The latest step toward rebuilding 75 timeshare units known as Estero Island Beach Club was achieved this week when 72% of the 2,200 owners voted in the affirmative. 51% was needed to move the rebuild forward.
In June the Fort Myers Beach Town Council unanimously approved the EIBC rebuild proposal. That followed a unanimous approval from the LPA.
Before Hurricane Ian EIBC was 2 buildings of about 2-3 stories located in the lot next to DiamondHead Resort. They were totally destroyed by the storm and eventually demolished. After Hurricane Ian EIBC has a little less land to build on thanks to the 1978 Coastal Construction Control Line. A portion of the north building lost 6 units and a portion of the south building lost 2 units that were previously over that line.
It took several attempts from the EIBC team to find a plan both the LPA and Town Council were OK approving.
In October of 2024 the LPA approved EIBC’s original 10-story new building proposal. The following month, the Town Council denied it. The reason, not enough public benefit to warrant a 10-story building. The denial was done ‘with prejudice’ which meant EIBC would have had to sit out the town’s process for a year. Then in November of 2024 the Town Council voted to allow EIBC to come back before the town with a new presentation and they went back to their drawing board.
The proposal LPA and Town Council members saw earlier this year was for the same number of units pre-Ian (75) in a flatter U shape building that takes up more of the property than the 10-story structure but is only 3 stories over parking in the middle section. The other two sides of the “U” are proposed to be 4 over parking. The Floor Area Ratio (F.A.R.) is reduced from October 2024 proposal of 1.4 to now be 1.2. Every unit in the building will be 842 square feet.
It’s estimated that about 11,000 people from about 40 states and 5 countries use the EIBC time-share facility every year and spread over $11 million throughout the local economy.
Now that the membership has approved the rebuild, it’s on to permitting and design so a groundbreaking is hard to pin down. The builder for the project is going to be Stevens Construction.Â
Really like the look of this one. I hope they keep the blue and white color scheme….looks sharp!!
I get it, the locals don’t want tall buildings, but I will say it, “ This new building is butt ugly ! “. But then I don’t have to stay there, so good luck to the owners on their new digs. The one thing I think the board is over looking, ( and I may be wrong on the location here ) But if this property is located along the stretch of Estero Boulevard that is only 2 lanes wide, then the town should require provisions so that a 4 lane road with proper bike lanes and sidewalks can happen at some point. The only way to fix the traffic problem is to widen the road like it is on the south end of the island. And the time to have acted on this would of been right after hurricane Ian, when nothing was rebuilt yet. In my opinion, a tall building should be allowed if the public benefit would be a wider / safer road for the public. I believe it’s called foresight but unfortunately that doesn’t seem to apply to FMB
This will be a nice addition to FMB, much better than the original one that was more like a hotel vs condo.