{"id":134432,"date":"2026-01-28T03:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T03:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/134432\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T03:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T03:52:08","slug":"neptune-inn-sale-raises-hopes-for-new-development-on-fort-myers-beach-lee-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/134432\/","title":{"rendered":"Neptune Inn sale raises hopes for new development on Fort Myers Beach | Lee County"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>FORT MYERS BEACH &#8211; The Neptune Inn, a well-known landmark in Fort Myers Beach, is up for sale. The owners, Continental Hospitality, have decided to step away from rebuilding the property more than a year after the town approved redevelopment plans. The Inn was originally destroyed by Hurricane Ian.<\/p>\n<p>Many locals hoped the redevelopment would bring more visitors back to the island. However, the property owners are now marketing the land to a new developer instead.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Unfortunately, it looks like they&#8217;re not going to be moving forward with the project due to financing concerns,&#8221; said Abigail Eberhardt, public information officer for Fort Myers Beach.<\/p>\n<p>There have been claims online that the decision was due to political instability, but town leaders and the developer&#8217;s broker disagree.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The town feels like democratic processes were followed and it was passed,&#8221; Eberhardt said. &#8220;So if it was political instability, it would have to be because democratic processes were not followed and it wasn&#8217;t passed. So I think the town just feels like, you know, these processes were followed and they were relatively stable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Justin Thibaut, CEO and President of LSI Companies, Inc, represents the property owner and is currently marketing the site to developers.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This was an ancillary acquisition for them, not intended to be a development deal,&#8221; Thibaut said. &#8220;So they were intending and tried everything they could to do this project.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Thibaut mentioned that approvals are already in place, making the property attractive to new buyers ready to build.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s got a really solid set of entitlements,&#8221; Thibaut said. &#8220;So there&#8217;s already a lot of interest generated, and we&#8217;re working through quite a few groups that want to do a project on the island right now.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Town leaders remain hopeful for redevelopment on Fort Myers Beach and believe the Neptune property will eventually become a new resort, bringing more visitors, jobs, and business back to the island. A buyer could be announced later this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT MYERS BEACH &#8211; The Neptune Inn, a well-known landmark in Fort Myers Beach, is up for sale.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[44396,209,211,210,65941,28,1695,65940,1694,65942,65943],"class_list":{"0":"post-134432","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-broker","9":"tag-cape-coral","10":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","11":"tag-cape-coral-news","12":"tag-claims-online","13":"tag-florida","14":"tag-fort-myers-beach","15":"tag-fort-myers-beach-fort-myers-beach","16":"tag-ian","17":"tag-public-information-officer-for-fort-myers-beach","18":"tag-the-neptune-inn"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134432","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=134432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}