“It illustrates the tidy Toledo-by-the-Sea approach to development that has become the template of modern Florida. The effect is all the more striking because Marco lies several miles deep into the confluence of a great saw grass and mangrove wilderness. Until the mid-sixties, Marco was a fishing and clamming village. Enter three brothers, the Mackles, who decided to work a classic Florida finesse, but on a grand scale: presell lots to snow-weary northerners and use the cash to finance the infra...structure of an entire city; a city that had yet to be built. For months, the Mackles ran ads in major newspapers touting a new golf and retirement resort in the Ten Thousand Islands. It was billed as a world-class facility even though no facilities existed. What did exist were artists’ renderings and little diorama cities that real estate agents flogged at high-pressure sales “parties” that promised free trips to Florida. The gambit worked. It’s easy to push sunshine in The Great Gray North.MoreLessRead More Read Less
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