Developer Tom Torgerson today scored a major victory in his nearly 3-year campaign to build a resort hotel in downtown Fort Myers Beach.
Town Council voted 5-0 to send the project’s requested rezoning and development code deviations to a second public hearing and a final council vote.
That meeting is scheduled to begin at Town Hall 9 a.m. Monday, May 21.
Torgerson heads TPI Hospitality, which wants to build a campus on about 7 acres near the Times Square dining and entertainment district, and which would feature a resort hotel with restaurants, shops, a water park and other amenities on and off the Gulf.
He’d significantly downscaled his proposal after people in the community called earlier versions too massive and out-of-character with the low-key Beach vibe.
For now, town staff, consultants and TPI will work on the final language for an ordinance reflecting the deviations and conditions that would allow TPI to go forward.
The company would still have numerous permits to get. If all goes well, it could begin construction by summer 2019.
On Monday, TPI Hospitality and town council members hashed-out issues following several hours of presentations and public comment.
They continued their discussion and dialogue with the Torgerson team today.
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By midday, the council and Torgerson had concurred in principle on several plan changes, including:
Lower heights: The main, four-story resort building located off the Gulf will stand no taller than 52 feet above grade. That’s 6 feet 10 inches higher than automatically allowed in the land development code, but about half of the extra height in the initial plan presented on Monday.
The Gulf-side building housing a restaurant/bar and 30 guest rooms, would have four stories – one more than the code automatically allows. It would have a maximum height of 52 feet, 4 inches, although Torgerson said he might be able to bring that a bit lower.
Fewer buildings: TPI Hospitality will donate to the town the Ocean Jewels shop parcel located near the southeast corner of Matanzas Pass Bridge, aka Sky Bridge.
The gift comes with the caveat that the land is for public use and no structure will replace the shop, which would be demolished.
Council members envision landscaping and a welcome sign to enhance the bridge as a gateway to the Beach.
TPI also is forgoing a bay-side building for meetings and other uses – and shifting those functions to the main resort building.
Less density: The request is downsized from 290 rooms to 254 rooms – 224 on the bay-side, 30 Gulf-side.
That’s drastically less than a much-earlier Torgerson proposal for roughly 600 rooms, and which never went to council because of public outcry.
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More parking: The council wasn’t sure there was sufficient parking in the plan for guests and employees. As a “back-stop,” Torgerson offered to put up to 75 employee parking spaces on a mainland parcel he owns. He sees this as a temporary measure for perhaps three years or until the on-island plan at his resort proves to be adequate.
The plan tweaked today is Torgerson’s third in about three years.
Mayor Tracey Gore said she had several concerns about the plan – and pressed even harder for conditions and concessions that would benefit the community – when she saw other council members favored moving it forward.
“I don’t love everything about it, but it was a good opportunity for the town,” Gore said.
Gore can’t guarantee a 5-0 vote at the May 21 meeting but said: “Today was a consensus. We worked out all the hard stuff today.”