CAPE CORAL, Fla. (WINK)—The Yacht Club project could cost the city $164 million.

WINK News spoke with Cape Coral Mayor John Gunter, where construction is already underway. Right now, the city is only on phase 1, working on taking out the old docks and relocating the boat ramp.

“I’m very excited, like very much looking forward to it. It’s been a commodity, it’s been missed here in the city for such a long time,” said Andrew Fietcher, a Cape Coral citizen.

The goal is to rebuild the Cape Coral Yacht Club that was destroyed by Hurricane Ian. As for the rest of the project, Gunter said the city doesn’t have a clear picture of when it could be finished.

Gunter said phase 1 is underway while the city council works to figure out how they are going to pay for the massive project. The city showed a cost breakdown at Wednesday’s council meeting.

“One of the things that council was attempting to do is to try to find a developer that would partner with the city to reduce the cost of the project, since it has escalated over the last couple of years because of cost of services and goods,” Gunter said.

Gunter said they gave staff directions to look at moving forward with phase 2, the infrastructure part of the project. He said recently they received two unsolicited bids.

“For now we’ve got to get the infrastructure in place,” Gunter said.

The mayor said when it comes to the future of the project, many aspects are still up in the air, including what it will look like because of the funding.

Click here for the latest plans.

People at the beach said they just want to see it back open.

“This is a gem of our city. I used to come here all the time, I used to go to the boathouse all the time, so we want to make sure that we get this facility back open functional where our residents can enjoy it,” Gunter said.

“I know everybody wants it back. I know all the tourists that come down want it back. It’s the place that was the place to go,” said Jim Pellegrino, a Cape Coral visitor.

“At the end of the day, we just want to see it open, so you know anything that the city can do, like we want to see that happen,” Fietcher said.

The mayor said the Boathouse is not part of the project. The Kearns Restaurant Group is rebuilding it.