Although he’s facing stock fraud charges and no longer owns Fishermen’s Village, which has been placed in a receivership, discussions surrounding former owner Jonathan Larmore continue.  The sale of Fishermen’s Village was brought up after council member Debi Lux questioned City Attorney David Levin at a March 20 meeting about communicating with outside parties. Levin said he recently spoke with the receiver’s attorney who wanted to know what the procedure would be in dealing with the city going forward, as Fishermen’s Village is within city limits.  That’s when the sale of the pop ..read more

Sometimes, you’ve got to forget about the past to forge ahead into the future—except for when you shouldn’t.  “Ignorance is bliss, until it isn’t,” emerged as the theme of 2024 Market Trends, a Southwest Florida real estate event in which resale home expert Denny Grimes dressed the part of Men in Black. Grimes showed a clip from the movie when actor Tommy Lee Jones flashes a bright light using a neuralyzer to make someone forget about what they had just seen.  Market Trends took place March 12 at Caloosa Sound Convention Center in downtown Fort Myers with a crowd of more than 1,000 ..read more

Although negotiations between city of Fort Myers and Miami-based developer Tre Bel Housing for the purchase of the city-owned former site of The News-Press started in September, the sides haven’t been able to agree on a purchase price for the land.  City Manager Marty Lawing provided an update to City Council on March 4 on the progress of negotiations.  Tre Bel’s proposal for the site at the southwest corner of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Fowler Street consists of a mixed-use project with multifamily development, including designated units for attainable housing.  ..read more

Although the sale has yet to be finalized, Evangelical Christian School announced in a news release and on social media March 5 it will purchase the former Hodges University campus in Fort Myers and have it ready in August for the 2024-25 school year.  Listed at $26 million by LSI Companies, the campus has two buildings totaling 110,000 square feet on 17 acres at 4445 Winkler Ave., which is about 5.3 miles from ECS’ current campus at 8237 Beacon Blvd.  ECS, which teaches preschool through high school at its current campus, first opened in 1973 and has about 1,300 students.  Pr ..read more

The search for a new location for Bowland Beacon has been underway for nearly two years in North Naples as time ticks down on the landmark bowling alley’s projected closing near the end of this summer.   The old Beacon Bowl will close in August as plans are being finalized for its replacement: an upscale boutique hotel with top-tier restaurants and amenities. Meanwhile, expect the new HeadPinz Beacon to expand beyond its traditional model with 24 to 32 lanes.   “We’re looking at a pretty big facility of probably a minimum 45,000 to 50,000 square feet,” said Pat Ciniello ..read more

The longtime iconic Beacon Bowl bowling alley in North Naples will close this August and be redeveloped into a luxury hotel with top-tier dining options.   The proposed 70-suite boutique hotel will be developed and independently owned and operated by local entrepreneur Phil McCabe and his family’s Naples-based Gulf Coast Commercial Corp.   “This was not an easy decision, trust me,” Beacon Bowl owner Pat Ciniello said via a news release this week. “There are so many memories created at Beacon Bowl over the years. But with my original partners both now in their 90s, the off ..read more

Rising interest rates, construction costs, insurance premiums and scarcity of available land all played roles in turning down the volume of Southwest Florida real estate deals last year. Even though pace slowed, prices still soared. Record-breaking volumes of apartment deals that established themselves as the new norm of 2022 ceded way to record-breaking prices of both raw land and finished assets across the region in 2023. In October, a portfolio of more than two dozen properties on and near Fifth Avenue South in downtown Naples sold from David Hoffmann and Hoffmann Family of Companies to A ..read more

The recent $17 million acquisition of a pair of East Naples multitenant industrial buildings fits well into the portfolio of purchaser Venture One, a Chicago-based real estate private equity firm. “We specialize in industrial. It’s all we do. We’ve been doing it since 2000 really as a firm. We target infill locations that are tough to replicate at what we think is below replacement cost,” said Kyle Grant, vice president of Venture One’s Florida Region, based in Miami. ”Our strategy is to continue to operate this as it’s been operated and just own it.” The buildings purchased have a total of ..read more

London Bay, a Southwest Florida development company that already made its Fort Myers Beach presence known prior to Hurricane Ian, will be looking to remake more of Estero Island.   London Bay bought Sandpiper Gulf Resort, a 63-unit condominium complex at 5550 Estero Blvd., for $25 million, or just less than $400,000 per unit.   The deal The post London Bay buys Sandpiper on Fort Myers Beach for $25M appeared first on Gulfshore Business ..read more

A year ago, a pair of investors from New Jersey bought most of the southern chunk of the Market Square shopping center in south Fort Myers.   A year later, Schiff Enterprises closed on its missing piece, a 30,000-square-foot building leased by Barnes & Noble.   Robert and Abe Schiff just paid $7.5 million for the building The post New Jersey investors buy south Fort Myers Barnes & Noble building for $7.3M appeared first on Gulfshore Business ..read more