City to explore partnership for Yacht Club rebuild
Council authorizes staff to begin talks with KMB Marine for possible P3
KMB Marine – P3 Proposal – Cape Coral Yacht Club – REV 8-24-26
Yacht Club Unsolicted P3 Proposal Comparison –
The city of Cape Coral will begin talks with developers for a possible partnership for the Yacht Club Community Park rebuild.
Although most Cape Coral City Council members said that neither of the two unsolicited Public-Private Partnership proposals received were ideal, the elected board opted on Wednesday to go with the proposal from KMB Marine and its operating affiliate, Yacht Clubs of the Americas.
The consensus vote at the council workshop authorizes city staff to sit down with KMB Marine to develop details and specifics about the project.
Two council members were not part of the consensus that selected KMB Marine over the other proposal submitted by the Yacht Club Development Group and Forest Development Group.
Councilmember Dr. Derrick Donnell said he was not in favor of either proposals and Councilmember Keith Long said he had no input.
“The seven-story hotel – a nonstarter for me,” Donnell said.
Others took a different view.
“Our mission is to take a look at things we can do to build our commercial base here,” Councilmember Joe Kilraine said. “Residents are paying 92% of taxes here. We are trying to reduce that by increasing commercial and do it in a manner that doesn’t hamper us and brings commercial and pleasures of life here. I am supportive at looking at major commercial developments. We want those developers to come here and invest in our city.”
Before city staff made its presentation, numerous residents spoke against the proposals during citizen’s input.
Much of that opposition was directed at the hotel and townhomes components at the riverside park on Driftwood Parkway in the heart of the Cape’s original neighborhoods.
That type of development would benefit visitors more than residents, and take away the quaint environment around the Yacht Club, and increase traffic, speakers said.
The sentiment shared: Residents want a park similar what was there before Hurricane Ian took out the pier, marina and most of the land-side facilities — a community center, pool, parking, a beach, and public access.
“To take that away and replace that with a complex that will almost solely focus on the enjoyment of people outside of the city is disappointing to hear,” said Joseph Glenn, who lives in the Yacht Club area. “The last thing we want is to be pushed out in favor of people who live in other parts of the country. There is a lot of passion and interest in this issue. I ask you to remember that people moved to this area for a specific type of lifestyle and that does not include a seven-story hotel, and beach area lost to people who don’t live here.”
City Manager Michael IIczyszyn explained how the city reached the point of possibly partnering with a private developer for reconstruction of the park, built by the then-community’s founders.
The city put out a Request for Information to see what it would take to offload some of the debt related to a rebuild that included amenities and programs the community has requested through the city’s Parks and Recreation master plan.
The RFI, which was issued in January and closed in February, received no responses.
“We heard today that a resort is not what is asked for,” IIczyszyn said about public input. “In our output session on the Yacht Club what was asked for was a resort-style atmosphere. Some things that were expressed – if given direction to move forward – those securities would be provided in the comprehensive agreement that comes out of the negotiations from an unsolicited P3.”
Assistant City Manager Mark Mason took council through a presentation that compared both of the proposals – the Yacht Club Development Group and Forest Development Group, and KMB Marine and its operating affiliate Yacht Clubs of the Americas.
He said a group reviewed the proposals and did an analysis.
“We received two unsolicited proposals and it’s up to the city council of what they want to do with them,” Mason said. “From a choice standpoint, our responsibility is to point out that someone deviated significantly from your vision of the Yacht Club.”
The proposal from Forest Development and YCDG for the development of the marina was received in March. The proposal from KMB Marine and Yacht Clubs of the Americas for the development of the marina, parking garage and harbor master building with the intent of updating later with a hotel, community/convention center was received in May.
A second and updated proposal from YCDG and Forest Development was received June 26, after the city posted notice of the receipt of the proposal on June 4 and allowed for competing proposals.
“The purpose today, again, is to discuss our initial review and these two unsolicited public private proposals,” Mason said.
He said the proposal from YCDG and Forest Development was significantly different than council’s original vision.
The scope and amenities from Forest Development and YCDG includes a marina with 121 or more wet slips, hotel/retail, automated boat storage, townhomes, parking, expanded beach, community center, park/picnic area and public access amenities.
An estimated capital investment and total build cost, as proposed, is $250 million.
The private funding described in the proposal includes boardwalks, fixed/floating docks, pump-out, law enforcement dockage, harbormaster/marina operation facility, hotel, retail, parking and automated boat storage.
The city was listed to be responsible for the fuel tanks/dispensing systems, pool complex and beach reconstruction, seawalls, roadways, utilities and upland structures/amenities.
The scope for KMB and YCOA is for 130 wet slips, 35 lift slips, floating/fixed docks, boardwalks, fuel station, 685-space parking garage, a six- or seven-story125-room hotel, and a convention/community center component, restaurant, poolside bar and ship store.
The proposal states a $30- to $33 million capital investment for the marina related construction and the hotel capital, through Bowden Hospitality, has an estimated hotel construction cost of $53 to $83 million.
KMB, in its proposal, stated they would entirely fund the marina construction with capital partners, as well as identify senior debt/equity structure and hotel capital provider.
As far as the city, KMB said there would be no city obligation for the marina components, but the public boat ramps were anticipated as city funded. It also states that the civil site work and resort pool would be city funded.
“There is an addition of townhomes, boat storage, hotel – clearly there is an expanded beach,” Mason said of YCDG and Forest Development’s proposal. “There is movement of the proposed change to the boat ramp to the original location and the second proposal (KMB) hues itself closer to the City Council vision with an addition of a hotel.”
He said Forest Development proposal is the greatest programmatic departure from the city’s concept, saying it’s a mixed-use real estate development proposal.
“The hotel has a deviation from the original vision. The automated dry storage – never included. The structured parking is contemplated in both proposals. Waterfront townhomes are not shown on any of the city’s design concepts,” Mason said.
He said KMB more closely follows the city concept on the core marina and parking framework, but deviates with a proposed hotel and event center that combines with a community center.
Councilmember Rachel Kaduk asked if they were to eliminate the hotel from KMB’s proposal, would they still be interested in the project.
“Without the hotel, what is their investment?” she said as the community center would be run as a subsidy, and the hotel would be the money maker.
Councilmember Bill Steinke said he chose KMB for a few different reasons, as the Forest Development proposal has what he called some flaws.
“The No. 1 flaw is the townhome development. That is selling off the property. That is removing from the original plan, all the trailer parking, to launch boats. There is no place to put the automobiles, trucks and trailers of the boats being launched,” he said, adding that the launch is back out in harm’s way. “I see no accommodations for the trailer to launch the boat.”
Steinke thought the boat storage was a fabulous idea, but the city cannot have one.
“The manatee rules in our area. There are only a certain number of slips in our city. We have over the years moved those slip allocations as projects develop,” he said. “We don’t have the slip allocation that would allow it.”
Mayor John Gunter said consensus to move forward with one of the proposals would take discussion from a “30,000-foot level view” to one with more specificity as to what the project would look like.
Gunter agreed that the residential component from the Forest and YCDG has never been talked about in the last three years of discussion.
“It has never been brought up by the council, or community input. That, for me, is one of the negatives,” he said.
The other negative, he said, is a boat ramp on the river, as it is a dangerous location. Gunter said the city moved it inland in the harbor to make it a safer launching area and they are in the building process as they speak.
Indoor storage area is a phenomenal idea, but Gunter said he did not know if the Yacht Club was the best place.
“The only way to guarantee this is to move this process further down the road and have more specificity,” he said
Councilmember Jennifer Nelson-Lastra said she is not a fan of watching the property sit as it is and was in favor of KMB as their proposal fits better with the plan already approved by council.
Consensus votes taken at workshops are to provide city staff with direction. They are non-binding in terms of commitment to a particular direction, project or plan.