On Wednesday an auction for the 4.68 acres of land known as Gulf View Colony on Fort Myers Beach closed. There was only one qualified bidder who didn’t even make a bid, according to several of the property owners.
There are 58 owners at Gulf View Colony, which is located next to the Red Coconut property now owned by Seagate. Gulf View Colony was a mobile home community. It was completely wiped out by Hurricane Ian.
The reserve bid for the property at the auction was $11 million, The reserve price is the minimum the seller, in this case the 58 property owners, will consider. The GVC property, located at 2945 Estero Boulevard, is the 4th largest land parcel on Fort Myers Beach.
In 2024 the GVC property was listed for $19 million. Seagate, which now owns the Red Coconut property that is entangled in litigation, had a contract on the GVC land. It was for less than $19 million but that number was never made public.
Alex King from Premier Plus Realty said from a market perspective, the auction outcome is definitely something to pay attention to. “I’d frame it more as a signal, not a setback. For the island’s commercial market as a whole, it likely means: Buyers are being more selective and price-sensitive right now and due diligence is driving decisions more than momentum or speculation. That said, this doesn’t indicate a lack of interest in the island—far from it. Well-positioned commercial properties that are properly priced and aligned with current market realities are still attracting attention and activity. Overall, I’d describe this as a market adjusting, not declining—and those periods often create the best opportunities for both sides when guided with the right strategy.”
Realtor Dennis Wagaman from The Pier Group said this auction result reflects what he’s consistently seeing on the island—pricing is not aligned with how a property performs, which determines its value. “At $11M, the deal likely doesn’t make sense when you consider what can realistically be built, the cost to carry and construct it, and what that finished product is worth in today’s market. Those factors collectively define the land value. When the numbers don’t align, buyers don’t engage. There isn’t a lack of interest in the market, but buyers in this sector are fiscally disciplined rather than emotional. The properties that sell are those priced in line with what they can realistically support, while still positioning the seller to achieve the strongest possible outcome.”
What we know about that land as of now, according to the town of Fort Myers Beach code, is that a developer by right can build 15 units per acre, that would be 69 units on this property. That could increase 2.5 times if a developer wants to build a hotel on that property, or 172 rooms.
The Gulf View Colony property also includes a deeded beach access across Estero Boulevard.
What happens now? The owners of the property continue to try to sell the land and hope a buyer will come along with an offer they can all accept.
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C
Bingo. Your second option lighted up the scoreboard. Probably discovered in those private meetings.
Great incites and perspective all. Thank you
Ed, did you tune in to the auction on loopnet.com ? It was available for public viewing.
The sole bidder actually bid all the way up to 10.75 million as time was running out in an attempt to discover the reserve price. If you would have watched the last 30 minutes you would have seen this price movement.
It turns out they came within 250,000 of the reserve ! Given that the sellers were last asking $12 million before deciding to host an auction we now have a 2 sided market. The market is 10.75 bid @ 12 ask
Price discovery is wonderful thing Ed. You should learn about markets and trading. Watch tastylive.com
if you take the midpoint of this market, the number is 11.38 million !
We now know what it’s worth and both sides should settle on this price to make a deal now.
This is how markets work.
Rumor on the street is that the auction company themselves ran the bid up to see if they could generate more bidding.
you’re saying loopnet, ten-X was doing it themselves with no actual bidder ?
that would be very dirty if it’s indeed true.
loopnet would know how many qualified bidders actually registered to participate in the auction
if they had nobody registered but decided to pull this deceptive scam anyway……shameful
And as market maker should be able to tell you, the same thing happens in the markets as well. Take a look at level 2 pricing and just watch all of the “spoofing” that happens continually. You never have pure price discovery. And in a lot of cases, you don’t have price discovery at all….
Who would want to buy right next to a 270 foot cement wall !!!
Love how people say the Seagate property improves the neighborhood property values.
It won’t last long once the $11 Million price tag is public. The owners will accept something lower. Too bad the town couldn’t buy it for green space, like a nice public central park.
That’s a great idea! Unfortunately, those towers Seagate wants to build will cast a permanent shadow on that property for most of the day. Who’s going to buy a piece of property that never gets sun?
I love the colorful reasons given by the realtors as to why this land wasn’t bid on. Who would buy this property knowing it’s going to be next to a mammoth tower? Maybe the council that voted for the tower should have to buy this land!😂 They obviously didn’t have the foresight to see this from happening. I feel bad for the 58 owners. Hopefully they’re not stuck with it.
So, cutting through all the goobly-gook, they’re asking too much for the property.
Thus, Seagate and London Bay may have overpaid. Unfortunate for them. But, it’s not the island’s responsibility to placate them; more floors/density, etc. to make their purchase financially viable . If we mere peons overpay for something, no one bails us out.
Spot on. If Seagate and London Bay would have put in the time to research what could be built according to the comprehensive plan, they too would have would have found the properties they bought to be way overpriced.
So either they didn’t do the research, or they were given the impression that the comprehensive plan was something that could be ignored.
Either way, the residents aren’t going to sit silently and pay for your mistakes.
Comp plan…..what comp plan? LOL