School starts Monday for Ave Maria University Students. Right now classes are taught at a temporary campus in Naples. But next year students will be on their own campus, now being built near Immokalee. Construction managers say Ave Maria University – and the town of Ave Maria - are well on course to welcome students and residents next fall. Blake Gable is with Barron Collier Corporation, which donated land for the Catholic University and is building the town.

“Our plans are for the town center to begin to open in June and July with a couple of retailers and uses, moving forward to complete the town center toward the end of the fall, early winter. Obviously when the students come out we have to have some stuff open.

Gable says some homes should be built by April or May. The metal frame of the hundred-foot high church that will anchor the campus is well underway. The wastewater and water treatment facility will be complete in about a month. Buildings are rising up – in various stages of completion. Ave Maria University is largely funded by Tom Monahan – founder of the Dominos Pizza Chain, and a devout Catholic.