Well, This Escalated Quickly
Starting Domino’s Pizza would be a pretty decent lifetime accomplishment for most people. Tom Monaghan apparently wasn't done. After turning one Michigan pizza shop into an empire, he eventually headed to Florida and helped start something considerably larger: a brand-new town. And yes, people actually live there.
The Town Is Called Ave Maria
Ave Maria sits in eastern Collier County, roughly 35 miles from downtown Naples. It didn't slowly grow around an old railroad stop or highway intersection. The community was deliberately planned and founded in 2005 on what had largely been rural agricultural land.
Unknown authorUnknown author, Wikimedia Commons
And The 2005 Part Is Real
There are a few dates in this story that can make things confusing. A special district for the future community was created by Florida law in 2004, Ave Maria was founded in 2005, construction followed, and the town officially opened to the public in July 2007.
One Small Asterisk
Monaghan didn't wander into a Florida field with a hammer and build a town by himself. Ave Maria Development was a partnership between Barron Collier Companies and Monaghan's Ave Maria Foundation. But Monaghan was absolutely one of the driving forces behind the town, so calling him a founder is legit.
Harris & Ewing, photographer, Wikimedia Commons
This Story Starts With $900 And A Pizza Shop
Back in 1960, Tom and his brother James Monaghan borrowed money and bought a small pizza shop called DomiNick's in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Tom eventually became sole owner and renamed the business Domino's Pizza in 1965. Things went fairly well from there.
The Bushranger, Wikimedia Commons
His Brother Got A Volkswagen Out Of The Deal
Here's one of those business stories that sounds much better with hindsight. In 1961, James traded his half of the pizza business to Tom in exchange for the Volkswagen Beetle they were using for deliveries. Tom was suddenly the sole owner of the future Domino's empire.
Then Domino's Got Huge
By the 80s, Domino's had become one of America's fastest-growing pizza companies. Its 1,000th U.S. store opened in 1983, and just two years later it had 2,841 locations. The little shop Monaghan bought to help pay his way through college had become something slightly bigger.
MultiEditor03, Wikimedia Commons
Monaghan Got Pretty Rich Too
The success bought Monaghan the sort of things you might expect from a newly minted tycoon. At various points he owned luxury aircraft, expensive cars, a major Frank Lloyd Wright collection and, because apparently pizza money can really get away from you, the Detroit Tigers.
Then His Priorities Changed
Monaghan had been raised partly in a Catholic orphanage and remained deeply religious. As his fortune grew, Catholic philanthropy became increasingly important to him. Eventually, he began giving up many of the expensive possessions he'd accumulated and focusing much more heavily on religious causes.
In 1998, He Left Domino's
After nearly four decades with the company, Monaghan retired in 1998 and gave up ownership to Bain Capital. Domino's says he left to pursue other interests. Those "other interests" would eventually include founding a university and helping create an entire town in Florida.
First Came The University
Monaghan wanted to build a Catholic university that closely followed traditional Church teachings. What became Ave Maria University began in Michigan before moving its operations to Florida, initially using temporary facilities in Naples while plans for a permanent campus came together.
Steve Knight, Wikimedia Commons
But He Needed Somewhere To Put It
Building a university requires a little more room than opening a pizza franchise. Monaghan eventually connected with Barron Collier Companies, which owned enormous stretches of land in southwest Florida. That relationship completely changed the scale of what he was planning.
Unknown authorUnknown author, Wikimedia Commons
The University Was Offered Hundreds Of Acres
The deal gave the university roughly 800 acres for its campus, while Monaghan and Barron Collier would jointly develop surrounding land. Instead of dropping a university into an existing city, they could essentially build the community around the school.
Now We're Building A Town
And not a tiny collection of houses either. Ave Maria was designed as a roughly 5,000-acre master-planned community with neighborhoods, stores, schools, parks, businesses and a recognizable town center. The university wasn't being added to the town. The two were being planned together.
Before The Town, Florida Created A District
In 2004, the state created the Ave Maria Stewardship Community District. It was given powers related to infrastructure including roads, water, sewer, recreation and other public facilities. Basically, there was a lot of decidedly unglamorous work required before anyone could start calling this place a town.
Then The Fields Started Disappearing
Construction on the permanent university campus and town began around 2005, with the ceremonial groundbreaking following in 2006. Contemporary descriptions of the area repeatedly mention tomato fields, cattle land and other agricultural property. Then roads and buildings suddenly started appearing.
Josue Isai Ramos Figueroa, Unsplash
And They Put A Giant Church In The Middle
Monaghan wanted the religious purpose of the project to be rather difficult to miss. The centerpiece became a massive Catholic structure in the town center, surrounded by a piazza and buildings containing shops and residences. It rises above Ave Maria like somebody turned the town's volume knob to Catholic.
Fr James Bradley from Washington, DC, Wikimedia Commons
It Wasn't Technically A Church At First
The building was originally the Ave Maria Oratory, functioning as a quasi-parish rather than a regular diocesan parish church. In 2017, the Diocese of Venice acquired it and formally established Ave Maria Catholic Church. So even the giant church has its own surprisingly complicated backstory.
Fr James Bradley from Washington, DC, Wikimedia Commons
Monaghan's Architecture Obsession Shows Up Too
Remember that Frank Lloyd Wright collection? Monaghan had loved architecture for decades, and the university says that influence can be seen in Ave Maria. The church and university buildings borrowed elements from Wright's architectural legacy, giving Monaghan another chance to indulge an interest pizza had interrupted years earlier.
Fr James Bradley from Washington, DC, Wikimedia Commons
Even The Streets Got Religious
This might be my favorite detail. GQ reported that Ave Maria's street grid was rotated precisely 2.49 degrees north of east so its eastern avenues would catch the sunrise on March 25, the Catholic Feast of the Annunciation. Apparently even the sunrise got included in the master plan.
Steve Knight, Wikimedia Commons
Then The Story Got Controversial
A devout Catholic billionaire building a Catholic university inside a new town was always going to attract attention. But things really took off after Monaghan publicly discussed the sort of community he hoped Ave Maria would become. Suddenly, this wasn't just a quirky real-estate story anymore.
He Had Some Very Specific Ideas
Monaghan said he hoped adult material wouldn't be sold in town and talked about pharmacies not dispensing contraceptives. Those comments generated national headlines and raised an obvious question: exactly how much control could the founder of a privately developed town have over the people living there?
The Answer Was: Not That Much
Ave Maria wasn't Monaghan's private country. His development partners stressed that the town would welcome people of different faiths, and Monaghan acknowledged that they couldn't simply ignore the law. The university could enforce its own religious rules, but the surrounding community remained part of Florida.
People Actually Started Moving In
The first residents began arriving in 2007. That summer, Ave Maria finally held its public unveiling, giving visitors their first real chance to walk around the community instead of staring at plans and imagining a town sitting in the middle of former farmland.
More Than 2,000 People Showed Up
When Ave Maria officially opened in July 2007, more than 2,000 people attended the four-hour event. They toured the new town and university campus, saw the enormous unfinished Oratory and got a first look at what Monaghan and Barron Collier had spent years talking about.
Correctomatic5000, Wikimedia Commons
And Yes, It Looked Like A Town
There were homes, businesses, streets, a school, a university and a central commercial area. The planners envisioned Ave Maria as a compact, walkable community rather than another endless stretch of Florida subdivisions. It wasn't finished, obviously, but this was no longer just an idea on paper.
Steve Knight, Wikimedia Commons
Technically, It Isn't An Incorporated City
Here's another little wrinkle. Ave Maria is an unincorporated community, not an incorporated Florida municipality with a conventional city government. The Census Bureau classifies it as a census-designated place. But "town" is how the development and plenty of residents have described it from the beginning.
Fr James Bradley from Washington, DC, Wikimedia Commons
Thousands Of People Live There
By the 2020 Census, Ave Maria had 6,242 residents. That's worth remembering because it separates this story from some billionaire's strange abandoned passion project. Monaghan and his partners didn't merely announce a town. They created a community where thousands of people eventually made their homes.
And It Never Stopped Growing
As of mid-2026, Ave Maria Development said more than 5,500 new homes had been sold in the community. The town also had more than 75 businesses, recreation facilities, restaurants, stores and multiple schools. So nearly two decades after opening, the experiment is still very much going.
Steve Knight, Wikimedia Commons
It Even Has A Public Elementary School Now
For years, education in Ave Maria was closely associated with its private Catholic schools and university. That changed in August 2026, when Ave Maria Elementary opened as the community's first public elementary school. The town built around one university now has education stretching from elementary school through college.
That's A Pretty Wild Second Act
Lots of entrepreneurs sell their companies and retire somewhere warm. Tom Monaghan sold Domino's, devoted much of his attention to Catholic causes, founded a university and then helped found the Florida town surrounding it. Whatever you think of the vision behind Ave Maria, you have to admit that's not the usual retirement plan.
From A Pizza Shop To A Town
And that's the part that still sounds made up. In 1960, Monaghan borrowed $900 with his brother to buy a little pizza shop in Michigan. Decades later, his name was attached not just to a worldwide pizza chain, but to a brand-new Florida town founded on former farmland. Yup. This is a real thing.
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