About Shadow Wood Preserve
Shadow Wood Preserve is a gated community of 293 homes in Fort Myers. Day to day, the nearest golf course, Shadow Wood Country Club, is about 0.1 miles straight-line from the community's center; the nearest library, South County Regional Library, is about 4 miles away; the nearest emergency room, HCA Alico Rd Emergency Room, about 3.2 miles.
Amenities — community amenities from the Shadow Wood Preserve master homeowners association's own website (shadowwoodpreserve.org), cross-checked with the Lee County GIS boundary and USDA NAIP aerial; the 18-hole golf course is Shadow Wood Country Club's Preserve course (confirm current club membership terms with the club, and current HOA amenities and fees with the association) — include a gated entry on roughly 440 acres between the Estero Bay preserve and Mullock Creek, the 18-hole Shadow Wood Country Club Preserve golf course, around which the community is built, a community pavilion for gatherings, pickleball, tennis and bocce courts, community-owned kayaks and canoes with water access to Mullock Creek and Estero Bay, a fishing pier, a bundled fiber-optic communications package (television, internet and Wi-Fi) included in HOA fees, extensive preserved natural and conservation areas and community lakes.
On paper, the community sits in evacuation zone A. The average assessed just value across its 369 residential parcels was $543,723 in the county's 2026 roll.
Two structural facts should frame a search at Shadow Wood Preserve before the amenity list does. The first is cost: unlike the CDD-financed communities that dominate much of the newer south Lee County market, Shadow Wood Preserve carries no community development district. On a sampled 2025 tax bill the only recurring non-ad-valorem charge is a Lee County Solid Waste assessment of $348.75 — no multi-thousand-dollar CDD line. The community sits in unincorporated Lee County, in south Fort Myers, within the San Carlos Fire district, whose millage of 13.2715 is an ordinary ad-valorem levy rather than a special assessment.
The second is golf, and it works differently here than in bundled-membership communities. The neighborhood is built around an 18-hole course — the Preserve course of Shadow Wood Country Club — but club membership is a separate, optional purchase, not something automatically attached to the home. Owners who intend to play arrange it directly with the club; those who don't still have the HOA-provided amenities: a pavilion, pickleball, tennis and bocce courts, community kayaks and canoes with water access to Mullock Creek and Estero Bay, and a fishing pier. HOA fees also include a bundled fiber-optic package for television, internet and Wi-Fi.
A naming note that trips up listing searches: this is not Shadow Wood at The Brooks in Estero. It is a separate, Bonita Bay Group-developed community of 293 home sites — single-family homes, coach homes and condominiums — on roughly 440 acres, with sub-neighborhood associations (Bay Woods, Sandalwood, Creekside, Parkside) sitting under one master association that transitioned to resident control in 2007.
A couple of practical notes: the community falls in evacuation Zone A, so confirm your storm plan early, and verify current dues, club membership terms and rules directly with the association and Shadow Wood Country Club. This page is an independent, records-based starting point — not affiliated with the HOA, club, or developer.
HOA & community contacts
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