(Note: This article is another in a long line of articles whose words are chosen and arranged to deceive the reader. Read very carefully, please, and consider the larger picture, what is REALLY being said. Note the glowing praise from FL Governor Jeb Bush in this article. See www.propertyrightsresearch.org/everglades_plan.htm  for his true intent and agenda.)

November 20, 2002

Associated Press

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NAPLES - The founder of Domino's Pizza announced plans Wednesday to build a Roman Catholic university and college town in southwest Florida.

Tom Monaghan, who also formerly owned the Detroit Tigers, agreed to enter into a partnership with developer Barron Collier Cos. to build the town near Naples.

In exchange, the developer will donate 750 acres for Ave Maria University. Monaghan said he will enter into a partnership with Lamar Gable, chairman of Barron Collier Cos., in the purchase of 5,000 additional acres for the development of Ave Maria, the university's surrounding town.

The Collier Cos. own thousands of acres of rural farmland, much of it in the area about 10 miles southwest of Immokalee and 25 miles northeast of Naples, where the university town will be located.

The company is descended from the holdings of Barron G. Collier, a New York advertising tycoon who bought huge tracts of wilderness southwestern Florida in the early 1900s for farming and ranching and gave Collier County its name.

Monaghan said he founded the Ave Maria Foundation in 1983 "to help get as many people to heaven as possible.''

"The best way to achieve the goal of the foundation is through Catholic higher education,'' Monaghan said. Monaghan sold Domino's Pizza in 1998 and founded Ave Maria College the same year. He has focused his energy and much of his fortune on advancing conservative Catholic causes in recent years.

Monaghan said his early years expanding Domino's Pizza franchises in college towns sparked an interest in college community life as a vehicle for teaching Catholic values.

Monaghan said the university would be part of the long Franciscan tradition of academic excellence. It will integrate high standards with a rich community life and a scenic campus setting, he said.

Monaghan said the university will also include a strong, competitive sports program.

He hopes to break ground on the university as soon as possible, finishing construction by late 2006, Falls said.

Nicholas J. Healy, president of Ave Maria University, said the town would service the university and the rural, impoverished community of Immokalee.

"We see ourselves as an appropriate medium between the people of Old Naples and the people of Immokalee,'' Healy said.

He said the town would provide economic opportunities and educational services -- including elementary and secondary schools -- to the people of east Collier County.

Gov. Jeb Bush commended the partnership.

"As a Catholic, I'm proud students will be able to come here,'' Bush said. "Who knows, in a few years we may have another nationally ranked football team here in Florida.''

The school would be the latest of Monaghan's Catholic schools and organizations _ which include Ave Maria School of Law, Ave Maria College, eight kindergarten through eighth grade schools, a convent and the foundation. They are located in southeastern Michigan.

Currently, Ave Maria College, a four-year liberal arts school, is in Ypsilanti, Mich., and has 250 students. Monaghan had sought to expand it to a university with dormitories and space for 1,500 students.

But Ann Arbor Township rejected a request to move the college to the 270-acre Domino's Farms complex.

Instead, Monaghan bought 7 acres in Naples for a temporary campus for the college, which will open there next fall. At the same time, he will build the larger university.

Healey said there are no plans to close the Ypsilanti campus or move the law school.

Associated Press Writer Tal Abbady contributed to this report.

On the Net:

Ave Maria University: www.avemaria.edu

Copyright © 2002, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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