Yacht Club Unsolicted P3 Proposal Comparison \u2013<\/a><\/p>\nThe city of Cape Coral will begin talks with developers for a possible partnership for the Yacht Club Community Park rebuild.<\/p>\n
Although most Cape Coral City Council members said that neither of the two unsolicited Public-Private Partnership proposals received were ideal, the elected board opted on Wednesday to go with the proposal from KMB Marine and its operating affiliate, Yacht Clubs of the Americas.<\/p>\n
The consensus vote at the council workshop authorizes city staff to sit down with KMB Marine to develop details and specifics about the project.<\/p>\n
Two council members were not part of the consensus that selected KMB Marine over the other proposal submitted by the Yacht Club Development Group and Forest Development Group.<\/p>\n
Councilmember Dr. Derrick Donnell said he was not in favor of either proposals and Councilmember Keith Long said he had no input.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe seven-story hotel \u2013 a nonstarter for me,\u201d Donnell said.<\/p>\n
Others took a different view.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur mission is to take a look at things we can do to build our commercial base here,\u201d Councilmember Joe Kilraine said. \u201cResidents are paying 92% of taxes here. We are trying to reduce that by increasing commercial and do it in a manner that doesn\u2019t hamper us and brings commercial and pleasures of life here. I am supportive at looking at major commercial developments. We want those developers to come here and invest in our city.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before city staff made its presentation, numerous residents spoke against the proposals during citizen\u2019s input. <\/p>\n
Much of that opposition was directed at the hotel and townhomes components at the riverside park on Driftwood Parkway in the heart of the Cape\u2019s original neighborhoods.<\/p>\n
That type of development would benefit visitors more than residents, and take away the quaint environment around the Yacht Club, and increase traffic, speakers said.<\/p>\n
The sentiment shared: Residents want a park similar what was there before Hurricane Ian took out the pier, marina and most of the land-side facilities \u2014 a community center, pool, parking, a beach, and public access.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo take that away and replace that with a complex that will almost solely focus on the enjoyment of people outside of the city is disappointing to hear,\u201d said Joseph Glenn, who lives in the Yacht Club area. \u201cThe last thing we want is to be pushed out in favor of people who live in other parts of the country. There is a lot of passion and interest in this issue. I ask you to remember that people moved to this area for a specific type of lifestyle and that does not include a seven-story hotel, and beach area lost to people who don\u2019t live here.\u201d<\/p>\n
City Manager Michael IIczyszyn explained how the city reached the point of possibly partnering with a private developer for reconstruction of the park, built by the then-community\u2019s founders.<\/p>\n
The city put out a Request for Information to see what it would take to offload some of the debt related to a rebuild that included amenities and programs the community has requested through the city\u2019s Parks and Recreation master plan.<\/p>\n
The RFI, which was issued in January and closed in February, received no responses.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe heard today that a resort is not what is asked for,\u201d IIczyszyn said about public input. \u201cIn our output session on the Yacht Club what was asked for was a resort-style atmosphere. Some things that were expressed \u2013 if given direction to move forward \u2013 those securities would be provided in the comprehensive agreement that comes out of the negotiations from an unsolicited P3.\u201d<\/p>\n
Assistant City Manager Mark Mason took council through a presentation that compared both of the proposals \u2013 the Yacht Club Development Group and Forest Development Group, and KMB Marine and its operating affiliate Yacht Clubs of the Americas.<\/p>\n
He said a group reviewed the proposals and did an analysis.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe received two unsolicited proposals and it\u2019s up to the city council of what they want to do with them,\u201d Mason said. \u201cFrom a choice standpoint, our responsibility is to point out that someone deviated significantly from your vision of the Yacht Club.\u201d<\/p>\n
The proposal from Forest Development and YCDG for the development of the marina was received in March. The proposal from KMB Marine and Yacht Clubs of the Americas for the development of the marina, parking garage and harbor master building with the intent of updating later with a hotel, community\/convention center was received in May.<\/p>\n
A second and updated proposal from YCDG and Forest Development was received June 26, after the city posted notice of the receipt of the proposal on June 4 and allowed for competing proposals.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe purpose today, again, is to discuss our initial review and these two unsolicited public private proposals,\u201d Mason said.<\/p>\n
He said the proposal from YCDG and Forest Development was significantly different than council\u2019s original vision.<\/p>\n
The scope and amenities from Forest Development and YCDG includes a marina with 121 or more wet slips, hotel\/retail, automated boat storage, townhomes, parking, expanded beach, community center, park\/picnic area and public access amenities.<\/p>\n
An estimated capital investment and total build cost, as proposed, is $250 million.<\/p>\n
The private funding described in the proposal includes boardwalks, fixed\/floating docks, pump-out, law enforcement dockage, harbormaster\/marina operation facility, hotel, retail, parking and automated boat storage.<\/p>\n
The city was listed to be responsible for the fuel tanks\/dispensing systems, pool complex and beach reconstruction, seawalls, roadways, utilities and upland structures\/amenities.<\/p>\n
The scope for KMB and YCOA is for 130 wet slips, 35 lift slips, floating\/fixed docks, boardwalks, fuel station, 685-space parking garage, a six- or seven-story125-room hotel, and a convention\/community center component, restaurant, poolside bar and ship store.<\/p>\n
The proposal states a $30- to $33 million capital investment for the marina related construction and the hotel capital, through Bowden Hospitality, has an estimated hotel construction cost of $53 to $83 million.<\/p>\n
KMB, in its proposal, stated they would entirely fund the marina construction with capital partners, as well as identify senior debt\/equity structure and hotel capital provider.<\/p>\n
As far as the city, KMB said there would be no city obligation for the marina components, but the public boat ramps were anticipated as city funded. It also states that the civil site work and resort pool would be city funded.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is an addition of townhomes, boat storage, hotel \u2013 clearly there is an expanded beach,\u201d Mason said of YCDG and Forest Development\u2019s proposal. \u201cThere is movement of the proposed change to the boat ramp to the original location and the second proposal (KMB) hues itself closer to the City Council vision with an addition of a hotel.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said Forest Development proposal is the greatest programmatic departure from the city\u2019s concept, saying it\u2019s a mixed-use real estate development proposal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hotel has a deviation from the original vision. The automated dry storage \u2013 never included. The structured parking is contemplated in both proposals. Waterfront townhomes are not shown on any of the city\u2019s design concepts,\u201d Mason said.<\/p>\n
He said KMB more closely follows the city concept on the core marina and parking framework, but deviates with a proposed hotel and event center that combines with a community center.<\/p>\n
Councilmember Rachel Kaduk asked if they were to eliminate the hotel from KMB\u2019s proposal, would they still be interested in the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout the hotel, what is their investment?\u201d she said as the community center would be run as a subsidy, and the hotel would be the money maker.<\/p>\n
Councilmember Bill Steinke said he chose KMB for a few different reasons, as the Forest Development proposal has what he called a some flaws.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe No. 1 flaw is the townhome development. That is selling off the property. That is removing from the original plan, all the trailer parking, to launch boats. There is no place to put the automobiles, trucks and trailers of the boats being launched,\u201d he said, adding that the launch is back out in harm\u2019s way. \u201cI see no accommodations for the trailer to launch the boat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steinke thought the boat storage was a fabulous idea, but the city cannot have one.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe manatee rules in our area. There are only a certain number of slips in our city. We have over the years moved those slip allocations as projects develop,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have the slip allocation that would allow it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayor John Gunter said consensus to move forward with one of the proposals would take discussion from a \u201c30,000-foot level view\u201d to one with more specificity as to what the project would look like.<\/p>\n
Gunter agreed that the residential component from the Forest and YCDG has never been talked about in the last three years of discussion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has never been brought up by the council, or community input. That, for me, is one of the negatives,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The other negative, he said, is a boat ramp on the river, as it is a dangerous location. Gunter said the city moved it inland in the harbor to make it a safer launching area and they are in the building process as they speak.<\/p>\n
Indoor storage area is a phenomenal idea, but Gunter said he did not know if the Yacht Club was the best place.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only way to guarantee this is to move this process further down the road and have more specificity,\u201d he said<\/p>\n
Councilmember Jennifer Nelson-Lastra said she is not a fan of watching the property sit as it is and was in favor of KMB as their proposal fits better with the plan already approved by council.<\/p>\n
Consensus votes taken at workshops are to provide city staff with direction. They are non-binding in terms of commitment to a particular direction, project or plan.<\/p>\n
To reach MEGHAN BRADBURY, please email <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The city of Cape Coral has received a pair of unsolicited proposals for development of the Yacht Club…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-408580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408580","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=408580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}