9 months after Hurricane Ian, Fort Myers Beach Town Hall is still mired in FEMA’s red tape awaiting demolition and the town’s government is operating out of rented trailers on property owned by the fire district. The 2 pieces of property are nearly identical in size and both sides are hoping they are identical in value.
The town would like to swap its property for the fire district property because it backs right up to Bay Oaks, which the town also owns, giving the town a contiguous piece of land. If the swap takes place the town would most likely build their new town hall on that property.
The fire district is open to the swap because, following Hurricane Ian, plans have certainly changed the way people are thinking. Interim Fire Chief Scott Wirth would like the district to move its administration building and training facility over the bridge to San Carlos Island where property is less expansive and safer from storm surge. The Fort Myers Beach Fire District does also cover San Carlos on the other side of the bridge. Fire Station 32 is located on San Carlos. The Fire District admin building is now on Voorhees street one block over from station #31 which was heavily damaged in the storm.
The Fire District purchased the 2545-2555 Estero Boulevard property in early 2019 for $4 million. After a 22-year run on that property Topps Supermarket closed in early 2018 when the owners lost their lease. The building was knocked down in April of 2019. That property was recently assessed at $16.9 million. If a swap is done the Fire District would sell off the old town hall property and look for a smaller piece of property ideally in the vicinity of Delmar avenue to build a smaller fire station on island, in addition to moving the admin building off island.
The town hall property was recently assessed just shy of $16 million but that included the useless town hall building that is in the iandebriscleanup.com system to be demolished soon. The property will most likely be appraised higher when that building is gone.
The Fire District property totals 2.14 acres and is zoned Commercial Boulevard. The town’s property is made up of 3 parcels totaling 2.21 acres and includes a residential piece of property on the back end that the previous council and town manager purchased with the hopes of building an upland facility on for the mooring field. That idea was quashed when residents on Tropical Shores Way rallied to kill the plan.
Both sides will be getting assessments done on the other’s property to make sure they get maximum value for the taxpayers.
The Fire Department is not part of the town of Fort Myers Beach government. It has its own taxing authority.
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