Fort Myers Beach Council votes 3-2 to approve Seagate condo towers
Public voices opposition to buildings that could rise up to 255 feet
Sky High
The verdict was unanimous for the more than two dozen Fort Myers Beach residents who turned out Monday to speak out at the Town of Fort Myers Beach Council’s hearing against the 17-story, multi-building Seagate condo project at the former Red Coconut RV Resort.
The condo towers, which would be the largest buildings in the town at an estimated 255 feet, were just too tall they said. Not one speaker from the public Monday spoke in favor of the project, yet the town council overruled the speakers in a momentous 3-2 vote to approve the development after nearly five hours of discussion and testimony during which speakers said the council was overriding the very foundations and principles for why the town incorporated 30 years ago. The council’s approval was needed since the 17 stories is 14 stories more than the town code allows for.
Voting to approve the plans were Vice Mayor Jim Atterholt, Councilmember John King and Councilmember Karen Woodson. Mayor Dan Allers and Councilmember Scott Safford voted against the development agreement.
Many of those in the public, who waited in the lobby of the town hall to speak in the council chambers during a standing-room only meeting which ran eight hours long, felt disgruntled that the majority of the Town Council did not comprehend their frustration with the building’s height. Fort Myers Beach Mayor Dan Allers and Seagate’s representative estimated the tallest building could reach as high as 255 feet though without architectural drawings or engineered plans, the true height was not actually known. Allers said the five buildings proposed would be taller than the tallest building on the island by seven stories.
In an exchange that highlighted the confusion regarding the town’s new review process for a local development agreement, Allers questioned Seagate representative Tina Ekblad about the precise height of the buildings.
Allers asked about what he called “essentially six residential towers” on the plans. Allers asked the overall height on the tallest structures.
“We have not designed the parking structure yet within base flood so I would assume that it would be somewhere around 255 (feet) but we have not designed that,” Ekblad said.
Allers estimated that each story on the project would be 15.66 feet.
“Without it being designed, I can’t confirm or deny that,” Ekblad said. “I can agree with the math. I can’t agree that that’s how the building is going to be designed.”
Allers said he was trying to get a fair assessment of the overall height. “I know it’s not designed yet but we don’t have any architectural drawings so it’s difficult.”
Ekblad said she agreed that the maximum height of the buildings would be 255 feet.
As part of the town’s development agreement process, which the town council approved as part of a new administrative review process for in April, developers do not have to provide as much specifics on their plans – such as architectural renderings, stormwater plans or engineering and other details required for a site plan review. The new process is quicker and less grueling than the commercial planned development process that most projects of this scale have faced, such as Margaritaville.
Allers, frustrated with the unwillingness of the developers to back off the height of the plans, said “The box is too big to start with. The design of the present you are wrapping is too big to fit in the SUV.”
Allers said the project was bigger than the White House.
“We are talking about five buildings in one development taller than the tallest building on the island by seven stories. That is significant.”
Seagate Development Group CEO Matt Price, at one point, said he could potentially flip the property to a Miami developer if his plans weren’t approved.
As a local developer whose company is based in Fort Myers, Price argued he would spend more time meeting with town staff on the project. “Maybe I am not going to get approved and I am going to have to flip it to a Miami developer,” Price said. “You think he is going to be sitting in here meeting with you every weekend? Coming in, talking, phone calls, arguments to the end of night trying to make a plan better. I don’t think they will.”
Price said he didn’t think that if he lowered the height to 14 stories rather than 17 stories that it would satisfy opponents.
Allers said to Price that no project since Margaritaville has brought out as many members of the public. “How do you expect, I am just speaking for myself me as a councilmember, to look the people in the eye that voted me into this position to speak for them that I am listening to them?”
The Seagate Development Group’s plans call for 141 units, mostly multi-family units of approximately 4,000 square feet in the towers with four single-family homes in the rear of the bay side property. There will also be a private beach club on the beach side of the property and a restaurant. The beach side and bay side will be connected by a skyway over Estero Boulevard.
The developers also have plans to construct eight additional single-family homes that they will need to return to the town council for.
Seagate Development Group paid $52 million for the Red Coconut RV Resort property last year.
Fort Myers Beach Manager Andy Hyatt and Director of Operations and Compliance Frank Kropacek both recommended approval of the project on behalf of town staff due to its economic impact.
Allers seemed surprised. “I had no idea this was coming,” he said. Allers said he was concerned that town management did not heed the concerns of town residents expressed at Monday’s meeting.
For years, the town’s planning staff has consistently denied projects that did not meet the town’s comprehensive plan and local development code – not taking into consideration any economic impacts. Town planner Sarah Probst said Monday the town’s planning staff was not equipped with the background to determine economic impacts. At a recent Fort Myers Beach Local Planning Agency (LPA) meeting, Kropacek also spoke up in favor of a new hotel proposal from the Pink Shell Beach Resort which the LPA rejected.
The statements by town management on pushing for projects based on their economic impact is something new for the town.
Allers said the recommendation by management to approve the project based on economic impact “baffles me.”
Atterholt leaned heavily on Seagate CEO Matt Price for a commitment to help the Fort Myers Beach Art Association rebuild their gallery on Shell Mound Boulevard and Donora, which was destroyed by Hurricane Ian. Price said he had signed an agreement to help them with planning and designing though he couldn’t commit to Atterholt that he would bankroll construction.
“I will take you at your word,” Atterholt said.
Two former mayors, Anita Cereceda and Ray Murphy, who were on the town’s first council after incorporation 30 years ago as well as later terms, spoke in opposition.
Cereceda, who chairs the Fort Myers Beach Local Planning Agency – which voted to recommend denial of the Seagate project, directed some of her comments during Monday’s hearing at Atterholt.
“I wish you were as concerned about my neighborhood as you are about the art association,” Cereceda said to Atterholt.
“This project is not consistent with the goals of the comprehensive plan,” she said. Cereceda said the buildings would create “an absolute wall in our neighborhood.”
Cereceda said she had thought about all of the town’s councilmembers who had served since the town incorporated 30 years ago, and added “I can not think of a single predecessor of yours that would vote in favor of this project. Not a single one. Granted, none of them were here in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian but they did face many, many substantial challenges on this island most importantly immediately after incorporation. I simply can’t believe that somehow this council would change a course that has been set in stone and upheld by so many councils.”
Murphy said the neighbors of Seagate are “not going to be able to enjoy their retirement days staring at a massive wall.”
Murphy said the quality of life of residents would be “hindered” by the Seagate development. “There seems to be a rush to the gold mine after this storm to see how much everyone can get.” he said. “DiamondHead was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Fort Myers Beach. The mantra was no commercial intrusion into residential neighborhoods. Don’t fool yourself. That is an intrusion.”
Directing his comments to the town council, Murphy said “Don’t let this be the straw that broke the camel’s back going forward. If Hurricane Ian was my Waterloo, this will be your Waterloo.”
Several parents of Fort Myers Beach Elementary School students spoke out against the project.
Greg Scasny, who ran unsuccessfully for town council in November and who is the parent of a Beach Elementary School student, said his family was staying on the island despite “extreme personal and financial stress” and said the “development is not consistent with the comprehensive plan, which is not in accordance with state law.”
Scasny took issue with statements made by Atterholt at a previous meeting in which the vice mayor said he was concerned about the island “stagnating.”
Running off a list of many town businesses that have opened or reopened since Hurricane Ian, Scasny said “the island is not stagnating nor will it stagnate. Ian may have destroyed buildings but not the community.”
Scasny said Seagate’s plans “could destroy an entire residential neighborhood.”
Fort Myers Beach Councilmember John King said he voted in favor of the development in order to boost the town’s tax revenue and fiscal condition though others countered that it will be years before the project is built and the town sees any substantial tax revenues.
Mayor Dan Allers said the town’s fiscal situation was improving. “We had the property appraiser stand here and tell us that we will be back to where we were before Ian within the next two years,” Allers said. “The chair of our audit committee said the town is in good financial shape.” Allers said he didn’t agree with the “sky is falling” mentality.
King cited comments about the town’s financial condition by Fort Myers Beach Local Planning Agency (LPA) board member Jim Dunlap as a reason to approve the project. Coincidentally, Price had also referred to comments by Dunlap as a reason for the town council to approve the project. Dunlap, an Estero resident who owns property on Fort Myers Beach, was appointed by the town council to the LPA this year.
“The town’s fiscal revenue has bothered me for a while,” King said. “When I heard Jim Dunlap say it, and I will say it again I quoted him, and I find Jim to be a very smart person especially when dealing with finances. We are managing a lack of financial stability.”
King said “we sustained significant financial losses in fiscal years 2023 and 2024.” King said town management was projecting additional fiscal losses in 2025. King said the town has been able to get through its financial situation with the help of state government. “The legislature is going to be tightening the screws,” King said. “That’s a concern.”
Speaking self-deprecatingly, King said “I know I am not a smart person and I am OK with that.”
King, who moved to Fort Myers Beach in 2021, has previously questioned the foundation of the town’s incorporation vote in 1995 and cited the margin as not being enough to prove the community actually objected to the height of developments.
Fort Myers Beach resident Steve Johnson, who stepped down from the Fort Myers Beach Marine and Environmental Resources Task Force over clashes with King, said the vote by the town council was “not representative government.”
“Their justifications were flawed,” Johnson said. “(Councilmember) King is trying to say the town is in a terrible financial situation so give away the island?” Johnson said it would be years before the town saw any substantial tax revenue from the project, which will take years to build out. “They have no idea what the community is,” Johnson said.
“I feel very sorry for the neighbors that their representative government completely abandoned them for a commercial development,” Johnson said.
Mike Dagnese, whose home is among the closest to the project, said the town was not receiving any benefits in exchange for granting the developers the deviations.
“How can you come in here and say ‘I am in charge, you’re not? I am building this or I am leaving?’ Let them leave.”
Dagnese said his view of the sunsets from his property would be forever marred by the Seagate development.
Fort Myers Beach Realtor Jessica Titus said the height of the towers will leave condo owners looking down on the swimming pools and hot tubs of their neighbors. She said this town council will “be remembered for not protecting us.”
“This is a paradise lost in more ways than one,” Titus said.
Dapper Davidson, whose home was destroyed by Hurricane Ian and who was building a new home near the Seagate development that collapsed during Hurricane Milton, has been one of the leading opponents of the plans. After Hurricane Ian, he purchased a condo in close proximity to the development that flooded during Hurricane Helene and Milton and has been unable to live there yet. He has considered moving off the island as a result of the project.
“The town council doesn’t listen to the local existing residents and have voted to destroy the Shell Mound historical neighborhood by voting to approve the largest building development in the history of the island,” Davidson said.
Davidson said the buildings will be seen from miles away.
“The town doesn’t care about locals and admitted during the meeting they only are about profit for the town and voted not to protect the local existing neighborhoods,” he said.
“Sad day. My Shell Mound neighborhood will be an urban concrete jungle,” Davidson said.
Fort Myers Beach Councilmember Scott Safford, who had previously voted to move the project forward, was the lone councilmember on Monday to change their vote.
“What I saw today is we are not rebuilding together. There is one faction over here and one faction over here and we are not together on this. We need to move forward and work together,” Safford said. “The amount of emails and the meetings I have had with the community, and I made a promise I would listen to them and I have listened.”
Safford said the biggest issue was the height but he and Allers were unable to convince the rest of the council to agree with them.
“I have already stated what I feel about Seagate,” Woodson said. Days earlier, Woodson threatened to have members of the public removed from Monday’s meeting if they were disruptive. Woodson has criticized opponents and said Seagate is “open to design variances” and said “we need to move forward and get moving with this process and continue those conversations.”
Atterholt said “people’s motivations are being questioned today and I just think that is unfortunate. I don’t mind my judgement being questioned, that’s very appropriate.”
Atterholt said he had “no dog in this hunt.”
Atterholt said the key for him was that Seagate wasn’t seeking additional density for their development and that he believed the traffic would be less than was there during the Red Coconut RV Resort’s operation.
Atterholt has previously pushed for a public bathroom on the beach side of where the private beach club will be located – which Price has agreed to do.
The meeting Monday left another unresolved issue. The linear park that the developers have said they will build as a public benefit for the town includes land that their neighbors at Gulf View Colony say is theirs. The beach access on that property belongs to Gulf View Colony. Seagate was in talks to purchase the Gulf View Colony but pulled out. A member of the board of directors for Gulf View Colony called on the town council to protect the neighbors from the potential intrusion onto their property.
Ekblad said Monday’s approvals were the first part in a longer process which will include the developers returning to town council for approval for a development order and building permit. They will also require permits from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for their activity on the beach side of their property.
“This is a concept. This is not a last step,” Ekblad said.
“Once this gets approved, there is still going to be a lot of stuff that gets put into this plan,” Price said.
Allers said he believes the developers will not need to return to town council unless the project changes.
A message left with Town of Fort Myers Beach Attorney Becky Vose seeking clarification was not returned.
Following the vote, one resident summed up much of the frustration of those from the public who attended the hearing, by yelling at the Town Council “You failed us!”