Listing offers glimpse of ‘off the grid’ living on island

Keeywadin’s Public Beach (Photo By Donald H Burke assumed (based on copyright claims), CC BY-SA 2.5)

NAPLES, Fla. — Keewaydin Island is known for its 7-mile-long pristine beach and secluded homes that offer an “off the grid” living experience.

“Off the grid” means living free of municipal power and, in most cases, with a self-sustained source of electricity, such as solar panels.

As technology evolves with solar, wind and hydropower, the trend of off-the-grid living seems to increase.

Keewaydin Island, off Naples, has about 50 lots and a total of 12 homes on it. Most are powered by solar panels and use large rain barrels for self-sustainability.

Of the 12 homes on the island, one home, at 10169 Keewaydin, is for sale for $2.4 million.

In recent years, Keewaydin Island was ranked No. 3 on the list of 10 best secret beaches, according to Coastal Living.

It is known for hosting private weddings; it’s a tourist destination spot; and it once had a vacation home of Vice-President Joe Biden’s brother, James Biden Jr., and his wife.

“These homes don’t go on the market often,” said Sherry Irvin, a Realtor with Premier Sotheby’s International Realty.

Irvin has the listing for the home, which has 5,268 square feet of space and is accessible only by boat.

The three-story home stands on more than 2 acres and has four bedrooms, six baths and a private boat dock, with the Gulf of Mexico as a backyard.

The Al-Khatib family purchased the property in 2000. Ahmed Al-Khatib, a gastroenterologist in Naples, took on the project of building an energy-independent home with his wife, Kathleen, who is director of The Garden School of Naples.

“It took us seven years to get the permits and seven years to build it,” Ahmed Al-Khatib said.

There are seven large cisterns on the side of the home, each able to hold about 2,500 gallons of water.

“The rainwater comes off the roof, it’s collected and drains down into the cistern,” Irvin said. “Then it goes through a four-part filtration system.”

The frequent thunderstorms of Florida summers are nuisances to some people, but to island residents who rely on rainwater, they’re necessary.

“I ran out of water once and then the rain came and all the cisterns filled up,” Al-Khatib said. “And if there is no sun for a couple days, then there is a backup generator.”

Some might consider it risky to live off the grid, for fear of losing power or water. However, Al-Khatib said being on the island during Hurricane Irma would have been better than being at his home in Naples after the storm hit last September.

“Five days when I was in town and we did not have power,” he said. “Here I had power, water, everything. But I could not come because my boat was in the harbour and it was locked for the hurricane.”

The only damage done to his island home: A few patio screens ripped.

Before solar and other technologies evolved, you would need to use several candles and oil lamps to light up a single room in a house.

But now, solar panels generate enough energy to provide all the necessities to get the comforts of mainland living, including high-speed internet, air conditioning and a fully functional kitchen for entertaining while on vacation.

“Besides being a great vacation home for this family, it becomes a very attractive rental home,” Irvin said of Al-Khatib’s home.

According to Irvin, many homeowners on the island use their homes as vacation spots for family and friends. When the families are taking a break from island life, the homes are rented out, typically for $4,000 to $5,000 a week.

“These homes can easily generate an additional $200,000 a year for rentals, and that’s if it’s not aggressively being rented out,” she said.

In 2018, Florida ranked 10th in the top 10 solar states, with the solar capacity to power more than 150,000 homes, according to data from the Solar Energy Industries Association.

According to the site, there are now more than 1.6 million solar installations in the U.S. and plans to double that by 2019.

Planning to visit Keewaydin? Local residents advise bringing several bottles of bug spray, citronella candles and anything else that will keep swarms of mosquitoes away. Even the walk from a dock to a house is likely to attract mosquitoes, especially during the rainy season.

Bug aren’t the only pests on Keewaydin. Iguanas, an invasive species of lizards, are crawling all over the island.

“The iguanas are bad, bad, bad,” Irvin said. “They eat the gopher tortoise eggs.”

Wild boar and deer also can be found on the island.

The south end of Keewaydin is a popular tourist destination, where more than 200 boats often gather at the small end of the beach. Ice cream and food boats will anchor for a few hours to serve treats to the beachgoers.

A neighbouring island, Little Marco Island, also features off-the-grid living and has a two-home package deal now for sale at $1 million.

The beachfront cottage at 11781 Little Marco Island is on 3 1/2 acres, including a private beach, along the intracoastal waterway just east of Keewaydin.

The home has an artisan craftmanship design with custom dolphins and birds carved into the wood throughout the house.

But just like the homes on Keewaydin, it relies on barrels and solar panels for water and power.

Off-the-grid living might not be for everyone, but for some, it is a reward of a more independent lifestyle, and to others, a way to find happiness in creating something unique. Or maybe just a nice place to get away and relax.

Once known as Key Island, Keewaydin was a winter retreat for Northerners in the 1930s.

The barrier island included a school that started as a camp in the 1890s.

In the 1940s, the camp was purchased by Naples philanthropists Lester and Dellora Norris, who gave the property to their daughter Lavern Norris Gaynor upon their deaths.

The site became the Keewaydin Club in December 1987 and was registered on the National Registry of Historic Places in Florida.

The Donahue family attained the land in 1992. The cottages were torn down and the original Keewaydin Club was demolished and rebuilt, losing its spot on the National Registry of Historic Places because of the reconstruction.

As of March 2017, the Donahue family put 70 acres of beachfront property up for sale on Keewaydin Island, along with their Gordon Pointe property in Naples. But only two months later, they called off any more offers after saying they had received multiple offers.

A month later, John “Jack” Donahue, who was a Naples philanthropist and founded a large U.S. financial firm called Federated Investors, died at 92.

According to Collier County property appraiser’s office, some of the beachfront properties remained in the family while others are still up for sale.