{"id":158666,"date":"2026-02-17T18:18:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T18:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/158666\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T18:18:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T18:18:07","slug":"iguana-infested-bank-demolition-draws-cheers-from-florida-neighbors-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/158666\/","title":{"rendered":"Iguana-infested bank demolition draws cheers from Florida neighbors"},"content":{"rendered":"

CAPE CORAL, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 An abandoned Cape Coral bank so overrun with iguanas that the reptiles <\/a>spread into a nearby neighborhood finally came down on February 11, and residents say they couldn’t be happier.<\/p>\n

The building sat empty since Hurricane Ian<\/a> in 2022, becoming a haven for invasive green iguanas<\/a> that multiplied and took over the property. Neighbors had considered the structure an eyesore and a nuisance as the animals made their way into yards across the street.<\/p>\n

Demolition <\/a>began earlier this month, and contractors say the iguanas appear to be clearing out as crews work through the site.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis building was sort of an eyesore for quite some time, so when we noticed it was coming down we said okay, another advancement to the refresh of the area,\u201d neighbor Robert Greene said.<\/p>\n

See also: GALLERY: NICU babies steal hearts over Valentine’s weekend<\/a><\/p>\n

Another neighbor, Gary Colley, said he\u2019s hopeful the cleared lot will bring new opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was gettin\u2019 to be in bad shape, and everybody in the neighborhood is looking forward to some new shops, maybe penthouses, apartments, all kind of new things here,\u201d Colley said.<\/p>\n

Contractors expect the demolition to wrap up by early March. As of the most recent update, only three \u201cdie-hard\u201d iguanas were still holding out on the property.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAPE CORAL, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 An abandoned Cape Coral bank so overrun with iguanas that the reptiles spread…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,1127,5210,28,6027,17343,4615,677],"class_list":{"0":"post-158666","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-construction","12":"tag-demolition","13":"tag-florida","14":"tag-hurricane-ian","15":"tag-iguanas","16":"tag-invasive-species","17":"tag-neighborhood"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158666","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=158666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}