Old Chamber building demolished
The Margaritaville project took its first tangible step last Tuesday morning as the old Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce building came down.
John Gucciardo, the community spokesman for Margaritaville, said the demolition of the old Chamber of Commerce building, located at the foot of the bridge, came down within an hour, from 8 to 9 a.m. Sept. 25.
“The rest was clean-up,” he said, which followed for a few hours.
The demolition of the building was one of the conditions the Fort Myers Beach Town Council specified with the approval of the project. Gucciardo said they wanted to see that site cleared of the building and leveled prior to the next season, a deadline of Sept. 30.
“It’s the first tangible sign of the project moving forward,” he said.
There are currently two things going on behind the scenes for the project. One of which is the final design permitting stages, which includes some of the land having to be replotted and public land needing to be vacated.
“It’s a fairly involved process to get a development order, which basically translates all the things conditioned in the approval into some buildable form,” he explained.
The final building design, foot print design and specifications on the foot bridge are all coming together, according to Gucciardo.
“We still have probably months to go. We anticipate getting that done by the first part of next year. That still could happen,” he said.
The physical changes, however, such as demolition of remaining structures and construction of the new project, which had been set for the beginning of the year, has been put off until legal matters have been resolved.
Primo Drive resident Chris Patton filed two lawsuits against the Town of Fort Myers Beach for its approval of Margaritaville. The lawsuits are the second behind the scenes issues taking place.
Gucciardo said they want to be ready to come out of the ground when the lawsuits are resolved.
“From our point of view, we are trying to check off all the boxes that we can in terms of preliminary work that can be done,” he said. “The only thing that is holding us up is resolution of legal challenges. We are working with the town to resolve those.”
Gucciardo became involved in the project two years ago and said he has received nothing but positivity in terms of community support.
“It’s been a very positive experience,” he said.
TPI Hospitality’s project, Margaritaville, was approved May 29 in a 5-0 vote by the Fort Myers Beach Town Council.
The majority of the hotel, a maximum of 52 feet tall from the ground up, will sit on what’s now the Helmerich Plaza. The hotel’s required parking, with the use of mechanical stackers to stack valet vehicles, with three stories on top, will consist of the first level.
The project will also feature a pedestrian bridge over Estero Boulevard, which will be open to the public and also connect the resort to the other side of the road with the objective of eliminating pedestrian-vehicle traffic conflicts.
The development includes a restaurant that will be open to the public, a beach access, an aquatic venue for resort guests and up to 325 public users a day, and a new paid parking lot for the town.