{"id":110728,"date":"2026-01-08T18:42:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T18:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/110728\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T18:42:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T18:42:06","slug":"cape-coral-builder-hoping-for-change-as-audit-moves-forward-lee-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/110728\/","title":{"rendered":"Cape Coral builder hoping for change as audit moves forward | Lee County"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\">CAPE CORAL, Fla. (WINK) &#8211; A Cape Coral builder says he is hopeful the city&#8217;s permitting process will improve amid an ongoing audit of the city&#8217;s building department.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In November, state lawmakers\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.winknews.com\/news\/consumer\/audit-approved-for-city-of-cape-coral-lawmakers-cite-alleged-misuse-of-building-department-funds\/article_ffea09f9-7514-40a4-96cb-adab75efaf26.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">called for an audit<\/a>\u00a0of the City of Cape Coral, citing concerns that the city&#8217;s building department had misused funds.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Now, a builder is speaking out about delays with the department&#8217;s permitting process, which he says has impacted his business.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Matt Sinclair, president of Sinclair Custom Homes, said building in Cape Coral is difficult.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;About a year and a half ago, I had the first permit of the year,&#8221; Sinclair said. &#8220;It was issued in January, as I applied for it, I didn&#8217;t get it back till, I think, September or October, so nine months.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Sinclair said the delays have cost him significant amounts of money.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;I probably lost hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years, just waiting on the city to do stuff, you know, and that, in effect, costs the consumer more money,&#8221; Sinclair said.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Due to these issues, Sinclair said he and other builders have turned to private providers or opted to work only on developments in Lee County.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;I think they&#8217;re trying to make improvements on it, but it&#8217;s been really harsh, and the damage is already done.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In December, Cape Coral City Manager Michael Ilczyszyn\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.winknews.com\/wink_investigations\/cape-corals-building-division-audit-city-publishes-rebuttal\/article_2548d77b-ee78-47bb-a1a0-aa6369c80c69.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">published a rebuttal<\/a>\u00a0denying all claims in the audit, including allegations of outdated software, a $10 million issue related to a failed building purchase, and nearly $3 million in unexplained fund transfers.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;The $10 million that was moved into a capital project fund was for, actually, to build a building,&#8221; Ilcyszyn told WINK News in November. &#8220;When I became city manager, I changed direction. I was able to find a commercial building that was for sale that actually saved the building fund money.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">At the time, Ilczyszyn told WINK News the city welcomes the audit.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Meanwhile, Sinclair says attempts to speak directly with Ilczyszyn about his concerns have gone unanswered.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;I&#8217;ve reached out to him over the last year and a half at his office to ask him to give me a call,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Never got a call back.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">However, as the audit progresses, Sinclair remains hopeful that changes will be implemented to make the building process easier in Cape Coral.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;There are so many builders that have lost thousands and millions of dollars because of delays and stuff like that, you know, so it&#8217;s a lot of people really wanting to be hopeful,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">WINK News is committed to following this story and will update you as more information becomes available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAPE CORAL, Fla. (WINK) &#8211; A Cape Coral builder says he is hopeful the city&#8217;s permitting process will&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,325],"class_list":{"0":"post-110728","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-cape-coral","9":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","10":"tag-cape-coral-news","11":"tag-lee"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}