Alessio Development released renderings for The Terraces at Royal Palm on Monday afternoon, showing 40 townhomes and a 15-story condominium tower being planned for land currently occupied by Royal Palm Square in Fort Myers.  

Alessio bought the 14-acre site for $12 million last year. Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre will continue to operate during the construction of phase one, and Omni Fitness Center is scheduled to open this fall in two of the nine existing buildings. Most of what had been built in the 1980s as a shopping center will be razed to make room for the new development.“The point is to have a walkable, mixed-use community with dining, entertainment and shopping, with a luxury lifestyle in Fort Myers,” said Sawyer Smith, a Fort Myers attorney who is representing Alessio Development. 

Originally based in Illinois, Alessio has made two other recent investments in Fort Myers. It purchased the Richards Building in downtown for $2 million, with plans to have its Florida business headquarters and office space on the upper floors and a Kava Culture bar and a tequila bar on the ground floor.  

Alessio also bought 159 acres at the southwest quadrant of Interstate 75 and State Road 82 for $10 million. That land has been cleared with plans for 500,000 square feet of light industrial buildings, as well as at least one apartment complex.  

However, the Royal Palm Square purchase will be a game changer for the city, Smith said.  

“This project here is transformative for Fort Myers,” he said. “We have nothing like this.”  

The renderings show a resort-style pool, green space, a wave pool, and a condo tower with rooftop fine dining.   

“Oh, it blew my mind,” Smith said of the renderings. “I thought to myself, Fort Myers really, really is lucky to get this project coming here.  

“You know, we’re growing up in Fort Myers. That’s what this is. This project is going to be the catalyst for tremendous change in the region.”  

Smith said the opportunity to redevelop existing land at a prime location adjacent to McGregor Boulevard and the Midpoint Memorial Bridge made perfect sense.  

“This is taking an existing, older, dilapidated structure and turning it into something brand new,” Smith said. “As opposed to taking up green space and green fields, we are taking urban space and revitalizing it and reimagining it.”