Collaboratory is about connectivity. It’s about bringing people together to share ideas. To seize opportunities. To develop solutions to Southwest Florida’s most pressing issues. In fact, we built an entire building for the community to do just that.
OUR HISTORY
In February 1924, local citizens were abuzz with the arrival of a sparkling new community hub – the Atlantic Coast Line Railway depot near the Caloosahatchee River, which delivered a new era of progress to Southwest Florida. The station saw the area through roughly 50 years of growth, but ceased operations and became vacant in 1971, the victim of dwindling ridership after the growth of automobile and air travel in the decades following World War II.
INNOVATIVE FINANCING
Rather than venturing out to raise private funds to build an office space, the Foundation’s board of trustees explored partnership options and alternative financing methods to forge a public private partnership with the City of Fort Myers to save and renovate the historic ACL Train Depot.
A SUSTAINABLE VISION
The focus on community well-being and sustainability at the heart of the Community Foundation’s mission is embodied in Collaboratory, which has undergone a rigorous certification, earning one of the highest designations in environmentally responsible building: LEED Gold.
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WHEN YOU’RE READY TO CHANGE THE WORLD.
Southwest Florida Community Foundation
Founded in 1976, the Southwest Florida Community Foundation cultivates regional change for the common good through collective leadership, social innovation and philanthropy to address the evolving community needs in Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Hendry and Glades counties.
