{"id":331696,"date":"2026-07-07T11:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T11:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/331696\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T11:49:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T11:49:11","slug":"sunset-beach-resort-breaks-ground-at-fort-myers-beach-after-ian-lee-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/331696\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunset Beach Resort breaks ground at Fort Myers Beach after Ian | Lee County"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. \u2014 A long-empty lot on Fort Myers Beach<\/a> is finally showing signs of life.<\/p>\n

The Sunset Beach Resort has officially broken ground, and developers say construction is moving forward.<\/p>\n

Property owner Terry Persaud says excavators are expected on site within the next few weeks as the team wraps up securing its final permits.<\/p>\n

“We’re actually going to have the excavators here within the next couple of weeks, and you’ll start seeing this thing go up,” Persaud said.<\/p>\n

The lot once housed several popular businesses before Hurricane Ian<\/a> wiped them out.<\/p>\n

When complete, the development will include a beachfront restaurant, an air-conditioned seafood restaurant, a rooftop bar, a pool, hotel rooms and office space.<\/p>\n

\"Sunset<\/p>\n

For visitors, the progress is already making an impression.<\/p>\n

“Since what it looked like before, it looks so much better, and it’s cool to see where it’s at right now,” AJ Rivera said.<\/p>\n

For newlyweds Laura Rubin and her husband, visiting Fort Myers Beach on their honeymoon, the rebuilding effort gives them a reason to return.<\/p>\n

“Give us something to look forward to, coming back to celebrate a year of marriage, to see what new and exciting things are in place,” Rubin said.<\/p>\n

Locals say the project could mean more than just a new building, pointing to potential jobs, more visitors and a push for other property owners to rebuild.<\/p>\n

“I just see a building, an empty lot, a building, an empty lot, and I just think that if you’re people who are willing to spend money to rebuild Fort Myers, let them rebuild,” James Briano said.<\/p>\n

Persaud says vertical construction will follow once excavation gets underway in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. \u2014 A long-empty lot on Fort Myers Beach is finally showing signs of life.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,28,1695],"class_list":["post-331696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-florida","tag-fort-myers-beach"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331696","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=331696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}