Bimini East gets final approval
Bimini East — the city’s long-planned, much hoped-for redevelopment pinnacle for the South Cape — is a go.
The Cape Coral City Council held its final public hearing Wednesday for the $500 million project that will include 900 residential units, 250 hotel rooms, 210,000 square feet of medical office, 55,000 square feet of general office, 130,000 square feet of ground floor retail, up to 2,000 parking spaces and up to four parking garages, and a marina with 50 boat slips.
The council approved three linked agreements — the developer’s agreement, purchase and sale agreement, and lease agreement for Four Freedoms Park. The city is the landowner and service provider, the Bimini Basin Redevelopment Company LLC is the purchaser and owner, and Crown Development Inc is the developer.
The agreements were approved 6-1 with Councilmember Keith Long dissenting and Councilmember Rachel Kaduk not present during the vote.
“The project is a transformational and monumental project that will change the downtown area,” Mayor John Gunter said.
The financial details
Assistant City Manager Mark Mason said the total economic impact of the project — construction cost only — sits at $750.9 million.
The development agreement is for what is being built, who pays, public access, milestones and ongoing administration. The purchase and sale agreement is for the property the city owns and the third linked agreement is for a 99-year lease at $1 per year for Four Freedoms Park.
The total project is 34 acres, which includes 20.1 acres of city-owned land conveyed at closing and paid for over time at $24.3 million. The agreement is based on parcel release payment, meaning when the developer comes in for a permit, the city will take that area against the entire area to make a determination of the square footage against the remaining outstanding balance, Mason said.
There is a $1 million deposit — $250,000 within two business days of the PSA effective date, and $750,000 within five business days after both closing gates are met.
The gates include diligence — 90 days for buyer’s phase one and wildlife reports, title and survey objection windows; parcel control — binding contracts to control four additional parcels and marine assurance — the Southwest Florida Water Management District’s willingness to approve the marina, close within 30 days of both gates.
There are also many commitments in the agreement, TIF rebate, CRA land acquisition, Impact Fee credits, demolition assistance, pedestrian promenade, Coronado and Miramar equal shares, Victoria Drive stormwater and utilities, and streetlights.
Four Freedoms Park
The lease agreement for Four Freedoms Park along the Bimini Basin, which also is the location for the city’s long-standing Four Freedoms Park Preschool, were emotional sticking points for many who implored council to leave the park alone.
Four Freedoms Park senior recreational specialist and director of the preschool, Diana Linden, said the park is designed for the community to have fun, socialize and meet others.
She said the facility is rented out almost every weekend of the year.
“The preschool is also located in the building. Hundreds of families have relied on Four Freedoms Park since it became licensed in 1992,” Linden said.
She said they are known as the Four Freedoms Family, as every year they open the doors for an open house, which begins the celebrations for the year with students and families.
Linden said it breaks her heart that they will be saying farewell to the last little graduates at the end of the school year.
With 40 years of experience as a teacher and administrator, she told council she would love to speak with them and share her ideas.
“This is my career,” Linden said. “I have some thoughts that maybe could work.”
City Manager Michael Ilczyszyn said the school is a city building built in the 1980s and was not part of the original park donated to Lee County by the city’s developers before Cape Coral became a city.
“That building was not donated by the Rosen Brothers. I have met with my executive staff. I offered to go down to the center to speak to them,” he said. “I personally assured them that none of my employees are leaving if they want a job in the city. The location of where they report to work may change. They are still our employees.”
Ilczyszyn said he needs the Parks and Recreation Department’s expertise to identify an appropriate location to move the program to for next year. He said the city will not be bringing in new students until an alternative location is found.
“We are going through this year letting all those conclude and then identify a new location where we will take those registrations,” he said.
The new playground equipment that is currently at Four Freedoms Park will be moved to the new proposed one-acre park within the Bimini East development, which will also have tennis courts.
The proposed bandshell at Four Freedoms Park was also a concern raised by residents who worried about noise.
Councilmember Laurie Lehmann addressed the concern.
“The concept of Bimini East, I have no problem with. Is there a possibility of alleviating the bandshell and leaving Four Freedoms right where it is as it is?” she asked.
Crown Development President Larry Nygard responded.
“We can’t simply leave it the way it is now,” he said, citing the planned marina. “We get access to the basin through the piece of park. The marina is part of this. The uses that we are hoping to generate there to activate the waterfront are kind of contradictory of having young kids going to school.”
Nygard said to follow through with the requirements of the RFP, the project will change the complexity, or the way the park is used, right now.
“The notion the park is going to be diminished — it will be expanded, but won’t be the same way it is now,” he said.
Nygard also pointed out the commercial connectivity the Bimini East project will have to the bandshell.
“We won’t get a hotel down there unless we demonstrate the marina, the restaurant and services. All that is a hand and glove. You start cherry picking — it diminishes the attractiveness for some commercial businesses we have interest in locating there,” he said.
To reach MEGHAN BRADBURY, please email mbradbury@breezenewspapers.com