SANIBEL, Fla. \u2014 The old Sanibel Outlet Mall site remains a topic of interest for many people driving toward Sanibel.<\/p>\n
Damaged by Hurricane Ian, the once-busy shopping hub has sat quiet for years, leaving many to wonder about its future.<\/p>\n
Steve Adler, a resident of Fort Myers, shared his thoughts on the mall’s past.<\/p>\n
“It was really nice, very convenient for shopping, and we miss it,” said Adler.<\/p>\n
Justin Gagnon, a neighbor, reflected on the impact of the hurricane.<\/p>\n
“I kind of see it as a testament to Sanibel and Fort Myers in general, just southwest Florida,” said Gagnon. “It went through the hurricane. It got pretty much tore up.”<\/p>\n
In 2024, developers pitched a major redevelopment plan for the site, proposing Calusa Grande, which would include housing, a hotel, restaurants, and retail space. Some residents, like Adler, are eager for the change.<\/p>\n
“Multi-use would be really nice to see there just be good for the area,” said Adler.<\/p>\n
However, not everyone agrees.<\/p>\n
“We have so much already going up,” said Gagnon. “I’d much rather see a park or maybe a community center or something, you know, productive, yeah, not just more houses.”<\/p>\n
Some residents are frustrated with the slow progress of construction. Developers have not responded to inquiries, but Lee County confirmed a development order is in place. This order allows site improvements to begin once all permits are secured, but no building permits have been submitted yet.<\/p>\n
Adler remains hopeful for the future of the site.<\/p>\n
“It’s not being manicured,” said Adler. “I’d love to see a manicured new development there that I could utilize on a day they basis. I live only a mile from here. So it’d be fantastic if they would move forward with some development.”<\/p>\n
While site work could potentially begin, there is still no official step toward rebuilding structures on the property.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SANIBEL, Fla. \u2014 The old Sanibel Outlet Mall site remains a topic of interest for many people driving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,3837,325],"class_list":{"0":"post-155974","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-collaborator_gen_stories","12":"tag-lee"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155974","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=155974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}