CAPTIVA, Fla. (WINK)\u2014South Seas is buying 22 acres of beach-to-bay property once owned by artist Robert Rauschenberg, raising concerns among locals about the future of the island.<\/p>\n
The land was once part of Rauschenberg’s vision, which many residents say was rooted in preservation, not development. On Captiva, life moves a little slower, and for locals like Rita Yule, that’s the point.<\/p>\n
“It’s paradise here. It’s very quaint, and it’s a fabulous community,” Yule said.<\/p>\n
It’s that easy, small-town lifestyle that drew her to the island. She’s afraid it could change because South Seas bought the property once owned by Rauschenberg.<\/p>\n
“He is literally rolling over in his grave. He put so much of his money and his intent into preserving as much of Captiva as he could for Captivians,” Yule said.<\/p>\n
Yule worries development could bring more traffic, more people and more pressure on an island with just one way in and out.<\/p>\n
“There’s going to be so many more people here,” Yule said. “Is the infrastructure strong enough to support all of this?”<\/p>\n
The president of the Captiva Civic Association, Lisa Reardon, says this is part of a larger battle.<\/p>\n
“That has resulted in numerous lawsuits being filed since 2023,” Reardon said.<\/p>\n
One lawsuit included the building height and density of South Seas. WINK News reached out to South Seas for an interview.<\/p>\n
They declined but sent a press release saying this project is about enhancing, not erasing, the island. President Greg Spencer says the acquisition is a rare opportunity to integrate the property into the resort, expand amenities and honor Rauschenberg’s legacy through future art programming.<\/p>\n
Other locals, like Martin Franchi, say they’re hopeful balance is possible.<\/p>\n
“We appreciate the investment from South Seas, but we don’t want to lose the character of the island,” Franchi said.<\/p>\n
And that character, he says, is simple.<\/p>\n
“This is not Miami. This is the Gulf Coast. This is chill. We are slow. We are in bed by 11,” Franchi said.<\/p>\n
South Seas says no final plans have been released yet. Many residents say they’ll be watching closely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAPTIVA, Fla. (WINK)\u2014South Seas is buying 22 acres of beach-to-bay property once owned by artist Robert Rauschenberg, raising…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[20917,209,211,210,11179,97673,59034,3788,28,97672,123,5242,30079],"class_list":{"0":"post-213978","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-artist","9":"tag-cape-coral","10":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","11":"tag-cape-coral-news","12":"tag-captiva","13":"tag-captiva-civic-association","14":"tag-captiva-current","15":"tag-captiva-island","16":"tag-florida","17":"tag-greg-spencer","18":"tag-miami","19":"tag-president","20":"tag-south-seas"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213978","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=213978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}