{"id":79773,"date":"2025-12-11T21:35:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T21:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/79773\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T21:35:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T21:35:07","slug":"cape-coral-sweetens-deal-to-retain-bones-coffee-co-hq-lee-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/79773\/","title":{"rendered":"Cape Coral sweetens deal to retain Bones Coffee Co. HQ | Lee County"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Family-owned Bones Coffee Co. has grown from a Cape Coral spare-bedroom startup in 2016 into a rapidly expanding manufacturing and wholesale operation. Now, Cape officials are working to keep the company local as it plans a $27.3 million, 100,000-square-foot expansion of its headquarters and national operations hub.<\/p>\n<p>On Dec. 10, Cape Coral City Council approved a $2.73 million economic incentive package \u2014 about 10% of the project cost \u2014 for Bones to build a new headquarters at 2621 SW Pine Island Road. The facility would house manufacturing, distribution and administrative operations. The new incentive sweetens a package approved in August that covered about 7.9% of the project, reflecting updated estimates that include added executive office space.<\/p>\n<p>The city\u2019s offer is pending approval from Bones\u2019 independent board of directors, established to help the company scale as it expands, said co-founder and CEO Travis Rule. Board members listed on the company\u2019s website include John B. Richards, former president of North American operations for Starbucks.<\/p>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"Cape Coral City Council meeting 12.10.25.jpeg\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full blur\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p>             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/693b09adc291e.image.jpg\" alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"113\" width=\"200\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Cape Coral City Council discusses an updated incentive package for Bones Coffee Co. on Dec. 10. Council approved the $2.73 million package in a 7\u20131 vote.<\/p>\n<p>                                    Evan Williams<\/p>\n<p>Bones also is weighing a headquarters move to Fort Myers, where warehouse leasing costs per square foot may be lower. Cape staff said the updated incentive package was designed to stay competitive with Fort Myers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe plan was always to try to stay here (in Cape Coral),\u201d Rule said. \u201cOur goal is to make Bones a destination so that we\u2019ll offer tours and tastings and, if allowed, we\u2019ll have events there, potentially even concerts out front.<\/p>\n<p>The expansion is expected to create 55 new direct jobs and retain the company\u2019s 75 existing Cape Coral positions. Bones\u2019 average wage of $39.46 per hour is roughly 40% above the Lee County average of $28.16.<\/p>\n<p>Bones plans to build distribution sites across the country and potentially open another roastery. After selling coffee as a home-based business, the company initially focused on e-commerce before expanding into retail sales at stores, such as Walmart, Target, Kroger and Publix. Coffeehouses also are under consideration.<\/p>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"Bones Coffee CEO Travis Rule\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full blur\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p>             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/693b09add4285.image.jpg\" alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"113\" width=\"200\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Bones Coffee Co. co-founder and CEO Travis Rule says the company hopes to keep its headquarters in Cape Coral as it evaluates expansion options. The City Council approved a $2.73 million incentive package to support the project.<\/p>\n<p>                                    Bones Coffee Co.<\/p>\n<p>City Council approved the revised incentive package in a 7\u20131 vote, with Mayor John Gunter dissenting. He argued that the package should remain at 7.9% of the project cost, which would have added about $120,000 to the original offer rather than the approved increase of $689,602.<\/p>\n<p>Cape staff pointed to rules allowing incentives up to 20% of project costs and said Bones\u2019 employment levels, wages and long-term growth outlook make it an ideal economic development partner. They noted that the headquarters project and ongoing operations are expected to generate tax revenue.<\/p>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"Bones Coffee Co. bag\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full blur\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p>             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/693b09ad93d7e.image.jpg\" alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"113\" width=\"200\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Bones Coffee Co. has grown from a Cape Coral home-based startup into a national brand with products sold at major retailers. The company plans a headquarters expansion that would add 55 jobs.<\/p>\n<p>                                    Evan Williams<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe felt that it ticks every single one of the goals in terms of what we\u2019re trying to accomplish in growing the commercial base of Cape Coral,\u201d Economic Development Manager Sharon Woodberry said. \u201cIt would make Cape Coral a national branding hub for a company that we believe is only going to continue to grow and have a more significant presence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The incentive package covers the cost of developing the vacant 4.8-acre site. It includes a $562,500 site improvement grant; up to $387,550 in ad valorem tax reimbursements over 10 years; a $1,689,602 direct equipment funding grant; $90,000 for a lease buyout funding grant; and up to $175,000 in deferred impact fees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Family-owned Bones Coffee Co. has grown from a Cape Coral spare-bedroom startup in 2016 into a rapidly expanding&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[44631,209,211,210,14755,10745,26431],"class_list":["post-79773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-bones-coffee-co","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-economic-incentive","tag-expansion","tag-headquarters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79773","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=79773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}