The Fort Myers Beach Town Council has set 2 special meetings to hear the biggest development on the island, London Bay’s plans for the old Outrigger property. To be approved, the project needs to go through two council public hearing and receive yes votes from 3 out of the 5 council members.
On August 5th at 9AM and August 26th at 9AM the Town Council will hear the latest proposal from London Bay for the property. London Bay requested a delay from June to August (the Town Council does not meet in July).
In his most recent letter to his mailing list, London Bay CEO Mark Wilson said he’s now considering building low income housing (the white buildings in the photo) which he could do by right based on a formula set forth by state statute.
It will be interesting, if he does bring that plan forward, to see if the Town Council sends him back to the LPA where he did not formally present his low-income housing plan. In May, the LPA recommended denial for Wilson’s hotel/condo plans.
The last version of the London Bay project included the condo building at 14 floors, down from 15 floors, and 158 feet in height down from 195, to accomodate a few LPA members. London Bay then added an additional floor to each of the other 3 buildings. Those three buildings are the three hotel/condo buildings which took them from 12 floors to 13, 11 floors to 12, and 9 floors to 10.
Wilson can just decide to go back to his original plan and roll the dice with the 5 current Town Council members. That original plan was for 196 units, five buildings that range from 15 stories (including 2 stories of parking) to a residential condo and hotel/condominium ranging from 12 stories (with rooftop restaurant), 11, 9 and 3 stories, all including parking. The plan also includes private club restaurants, a private beach club, an amenity area, and an open deck area. It also included 46,000 square feet of commercial use (private 26,000 SF and public 20,000 SF), and 340 parking spaces. The maximum proposed height was 195 feet.
Many residents have gone north for the Summer and will be unable to attend the meetings. You can send your comments about the project to Council@fmbgov.com. Beach Talk Radio will also broadcast all the meetings live.
In the Summer of 2023, London Bay paid $38.2 million for about 10 acres of land including both The Outrigger property and the Charley’s Boathouse property on the other side of Estero Boulevard. London Bay has never revealed any plans for Charley’s
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Development would be a good thing, but jamming that many high rise buildings and that many hotel people coming and going would be a disaster in what is relatively a residential neighborhood. How about less floors add retail/ restaurants (like lanai Kai) and smaller 55+ Independent senior condos? That would provide those seniors who used to live on the island, before Ian, an opportunity to return?
Hopefully the TC will make them go back to the LPA if they propose any change to their original plan.
Besides the 3+ structures – height, density, traffic, infrastructure etc., has anyone noticed the proximity to the street ? Would be interesting to ACTUALLY see an Architectural Model Rendering of the property !
Ohh, Charlie’s Boathouse property plans – let’s keep that under wraps !!!
Maybe he could make it a recycling center the way it looks now and then the no development people would be happy
We’re not opposed to development. We’re opposed to bad development. Cramming 40+ floors on to a lot that isn’t big enough to accommodate it, just so we can have an over priced restaurant 6 years from now is bad development. I’m sure London Bay, the Grandview and Ritz crowd would love it. The rest of us…not so much.
My thoughts, exactly, Carol! We didn’t all arrive on a turnip wagon, LB. Don’t insult our intelligence.
My thoughts, exactly! We didn’t all arrive on a turnip wagon, LB. Don’t insult our intelligence.
There’s no way LB will propose or build the low income version. They would need to pre-sell “X” number of the luxury condos before they could even start construction and no one is going to buy a multi-million dollar condo next to low income in a complex that looks like that. It’s a scare tactic. I hope LB really doesn’t think that the people of FMB or the Town are that stupid!
I agree with you Carol.