Foregone conclusion?
A staff-negotiated proposal for the Bimini East development project came to the Cape Coral City Council at a workshop Wednesday.
The concept plan proffered by Bimini Basin Redevelopment Co. and lead developer Crown Development — the developer of nearby Bimini Square — touches all of the bases the city envisioned when it began a land-assemblage initiative in conjunction with the South Cape Community Redevelopment Agency in hope of attracting a catalyst to cap its decades-old goal of a full transformation of the Cape’s original downtown.
The concept plan outlined Wednesday night could do that.
The $500 million development plan — the largest single redevelopment initiative yet for the South Cape — includes much of what the city sought and then some.
As presented to council, the multi-use development concept calls for two nationally branded hotels with a collective 250 beds; 130,000 square feet of ground floor retail and dining; 310,000 square feet of medical and other office space; a public-access marina with 45 slips; 900 units of apartments and townhomes; a parking garage; an arts/culture bandshell; a “re-imagined” Four Freedoms Park and a new police substation.
The project would generate 2,218 on-site jobs and nearly another 1,000 off-shoot jobs generated by suppliers and new consumer spending.
The total economic output from construction — business sales and activity generated — is $750.9 million, the city states.
The envisioned Bimini East development would be built on approximately 34 acres — the 22-plus acre site the city assembled and bought, eight privately-owned sites to be acquired, and one of the city’s last waterfront parks that dates back to the Cape’s original founders, the Rosen brothers.
The original 22-acre parcel is made up of 47 individual properties that city bought site by site following Hurricane Ian at a cost of some $45 million.
Including land acquisition costs, demolition costs, project management costs, the city had invested $45,021,289.09 down to the penny, according to the presentation made at a June 24, 2025 Developer Open House that outlined various incentives and grants including “limited exemptions on property taxes,” Tax Increment Financing, or value recapture grants; and site development grants.
The total appraised value is of the 22 acres $42,999,504.
A couple of things, one a surprise and one that should not be.
First the money.
The developer is negotiating purchase, or relocation, agreements with an existing ice cream shop, automotive shop, two bank properties and three multi-family structures.
As presented, the city would buy four more properties — an automotive shop and three multi-family structures — at the developer’s negotiated price of $11 million. It would then convey those properties to the developer for appraised value.
The developer would pay the city $26,292,325 — including the four properties above — for the land the city purchased based on the appraised land value of $25 per square foot.
The CRA, which holds the note on the assembled properties, would then provide developer incentives including a recommended Tax Increment Financing, or TIF rebate of 95% through Sept. 30, 2042; up to $5 million in impact fee credits for fire, emergency, parks and mobility services; provide a $1.6 million demolition grant reimbursement and up to $1 million in shared cost for a pedestrian promenade.
The city says it, through the CRA, will recoup its funds through increased property values and the attraction of comparable projects and that only the taxpayers within the development district will bear the cost of the purchase and incentives.
We would call the numbers in the proposal surprising and we doubt we are alone.
What should not be a surprise?
That the deal would include Four Freedom’s Park in the sale to the developer.
The waterfront park, a 3.44-acre site right on Bimini Basin, is a key element to the proposal presented Wednesday.
And it was highlighted in a 2025 developer open house, plainly marked with an arrow and the designation “Current Park location Four Freedoms Park.”
In red between the park and the 22.5 assembled development parcel was a strip designated “Possible Future Vacation,” tying the park and assembled parcels together by removing an impediment.
The Bimini East project rendering itself featured a pretty green square among a litany of allowable development options- a hotel or craft brewery, an art museum, a children’s museum, an organic grocery store, mixed-use residential and office space, a place to rent kayaks. That green square was labeled “Possible ‘Central Park'” relocation.
If there are surprises here, it is not that the city proposes to sell the waterfront acreage on which Four Freedoms Park sits — keeping its parks designation despite private ownership as the land is encumbered and boat rentals, to some anyway, may not be seen as a public park amenity to be enjoyed by all.
It’s that there seems to be a lack of realization that monetization of the city’s public waterfront — which the city calls “re-imagining” — has become all but a foregone conclusion.
We have the glorious multi-million dollar plans for the Cape Coral Yacht Club “resort-style” rebuild.
The demolition and $18.7 million rebuild of Jaycee Park.
The ouster of the Rowing Club from Tropicana Park despite not only a long-standing promise of a lease agreement and the investment of $500,000 in taxpayer dollars to build a specially designed, sport-compliant dock as the Seven Islands development is set to rise next door.
Are boardwalks and boat slips, food trucks and bistros, park amenities?
In many communities they are.
Here in the Cape, where the city’s founding developers built a city from 400 miles of man-made canals and used the dedication of prime riverfront for parks and public use as a marketing tool, it’s a sea change in philosophy and the cause of much public angst as that waterfront is re-imagined park by park.
To the city, it’s a marketing tool for development.
Perhaps we’re not so far from our roots as we think.
Breeze editorial