Fire District Receives Two Bids For Fire Station

The 5,408 square foot fire station at 3043 Estero Boulevard is for sale and earlier this week the Fort Myers Beach Fire District received two bids for the .14 acre lot. The two bids were $750,000 and $1.1 million. Who made the bids has not been made public yet.

The property was recently assessed at $1.1 million. The Fire District Board will meet on July 24th to discuss the bids and possibly accept one. The lot is zoned Commercial Boulevard.

A bit of history; the fire station property was donated to the fire District in 1951 by a longtime Fort Myers Beach family. The terms required the land to be used exclusively for the fire district. Since the location will no longer serve the district, a portion of the funds from the sale will be directed back to the family.

The Fire District is also close to closing on the purchase of a 1.75 acre piece of property just off the island on Shrimp Boat Lane (next to the Key West Express) for $3.4 million. That location will eventually be used as the district’s administration building and training tower. The fire district should own that property in about two weeks, once the previous owner clears a demolished building and delivers a clean title.

Fire Chief Scott Wirth searched for property off the island where it’s less expensive and where a new administration building could be built more resilient. The Shrimp Boat Lane location would also include water access for a Fire Department boat.

The construction of the administration building and training center will be paid for by the eventual sale of the back half of the Topps property at 2545 and 2555 Estero Boulevard after a new fire station is built on the front part of the property. The Fire District purchased the Topps property in early 2019 for $4 million hoping to build a new state-of-the-art facility and headquarters on that property by 2024. Hurricane Ian changed everything. The plan now is to build a smaller fire station on the front piece of the old Topps property (see the early stage renderings below) with a groundbreaking goal of October of this year and a ribbon cutting at the end of 2025.

The back half of the Topps lot will be used as a construction site while the new station is being built. When construction ends, the back portion will be sold. The back portion of the property was recently appraised at $5.7 million.

The Fort Myers Beach Fire District currently has two operating fire stations and an administration building: Fire Station 32 at 17891 San Carlos Blvd, Fire Station 33 at 121 Lenell Rd (next to Santini Plaza) and a headquarters at 100 Voorhis Street (across from the old Junkanoo location). The new fire station on the Topps property will replace the destroyed building on Estero that is now up for sale.

The Fire District Board of Commissioners has been holding its meetings at DiamondHead Resort since the storm. Before the storm they were holding meetings on the 3rd floor of the library.

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