That’s how much money Key Estero Plaza owner Carmen Naccarato owes the town in fines for operating what they say is an illegal parking lot. Naccarato has been racking up $500 per day fines for the last 2 years, and that’s after he paid $188,475 in fines in March of 2024.
The town has argued for years that Naccarato’s parking lot, at the Key Estero Plaza on Estero Boulevard, is an unpermitted parking lot. It was to be used for tenants of the businesses. In other words they claim it’s a single-use parking lot. He’s been charging people who walk across Estero Boulevard to the beach for years, even when his plaza did have retail tenants. The town says that’s a shared-use parking lot. All other private parking lots on Fort Myers Beach have to go through the permitting process to become a legal operating business. Those businesses believe Naccarato is taking money out of their pockets and the town needs to address this.
The town has repeatedly stated it would consider allowing Naccarato to charge for parking if he applied for a special exception. That is a 60-90 day process that starts with staff, goes to the LPA, then to the Town Council. Up until now, Naccarato has never gone through that process which forced the town to put a lien on his property and eventually start the foreclosure process.
Naccarato basically admitted that what he’s been doing for years was wrong. He paid his first round of fines totalling $188,000 in March of 2024 which put an end to the lien process. He also gave the town the impression he would come into compliance by starting the process to apply for the permit. That turned out to be a head-fake that hoodwinked the town.
Naccarato appealed a Town Magistrate’s order to pay the fines to the Circuit Court in Lee County and lost. The fines continue to accrue at $500 per day, the maximum allowed by state statute, with Naccarato being a repeat offender. The only way the fines stop accruing is if he stops renting spots until the matter is resolved.The Magistrate also ruled that town could put up signs warning drivers the parking lot was illegal to try to deter them from parking there, however that was never done by the town.
The last inspection by the town was in September of 2025 where they continued to find him in violation and the fine train continues. Naccarato has appealed the town’s ruling to the Circuit Court in Lee County and the last entry in the court case was for a case status conference back in December of 2025. It’s not unusual for cases to sit dormant in court for months or years at a time with the workload judge’s have on their dockets.
Dependable, Accurate, Investigative Journalism take time. To support our work, become a BTR Monthly Member HERE.
Is the town council so incompetent that it can’t collect all his fines, put up signs and prosecute him?! He must have dirt on some town members. This is an embarrassment to the town. Shame on them!
Have you ever heard of due process? Well, I do not agree with what the scumbag is doing, he has every right to appeal the process. Hopefully, by the time it is done, he will have to pay the equivalent of one years budget to the town.
Also I’m hearing the parking spots with QR codes are scammers. The town needs revisit the entire parking situation. Not sure what people are even paying for anyway. No public bathrooms? The only people enjoying this parking is the people doing it illegally. Ridiculous.
Why didn’t they make him fill out the permit application before they accepted his money for the old fines? Town Council should have done so before they lifted the lien the first time. You have to be smarter than the criminals.
What about the empty hardware store lot charging for parking? Is that illegal too?
500K? Couldn’t happen to a better person although my prediction is the town will settle for much less.
My recommendation would be for the town call it even if he agrees to move out of Lee County and never set foot on Estero Island ever again.
To put it as nice as I can, the man is a nuisance and has put a black eye on Ft. Myers Beach for long enough.
The town must love the extras income!
I bet if he did get a permit he would only be allowed to charge for certain spaces, right now he uses all of them.
I tell everyone that uses my condo to never give that man money!! Only pay where you scan for the actual town. Also, why are they not posting signs to stop people from parking there? Shut down his cash flow!!! This town over focuses on certain things yet ignores the obvious 🤷🏼♀️
I agree with Bob, this is absurd.
Close him down! What is the town waiting for?? He must be laughing every day about this whole issue since the town does nothing but maybe a slap on the hands… ridiculous!
This is just poor management. Why would the town allow this to continue to grow? They say they need 12 new staff members this pays for probably all of them if they just do their job and collect and then the budget is balanced