enough for two or three vehicles and the household items an island house cannot safely store at ground level.
Baron plans
Knight
1,800 sq ft · 450 sq ft second floor
1,800 sq ft, for an island owner consolidating a genuine collection onto the mainland with room for a lift and a workshop wall.
Knight plansWhat discerning Sanibel & Captiva buyers ask before they own.
The site-wide facts, stated once: 170 mph ultimate design wind speed, FEMA Flood Zone X, outside the Special Flood Hazard Area, roughly nine miles inland from the open Gulf, and an association fee of $1,000 per quarter on a 1,350 sq ft unit, increasing pro rata with size. RV dump station on site, included in the association fee. How the building is engineered and what it costs to own are explained in full on their own pages.