Betty Parker
None of this is by chance. Downtown Fort Myers is a historic preservation district, protected by federal and city preservation guidelines. No construction is done there without approval by Fort Myers’ Historic Preservation Commission, charged with keeping the district’s appearance in line with the way the city looked in the 1920s. As a result, anyone who wants to be downtown, with its proximity to government and courthouse offices, will likely be in a historic building.
That historical value is exactly what drove Mike Fink, of Fink & Boyle law firm, to renovate and occupy the historic Towles home on the western edge of downtown. The house, built in 1885, had most recently been a bank, and a funeral home before that, but when the bank made plans to relocate, the Towles home faced destruction.
Fink, who owned a lot just across the street, moved the house onto his property in 2005 to begin renovations as a law office. "For me it was a no-brainer," Fink says. "To allow this house to go away would be asinine."
Although he never compared costs of restoration versus building new, he believes he came out ahead, even after putting at least $1.3 million into the building. "You could never get a new building of this quality for that price," he says.
Tax credits for the restoration almost exactly cover his insurance costs, which are higher for the old wooden structure, he says. Other costs included pine heartwood that’s no longer commercially milled, and is custom-made trim to fit the building’s original look. There’s also ongoing maintenance to consider. But, says Fink, "It’s absolutely worth it. This house is a real piece of history."
In the 1920s, the town was large enough to attract businesses and developers, who erected quality buildings in the downtown seat of commerce and government. But when the "urban renewal" of the 1960s hit, many larger cities such as Tampa, Jacksonville and Orlando lost a number of their historic downtown buildings.
Fort Myers in the 1960s "was still a little too small for urban renewal," says Fort Myers architect Mike Flanders, now a city councilman. "A lot of buildings that were not that good or attractive [were built] downtown in those other larger cities. In this case, being smaller saved Fort Myers."
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, interest in downtown boomed again, and people started buying those older buildings that had to be restored under preservation guidelines.
The extra rules and regulations for historic districts can be tedious, and the physical labor painstaking. But owners think it’s a good investment.
Chuck Maher, a co-owner of Maher Insurance, bought and restored the 1922 wood-frame home that houses his business. "It’s a thing of pride," he says of the two-story structure. "It actually serves as a marketing tool. People talk about it, and they remember it."
That aspect didn’t occur to him until later. The convenience of being downtown and near his home was a major factor in buying the dilapidated structure. He also saw it as a good investment.
The building needed a lot of work, including wiring and plumbing, but Maher did the carpentry and woodworking himself. Even with the costs of bringing the old house up to code, he believes he came out ahead financially.
"Plus we’ve got something unusual, something that’s a part of history," he says. "That means a lot."
Most downtown buildings are larger and more complicated and need expert attention. Two contractors have made a name for themselves in keeping older buildings’ character while converting them to new uses.
Centric Construction, owned by Nils Richter, has restored more than a half-dozen significant buildings downtown, including the 40,000-square-foot Earnhardt building, Heritage Square, the former Kress building, buildings in the Patio de Leon and on Main Street, and the former Franklin Hardware building.
Chris-Tel Construction, headed by President Howard Wheeler Jr. and his father, Howard Wheeler Sr., who leads the historic restoration and residential divisions, is carrying out restoration of the Edison & Ford Winter Estates and recently completed work on the historic Lee County Courthouse and the city’s Burroughs Home. The Edison project required exacting standards, says the elder Wheeler. "Everything has to be perfect. Every building has to meet the guidelines, but this project takes things to a different level."
He and Richter say comparing costs between building a new structure and restoration is difficult, and not really applicable downtown because all projects there are restoration. "But when you do restoration, you can salvage a lot of material that’ll be better quality than what you can buy today, if you can find it at all," Wheeler Sr. says. "You can also save on your disposal costs."
Much depends on the condition of the building.
"It’s probably more expensive to restore some buildings than to start from scratch on a site out on the edge of town," Richter says. "But you’re downtown, and these property owners take pride in owning something unique."
The uniqueness is often in details that are prohibitively expensive now. "The Earnhardt building has those terra-cotta scrolls on the front," Richter says. "To do that kind of work now, no one could afford it, but it gives the façade so much special detail."
Dealing with present-day codes also requires expertise, as with a building that needed roof tiles designed and manufactured to meet both the historic aspect and current fire codes. "Maintaining the historic character and keeping the fire marshal happy—that’s the trick," Richter says.
The historic restoration guidelines are not difficult, but they take significant time and effort for contractors new to them to learn. "That can add to the costs and the time involved if you have to start from scratch trying to learn how those regulations work," says Wheeler.
And finding skilled subcontractors? "It’s not hard," Richter says with a laugh. "It’s impossible."
Wheeler was so frustrated by the lack of skilled labor that he worked with Edison College to develop a special construction course in historic restoration.
Many subs are used to working fast, with quantity on equal footing with quality. In historic renovations, quality and imagination are at a premium. Plumbers and air-conditioning installers, for example, must find ways to install those utilities in buildings not designed to include them, while maintaining the historic appearance and integrity.
It was the lack of such workmen that brought Richter to Fort Myers in 1999, he says. Downtown property owner Dominick Goertz had just purchased several buildings that needed major renovations and he called Richter, whom he knew from Germany, for help.
Since then, Richter has worked almost nonstop in downtown Fort Myers. Now that most of those buildings are restored, Richter and Wheeler are looking at projects in other, smaller downtowns just beginning to revive.
Many of the restored living and office spaces in downtown Fort Myers have tenants, but there’s a shortage of retail.
The Earnhardt building still has vacant retail space on First Street. But Tammy Hall, a Lee County Commissioner who managed that property for a time for her brother, who owns it, says, "You want tenants who can be successful. We’d rather wait than rush in with someone who can’t make it." There aren’t enough people downtown to draw major retailers, and many of the small-business people who expressed interest lacked experience, a solid business plan or long-term capital.
"Historic restoration has its share of challenges," she adds, "but it also has great rewards. There’s so much satisfaction in bringing these old buildings back to life."
As a former Fort Myers City Council member, she worked in City Hall, a modern structure built in the early 1980s. In her current position, her office is in the restored historic courthouse.
"The ambiance is just so much nicer in the old courthouse than it is in City Hall," Hall says. "You get a real sense of history there."