Fran Myers and her late husband Tom owned the iconic Red Coconut RV Park on Fort Myers Beach since 1984. On September 28, 2022, Hurricane Ian wiped out the park which was followed by Fran Myers selling the 10-acre property to Seagate Development one year after the storm for $52 million. This week we found out what Seagate wants to build on the property and Fran loves it.
Seagate CEO Matt Price unveiled Seagate’s plans for the property after 22 iterations of what they wanted to show the community. He says the proposal was a result of a lot of meetings with community members because he wanted to get a feel for what the Fort Myers Beach wanted. Those plans included input from Fran Myers who, when she saw the final product said, “I was pleased to see how much thought went into their development plans. It looks beautiful.”
Price unveiled pictures and details about the proposed development on Beach Talk Radio Wednesday (Watch that interview HERE). The plan includes 2 buildings that are home to a total of 137 condo units, 4 single family homes, 3 parks, a restaurant open to the public, a 240 foot view corridor on the beach side of the property, a pedestrian walkover and a beach club for residents. Myers said she was happy to see how much of the beach side property would remain open with views of the beach from Estero Boulevard.
While Seagate will be asking the town for a deviation for height, they are under the amount of units they are allowed to build on that property by right. At 10 acres, Seagate is allowed to build 15 residential units per acre for a total of 150 units. They are proposing 141 units.
And while there’ no doubt a lot of the upcoming discussion about the project will most certainly be focused on the height of the condo buildings, an alternative for 150 units by right could have been a lot of smaller buildings with less of a view corridor.
Based on the current plan, the first layer of one of the buildings is 9 stories over parking and is setback 70ft from the right-of-way. The next layer is 14 stories and is set back 165 feet. The top layer is 15 stories over parking and is set back 257 feet. The second building is set back 346 from the right-of-way.
Price says the next step is to have a meeting with the community to show off his plans and get feedback from residents. The date and location of that meeting will be announced soon. In a perfect world, a groundbreaking would be held in a year and this project would take 2 years to build.
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