Estero's 2019 Person of Influence Margaret Antonier


By Sharon Van Rite


CEO and president of Estero’s Miromar Development Corporation now celebrat- ing 20 years since opening its first project in Southwest Florida. The awards Antonier has received during the years have proven she has the Midas touch. Miromar Lakes Beach & Golf Club has received multiple Gold Awards from the National Association of Home Builders recognizing the community and its beach clubhouse as the best in the US – dual honors no other community in the country has ever achieved. Miromar Outlets, celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2019, hosts 8 million annual visitors, is among TripAdvi- sor’s top Southwest Florida attractions, and a perennial winner of opinion polls for best factory outlet and best shopping experience since inception. Key to Antonier’s success is her insistence on creating each


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project to the highest of standards – hers. “My objective isn’t to build something quick but to create something of enduring beau- ty,” she says. “It just requires more creativity. What we develop will have a lasting impact, so we put a lot of thought into every- thing we build.” Antonier is involved in every facet of Miromar Development’s


growing portfolio, which also includes Miromar Design Center and the new University Village Shops & Residences. From incep- tion to completion, monumental to minute, Antonier personally selects every component – architects and builders, furniture and landscaping. She’s aligned herself with the best, including land planner and landscape architect Taft Bradshaw, renowned for his work at both Ritz-Carlton properties in Naples, projects through- out Europe, Bal Harbour Shops and South Florida’s most presti- gious addresses. Antonier knew instinctively the moment she met him 22 years ago, he shared her unique vision. He started with Miromar Outlets and has been involved in all subsequent projects. “Margaret is in a class by herself,” says Bradshaw, now retired


except for one client – Antonier. “At Miromar Lakes, she estab- lished a fresh new identity, creating something completely different for the marketplace. She’s fastidious and very conscious of all de- sign items. The image of Miromar Lakes was always important and that hasn’t changed, other than it’s better than planned.” Antonier’s influence is felt in the grand and glamorous (she designed the entry gate doors of the Miromar Lakes Beach Club- house) to the obscure (the perfect pebbles for the club’s courtyard). Her attention to every last detail has defined Miromar Develop- ment as a game changer, one boldly forging into unchartered ter- ritory. At Miromar Lakes, her vision predicated neighborhoods sculpted into a 700-acre freshwater lake, three miles of white-sand beach and amenity buildings pushed to the water’s edge. “All other developers in Lee County seem to be chasing the


standards established by Margaret years ago,” says Lee County Commissioner Frank Mann. “Her work has always defined the


10 www.EsteroChamber.org


visionary with impeccable taste and an innate understanding of the consumer market describes Margaret Antonier,


word ‘quality.’” Antonier’s unique style isn’t influenced


by traditional role models. Instead, hers is a coalescence of the roads she’s trav- eled – globetrotting throughout Europe, attending French and British boarding schools in Israel before eventually landing in Montreal, Canada. Those experiences fostered a lifelong appreciation for archi- tecture, interior design and the arts. … And differences. “Growing up, I was fortunate to ex- perience a mix of cultures, languages and diverse people,” Antonier says. “It opened my mind, literally, to a world of possibilities.” In the early days of Miromar Outlets


and Miromar Lakes, Antonier traveled extensively to Italy and France, returning stateside with hundreds of photos that would become storyboards for her Florida


projects. She visited several Parisian palaces to find those courtyard pebbles and incorporated elements of her favorite fountains from Rome and Paris into the 13 fountains throughout Miromar Out- lets. The landmark fountain at the entry to Miromar Lakes is an original Antonier design. Estero’s founding fathers will tell you Antonier put the village


on the map. Although present-day out-of-towners are hard pressed to place Estero on a map of Florida, mention Miromar Outlets and they know exactly where Estero is. Antonier recognized Estero’s po- tential more than 20 years ago after finding prime property for the outlets. “It was an excellent location situated between Naples and Fort Myers, visible from I-75 and so close to the airport,” she says. “People love its many amenities – the playground, our new rock- climbing walls and the fountains with Pekin ducks, turtles and koi fish – but ultimately they love the stores.” Twenty years ago, Estero was an unincorporated hamlet of just 500; today it’s an official municipality with a village government, a population over 33,000, and an outlet center triple its original size. “Margaret was one of the early visionaries in Estero,” says Dr.


Wilson Bradshaw, who retired a year ago after a decade as Presi- dent of Florida Gulf Coast University. “Margaret had a clear vision for what Estero could be. Not everyone saw that.” When Antonier was searching for property to build a master- planned community, she was awestruck by the large lakes displayed in a listing brochure. “I immediately sent in an offer and when I came to see the property in person 10 days later, I was ecstatic vi- sualizing Miromar Lakes. The lake was incredible, and I imagined people boating, waterskiing and having fun,” she says. “I saw a place where residents enjoy life to the fullest.” Ben Hill Griffin III, who had donated the land to build the new


university (FGCU), agreed to sell Antonier the Miromar Lakes prop- erty after she shared her development ideas with him. “She was true to her word,” he says. “Miromar Lakes is a quality development.” Former Lee County Commissioner John Albion credits Antonier for also defining and protecting the destiny of Ben Hill


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