Bay Colony

Bay Colony is a private gated community on Bay Colony Drive, inside the larger Pelican Bay community in Naples. About 870 homes sit behind its gates: roughly 715 in 11 condominium buildings, and roughly 155 villas and detached houses across four neighborhoods.

The beach comes with owning here rather than with an address. Residence carries membership privileges at the Bay Colony Beach Club, which stands on the community's own Gulf shore inside the gates. Where a home stands is another matter, and the association sums up its own stock as "Beachfront, bay-view, and preserve-view residences".

Is Bay Colony a beachfront community?

Not as a whole. The association splits its own condominium buildings between beachfront and bayfront. The ones its pages put on the Gulf include the Contessa, the Carlysle and the Brighton. "The Salerno is a luxury 20 story condominium tower at the center of Bay Colony," reads one of those pages. Two of the four neighborhoods hold villas, one holds estate houses on lakes, and only the smallest is on the Gulf. "The Strand presents a secluded neighborhood of multi-million dollar homes with the Gulf of Mexico at their front doors." If you want water in front of you, the building and the street decide it.

Even on the Gulf side, the water isn't at the wall. Between those towers and the sea lies beach and dune land owned by the master association. "A dune walkover leads directly to the Gulf beaches," it says of the Carlysle.

What comes with owning here?

On the Beach Club, the association says this: "Residents enjoy membership privileges at the private Bay Colony Beach Club, featuring Gulf-front dining, attentive beach and pool service, a swimming pool, Sunset Terrace, Chickee Bar, and indoor and outdoor gathering spaces."

Tennis belongs to the community. The Bay Colony Tennis Club has six clay courts, and the association describes clinics, team play and a pro shop that strings racquets.

Ownership also brings membership of the master association for all of Pelican Bay. That adds beach facilities and dining, a tram to the beach, racquet facilities, a community center, a fitness center, canoes and kayaks.

Golf doesn't. The association's own golf page is headed "Golf Near Bay Colony," and what it offers owners is "Eligibility to pursue membership at the Bay Colony Golf Club." Eligibility is not membership. That club sits outside these gates, and joining means a separate application at a separate cost.

Who bills an owner here?

Three bodies can, and they stack. There's the community's own master association, the master association covering all of Pelican Bay above it, and an association for every condominium building below both. Covenants sit on every neighborhood, and that is where pets, leasing and the shortest lease allowed are set. What an owner pays turns on which layers reach the home, so get each figure in writing before setting a budget.

There's also a one-time capital assessment payable at closing, separate from the recurring charges. The association sets that amount and changes it, so confirm it in writing for the particular purchase, with the association's written statement for the closing.

Height and age put all 11 buildings inside Florida's structural rules. The structure has to go in front of an engineer or architect, and a costed savings plan has to stand behind the major elements. What the examination found, and whether those savings can absorb it, separates a steady charge from a repair bill of its own. A finished examination is not a clean bill of health.

Four things to settle before an offer:

• The capital assessment at closing, and whether this purchase is caught by it.
• The Beach Club's terms: any charge of its own, any limit on guests.
• Pet and lease rules for that building or that street.
• The structural examination on the building, and the savings behind it.

What are the homes like?

The 11 condominium buildings are separately addressed along Bay Colony Drive, and they differ. They run from a single building of 26 homes to one of about 100, a mid-rise of 7 stories and towers of roughly 19 to 22 stories. The associations are separate too, and so are the facilities: pools, guest suites, card rooms, a front desk.

The towers went up one at a time between the early 1990s and the early 2000s. Each of them dates from a single year, so a home's age follows from the building you pick. On the villa and detached streets, houses date from the start of the 1990s and more have been built since. So a choice there can fall between an early 1990s house and a newly finished one.

Condominium homes have sold between around $1.8 million and around $10 million, houses between around $2.7 million and around $13 million.

Is it really gated?

Yes. The association describes its entry as "Private, staffed entry and access control," and the internal roads are its own. Nothing publicly owned crosses the community as a road. The Gulf-front neighborhood adds a gate of its own: "Accessible only after passing through a second electronically-operated security gate."

A large mangrove and estuary system lies between the shore buildings and the inland streets, county-owned conservation land and not the association's. That is what the preserve-view and bay-view homes look at, and why several buildings here describe a view over a bay instead of the Gulf.