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Bell Tower Park is a large master-planned residential community in Fort Myers, Florida. The community features 478 residences — 288 carriage condominiums and 190 courtyard villas — surrounded by lakes, natural preserves, roads, greenbelts, and common spaces. Maintaining healthy landscapes for all residents across a property of this size and complexity requires a reliable and efficient irrigation system.
Greenscapes of Southwest Florida is part of Sperber Landscape Companies, a national family of locally managed commercial landscape companies. With expertise in landscape maintenance, landscape construction, tree care, irrigation, and snow and ice management, Sperber delivers customized solutions that enhance and protect commercial properties. By combining local market knowledge with the resources and support of a national organization, Sperber is committed to building lasting partnerships through exceptional service, operational excellence, and a people-first approach.
Although the existing irrigation controllers remained operational, these legacy products lacked remote monitoring and diagnostic capabilities. This meant every time there was a service request, technicians had to travel to the property to investigate issues or verify irrigation operation. Managing a community of this size required a solution that could improve efficiency while helping control travel time and maintenance costs.
For Greenscapes, replacing equipment that still technically functioned presented another challenge. The homeowners association (HOA) board questioned why an immediate upgrade was necessary when the existing controllers continued to irrigate the landscape. The Greenscapes team explained that the investment was about more than replacing hardware. A modernized system would reduce labor, improve service, minimize downtime, and create a more proactive solution for irrigation management. These outcomes would lead to increased long-term value for community residents while controlling costs over time.
Greenscapes upgraded the Bell Tower Park irrigation system with five Hunter ACC2 Controllers equipped with cloud-based Centralus™ Software. Designed for larger commercial irrigation systems, ACC2 provides advanced programming flexibility, supports simultaneous station operation, and enables sophisticated irrigation scheduling.
A2C-LTEM Cellular Connection Modules were also installed, giving technicians secure remote access to the irrigation system from their mobile phones through Centralus.
“The new controller is well ahead of others in its class in terms of performance and capability,” said Alex Diaz, Director of Irrigation for Greenscapes.
Diaz manages more than 30 irrigation technicians, supervisors, and managers. Using Centralus, the team can now monitor controller status, activate irrigation zones remotely, receive real-time alerts, and troubleshoot many issues without traveling to the property. This shift has transformed daily operations from reactive maintenance to proactive system management.
Centralus also provides detailed irrigation reports that help the team answer resident questions with documented run times and system activity. For the HOA, this means greater transparency and confidence that inquiries are being addressed quickly and accurately.
Southwest Florida’s frequent lightning storms also influenced the controller selection. The ACC2 Controller offers built-in module-level fusing that protects against electrical surges, helping maintain reliable operation during demanding weather conditions.
The controller renovation has significantly improved the way Greenscapes manages irrigation at Bell Tower Park.
Remote access has reduced unnecessary service visits by allowing technicians to diagnose problems, verify system operation, and perform field tests without traveling to the property. Faster troubleshooting enables crews to respond with precision while spending more time on productive maintenance instead of routine inspections.
Detailed reporting has also improved communication with HOA residents by providing clear documentation showing exactly when and how long a system ran whenever irrigation questions arise.
“Equally important is the level of customer support provided by Hunter,” Diaz said. “In my experience, their service and technical assistance are outstanding. I make sure that every new technician on our team has the Hunter support number programmed in their phone.”
For Greenscapes, this project has been much more than a simple technology investment. The upgrade to ACC2 Controllers is a true operational improvement that helps reduce labor costs, improve responsiveness, enhance system reliability, and deliver a higher level of service and long-term value for residents.
