After making the Fort Myers Beach Town Council sit through a 3-hour presentation and public hearing, Times Square property owner Terry Persaud pulled his 30-room hotel proposal off the table at the last minute. It was clear the project was about to be denied.
After the LPA soundly rejected his original proposal for a 50-unit hotel in a 7-0 vote last month, Persaud decided to try his luck with the Town Council, which is his right. He also knocked one floor off his original proposal and eliminated 20 rooms, which drastically changed the project. In essence what Persaud was doing was presenting an entirely new project to the Town Council, which in the end wanted him to take it back to the LPA.
Despite taking a floor and 20 rooms off the project since the LPA denial, Persaud didn’t fare any better in front of the Town Council. Council members were unimpressed with the public benefit Persaud was offering the town and were critical about the size of the project on .5 acres of property. It’s clear Town Council members do not want to see a big hotel in Times Square which was a thriving hub of activity before Hurricane Ian with restaurants, shops, street performers and retail.
Vice Mayor Jim Atterholt was not buying Persaud’s argument that he needed a 30-room hotel in order to make a restaurant successful, especially when La Ola, Salty Crab, The Cottage, The Whale and others are building back almost exactly what they had before Ian. None of those projects include hotel rooms and are all in close proximity to downtown.
Mayor Dan Allers repeatedly hammered Persaud’s financial expert for not bringing solid numbers to back up his argument that the hotel rooms were needed to recoup Persaud’s $30 million cost to build. He also said there’s a fine line between development and over-development. “300 percent increase in the allowable hotel rooms give me great pause.” By right, Persaud is allowed to build 9 hotel rooms.
Councilwoman Karen Woodson wants public benefit from Persaud to include a wave mitigation wall and she wants it in any proposal that the town considers approving.
Just as the Town Council was about to deny the project, Persaud’s attorney walked up to the podium and requested the project be pulled so they could go back to the drawing board and back to the LPA. The Mayor withdrew his proposal to deny which has been seconded by Vice Mayor Attorholt.
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