Stonecreek

Three bodies of water share the deck behind the Stonecreek clubhouse: a big resort-style pool, a lane pool for swimming lengths and a whirlpool spa, ringed with shade cabanas. A tiki hut stands on the deck, a covered outdoor fireplace has seating for the evenings, and a splash park with a wading pool sits alongside. Past the pools, nine clay courts are lit for night play, five for tennis and four for pickleball, each with a shaded pavilion courtside.

There's no club behind any of this, and no golf course either. The clubhouse, courts and pools are owned by the Stonecreek POA, the property owners' association, and they come with the house you buy. Stonecreek is a gated neighborhood of detached houses in North Naples, reached from Logan Boulevard north of Immokalee Road. GL Homes built it, and the clubhouse opened in March 2018.

What is inside the Stonecreek clubhouse?

A social hall looking over the pool deck, with a catering kitchen beside it, sits at the heart of a building GL Homes gives as 13,676 square feet. It also holds a card room with gaming tables, a game room with ping pong and billiards, a media room, and a multi-purpose room used for yoga, group exercise and arts and crafts.

Fitness gets two rooms of its own. Cardio machines and strength equipment fill the fitness center, which you reach by a separate door at the side of the clubhouse. The indoor sports court is air-conditioned and takes basketball, ping pong and events. In GL Homes' years, the association let owners book the social hall with its catering kitchen, or the picnic pavilion by the playground, for private parties. Its packet named those two as the only spaces open to rent.

What else is on the recreation site?

Courts, mostly, across a site of 6.25 acres. The tennis and pickleball courts are Har-Tru clay, and GL Homes described round-robin play on them in 2020, and the association's packet from those years had owners reserve them, along with the indoor court, through its website. Beyond them are a beach volleyball court, a full-size outdoor basketball court, a shaded playground and a picnic pavilion with restrooms.

Sidewalks and trails run through the neighborhoods for walking, jogging and cycling, past the lakes and preserves GL Homes laid the streets around. The entry road climbs from a waterfall over rock to the gatehouse. In GL Homes' years, the association described barcode lanes there that let owners drive in without stopping, and a separate visitor lane beside the gatehouse with a phone entry unit.

Is there a social calendar at Stonecreek?

The association's website runs an online sign-up for events and activities. What filled the calendar in GL Homes' years is set out in the developer's monthly updates from 2018 to 2020, when a full-time lifestyle director ran it. They name a Happy Hour Club wine tasting, a Sports Club party for the NFL season opener, and a poolside Sunset Social with live music and a food truck. Art classes, luncheons and holiday parties were spread through those years as well.

How far is Stonecreek from the beach, Mercato and the airport?

By road, without traffic:

• Mercato, about 9 miles, roughly 19 minutes
• Vanderbilt Beach Park, about 10.5 miles, roughly 22 minutes
• Fifth Avenue South, about 17 miles, roughly half an hour
• Southwest Florida International Airport, about 27 miles, roughly 38 minutes

Season traffic stretches all four. Everything Stonecreek has sits inside its own gate, and no beach club, marina or outside facility comes with a house here.

What kinds of homes are in Stonecreek?

Detached houses only, each on one floor or two, with a two-car or a three-car garage. GL Homes offered 19 designs, with flexible rooms it called club rooms, play rooms, libraries and bonus rooms. The neighborhoods sit among preserves and lakes, with green areas and lake views around them.

Resale houses run from about 2,050 to about 5,050 square feet, with 2 to 6 bedrooms, and carry build years from 2016 to 2020. They have sold from the $660,000s to around $2.1 million. One-story and two-story houses both run across most of that range, though across the mid-range prices the two-story homes sold higher.

Is there a club to join, and what are the dues?

No club, and no membership tier to choose. The only body you join is the Stonecreek POA, which counts the clubhouse, pools and courts among the things its dues pay for. In GL Homes' years, the association's welcome packet set its list out in full: mowing and landscaping at each home, lawn irrigation, lawn pest control and fertilizing, the common grounds, roads and streetlights, the lakes and wetlands, the gated entry, the amenities, alarm monitoring for each home, and management.

ICON Management runs the association, and its community manager works from an office inside Stonecreek. The association's website handles gate access and the leasing application as well as the events sign-up.

For the association, plan on around $550 a month. It's a deliberately high figure, taken toward the top of what owners pay, and most houses pay less than that. The POA sends its bills four times a year, on each quarter's first day.

Can you rent out a house in Stonecreek?

Yes, with the board's approval. In GL Homes' years, the welcome packet sent every lease to the board with an application fee, and it was firm on timing: "The approval process must be completed before the renters arrive." The association still runs a leasing application through its website.

The same packet settled who uses the pools and courts while a house is leased: "Remember that owners leasing their homes do not have access while tenants are provided access." The tenant holds that access while the lease is in force, not you. Let the house for the season, and you don't swim or play here that season.