The time and maintenance required to care for hundreds of housing units are indescribable. Director of Maintenance Operations Ron Dalton and his team have continued the upkeep by providing several upgrades to North Lake Village over the past two months.
“I love to see all the changes,” Dalton said. “Some students are in dorms, so they [will] have something to look forward to down the line. [Students] impression should be, ‘That looks better than it did when I left.’”
FGCU’s first phase of student housing opened in the summer of 1998, in the second year of the university’s operation. Fast forward 27 years, the housing area is now known as North Lake Village, the oldest of the three housing units on the Estero campus: North Lake Village, West Lake Village and South Village.
Housing services have circled back to North Lake Village to begin a long-awaited modernization process. Although a significant portion of this seven-phase process started on May 4, the renovation process has been divided into seven different phases dating back to last year.
“We do a capital plan, our capital budget, a year in advance,” Dalton said. “So all the things that we executed now in the summer of 2025 were discussed in the spring of 2024. So most of the plans for the summer of 2026 are already out, it’s just a matter of executing.”
The project started last summer with phase one, servicing buildings A through F. Dalton and his team wrapped up the renovation of phases two and three, which involve housing units G through O, ahead of the 2025-26 school year.
Each building received new heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) units, countertops, LED lights and blinds. Depending on the condition of the couches and love seats in each dormitory, they were swapped on a case-by-case basis.
“I definitely agree that North Lake’s dorms need to be more modernized,” junior Emily Xiques said. “ While I like the look of the outsides of the buildings, I think the insides could benefit from getting redone.”
Each phase was determined by the newness of each building. The oldest buildings received the renovations first and every subsequent summer, the ensuing two phases would be completed.
Last year, housing services finished its luxurious, vinyl, tile (LVT) and carpet project. Over six years, every building in North Lake received wooden flooring and updated vinyl. The only two buildings that have not received updates in North Lake Village are the Pilot Houses, free housing given to scholarship recipients, as they fall under the jurisdiction of the main campus.
“We were able to change out the flooring because that changed not only the look, but the smell, and everything that kind of goes along with it,” Dalton said. “It just made it look like a higher class.”
Over the next three years, housing services will integrate new bathrooms into each housing unit. This change has yet to be implemented in phases two and three, but has been tested in the “birds” buildings of Falcon, Sandpiper, Pelican and Egret. These four housing areas are considered part of phase seven.
“[We] really liked the product, so we thought, let’s try to get one phase done this summer,” Dalton said. “It’s temperamental to heat, so the AC needs to be working. So I would like to be able to do that, which would be difficult. So next year, I’ll need to plan it so that if the building is getting new HVAC, it either gets this first or after.”
Altogether, housing services plan to update 144 HVAC units, 504 window blinds, 72 apartment counter tops and refurbish 144 bathtub/stand-up showers. In addition, 120 upholstered pieces of furniture and 30 refrigerators (among other appliances) will be swapped out where needed.
“Yes, this encourages me to stay on campus,” junior Sophia LaVigne said. ” I think these upgrades will make for more comfortable living.”
