FEMA to approve $11.4M for Naples Pier demo, rebuild

After years of delays, Naples is expected to get more than $12 million in federal funding to demolish and rebuild Naples Pier.

But city officials emphasize that the Federal Emergency Management Agency still hasn’t given the city a final “go-ahead” and can’t do that until the Army Corps of Engineers issues the official permit.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem flew to Naples on Aug. 28 after Mayor Teresa Heitmann sought her help through a mutual contact. The next day, Noem toured the pier with Heitmann and City Manager Gary Young, inspecting damage from Hurricane Ian, which collapsed all but 100 feet of the structure into the Gulf on Sept. 28, 2022.

“The iconic Naples Pier was destroyed in 2022, and the city is still waiting on answers from FEMA,” Noem posted on X, referring to FEMA, which her agency oversees. “They couldn’t even get permission to remove the old pier. I saw this failure firsthand today with Mayor Heitmann and Gary Young, and now the project is back on track.

“ … Americans deserve better than years of red tape and failed disaster responses,” Noem said, calling it incompetency.

On Aug. 22, about 180 current and former FEMA employees sent an open letter, the “Katrina Declaration,” to Congress and the FEMA Review Council and Congress, criticizing President Donald Trump and Noem over recent cuts to staff programs, warning it dangerously diminishes FEMA’s ability to respond to a major disaster. They accused Trump of appointing unqualified, ineffective leadership. In TV interviews, Noem said FEMA is responding faster and more efficiently.

The city couldn’t start razing the pier, located at the west end of 12th Avenue South, without jeopardizing FEMA funding because demolition costs are the largest part of the reimbursement — and that was stalling the rest of the process.

The pier must go through numerous local, state and federal reviews. The city is spending about $26 million, including design and permitting fees, to rebuild it.

The city issued $11 million in bonds to assure advanced funding because FEMA, state and TDC funding are all on a reimbursement basis. Included among the funding for the stronger, higher, more resilient pier are $12,667,938 in federal funds, including $11,401,144 from FEMA as part of the 90%, with 5% coming from the state, $633,396; a $5 million state appropriation; $2.2 million from the county Tourist Development Council; city beach funds; and public donations, including from the Collier Community Foundation.

City Public Information Officer Monique Barnhart said final outstanding debt will be determined after completion of the project and all reimbursements have been received. The Army Corps of Engineers is currently working with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, she said, the final step in the federal review process under the Endangered Species Act.

“We do not have a timeline for when USFWS will complete its review, but we know our project is under active consideration,” Barnhart added. “Once USFWS finishes and notifies USACE, USACE can issue the formal permit.”

In the meantime, she said, FEMA has advanced the project through its internal review queues.

“We expect FEMA to complete the process of obligating the funding this month,” she said. “After FEMA receives the USACE permit, we expect them to conduct a final review before issuing the official ‘go-ahead’ for demolition and construction to begin.”

Reconstruction is expected to take 1½ years, including four to six months of demolition. The project cost is expected to decrease due to approval in June by City Council to scale down structures at the pier’s entry.

The city hired Project Manager Bruce Selfon, a former federal employee, to help navigate regulatory and permitting requirements. Selfon repeatedly told Council that federal job cuts and hiring freezes were delaying reviews. Heitmann said the city also sought help through Sen. Rick Scott, who lives in Naples, but the project still failed to move forward.

Residents were demanding action, Heitmann said in an interview Aug. 30, noting some people created and shared artificial intelligence videos showing a crowd standing by the pier and shouting, “Naples deserves better.”

“The community is enraged and I get it, I know why,” Heitmann said. “I finally got exasperated, I’d had enough. It’s been two years. What’s going on? I just said, ‘You know what? I’m going to give it a shot.’ ”

So Heitmann contacted a friend who met Noem when she visited Naples while she was governor of South Dakota and asked her to email Noem for help.

That was 20 days before Noem arrived and on Aug. 27, Young told Heitmann that FEMA said the funds would be approved. The next day, while in a city Community Redevelopment Council meeting, the mayor’s assistant told her the National Security Agency was coming that day to look at the pier with no cameras or media allowed, and she’d have to meet them there the next day, at 1:15 p.m.

The mayor said Noem also agreed with Young that the city’s FEMA obligation shouldn’t be decreased by $10,000 just because the city received that amount in tourist development taxes from the county Tourist Development Council.

Built in 1888 for people traveling by boat, Naples Pier has been rebuilt six times after hurricanes, most recently after Hurricane Irma in 2017. More than 1 million visitors head to the iconic landmark yearly to watch sunsets, fish, socialize, exercise, eat and watch wildlife.

FEMA has already advised the city that a concession stand over water, where it was located since 1946, was prohibited. A survey of residents showed it wasn’t a top preference and Young has said a request to add it mid-pier would result in “major hurdles,” delays and a likely denial, so Council voted not to add another.

The project team includes MHK Architecture, engineering and inspection firm Turrell Hall & Associates, City Engineer Dan Ohrenstein, city staff and Shoreline Foundation Inc., which was awarded the $23.45 million construction contract, with a $1.17 million contingency allowance in case of unforeseen problems.

To donate to help rebuild Naples Pier, go to: bit.ly/DonateToNaplesPier