At a Southwest Florida commercial real estate conference, Stan Stouder, partner at the local commercial real estate firm, CRE Consultants, and long-time resident of Fort Myers Beach, gave his take on where things stand on the island’s re-development after Hurricane Ian.
"I cannot think of a more pivotal time to discuss this topic than right now. And why is that," he asked. "Well, the reason is because what happens in the next 10 to 15 months on Fort Myers Beach will cast the vote for what will happen in the next 10 to 15 years for that island."
Stouder then took us on a trip, of sorts, to Fort Myers Beach.
"Let's go down Summerlin Road," he said. "Between McGregor and the Fort Myers Beach Bridge, there were roughly 5000 mobile homes. Hurricane Ian completely leveled 4000 of those 5000 mobile homes. You've heard a lot of people talk today about affordable housing. That's a lot of units that were more affordable than not, that are not in the pipeline."
Without offering any solutions, he also pointed out the Palmetto Palms Mobile Home Park.
"It's my estimation that over 60% of those 649 units are now RV lots not being restored to mobile homes," Stouder said. "The other 20% are still vacant lots."
And the 20% of the units that actually made it through Ian have been brought back to current elevation code. Stouder shared how that brings some challenges.
"I don't know how many retirees wanna carry their groceries up two flights of stairs," he said. "Yet, this is, this is what we're seeing on those properties, those lots that have come back."
He continued: "Let's now go to the town of Fort Myers Beach. What you're seeing is that pier, the #1 tourist attraction, according to my research. They just retained Stantec, the engineering firm, to look at possible options. The projections are that it will be 4 years, four years before that pier is back into functionality."
Stouder described two huge developments being considered.
"This is a game changer: Moss Marine. The Freeland family owns it. They put out a proposal," he said. "They'll have a full service Marina. It'll have 1000 foot community Bayfront walk. Three hotels, 400 rooms with the tallest building proposed being six stories."
He explained more: "The Outrigger parcel that London Bay owns, they have put out a proposal where they wanna have two towers, one that will be a total of 12 stories and one that will be 17 stories."
He then talked about the absolutely staggering impact projects like these would have on property sales on Fort Myers Beach.
"To think that an acre of land on Fort Myers Beach could trade for $6 1/2 to 7 million plus per acre is is quite a number for properties on a 7 mile island that at one time had 7000 residents," Stouder said.
However, the town’s current comprehensive land use plan does not allow for such density or heights. Stouder made a prediction.
"There's a reckoning coming. There's going to be changes to the comprehensive land use plan and I would strongly invite whether you're for against, that you participate in that process not for our own pockets, but for the benefit of making what is a treasure of the county being the barrier islands, continue to be the treasure," he said. "How is that comp plan going to get changed? Well, we don't live in a democracy. We live in a republic. And the republic is denoted by the fact that the elected officials are to vote and speak in accordance to the citizenry that that elected them."
Stouder also discussed how the Fort Myers Beach City Council, which is made up of five people, will have three seats up for reelection in November. He said this too will have an impact on the future of the city.
"So we know that there's going to be contention and that's part of the process. Let's celebrate it," he said.
It sure sounds like contention, collaboration, and a revised comprehensive land use plan could all be part of the “New” Fort Myers Beach.
Karen Moore is a contributing partner for WGCU and the publisher of SWFL Business Today.
