Naples construction company expands, plans new office building

Naples construction firm Knauf-Koenig Group plans to transform two 1960s-era, one-story buildings on Seagate Drive into a contemporary three-story office building for its employees.

Over the years, the nearly half-acre property has been home to the Wine Grotto of Naples, Hertz car rentals and currently, Seagrass Home and Big Momma’s Bicycles, which will start looking for a new space for the 21-year-old bike repair and rental shop.

This week, the city Design Review Board unanimously gave preliminary approval to the design of the 12,222-square-foot building, two floors of office space over parking, and landscaping. Knauf-Koenig Group will occupy the third floor, while two other businesses owned by Matt Knauf and his wife Gisela – Naples Excavating and NexLift, a large materials delivery service –will be on the second floor.

“It’s really, really nice to have a client that works in our community work with us on this project to do something really good in an area that needs a little bit of improvement,” Mark McLean, national director of MHK Architecture, told the DRB. “… We think we’re making a really great improvement. The financial building that’s on the corner recently went through a modernization … so we think we’re really matching in and fitting in with the neighborhood and creating this space.”

Christian Andrea, of Architectural Land Design, is designing the landscaping.

“It’s definitely going to clean up the street view and it’s a beautiful design all around,” DRB Vice Chair Sabrina McCabe, project director of RVi Planning + Landscape Architecture, said before the vote.

Chair Stephen Hruby, an urban planner and architect who co-founded Architects Unlimited, told the project team: “It’s an elegant solution for a very tight site, and it’s going to clean up that street.”

Plans still must go through the Planning Advisory Board, Naples City Council and a final design review with the DRB.

The expansion is needed for the fast-growing company of 60-70 employees, which has been hiring over the past few months for its companies.

“Our main business is custom homes and we’re starting to see some movement in that market,” Matt Knauf said, adding that they focus on construction from Pelican Bay south to Port Royal. “We’ve been building in Naples for 20 years. Naples Excavating is growing and we’re expanding into other markets. We’re doing a lot of commercial site work, residential demolition and residential site work, as well. NexLift is mainly in Collier and Lee County, but we’re getting ready to expand over to Dade and Broward.”

Lots of materials are being brought back and forth from Miami and Fort Lauderdale to the West Coast, Knauf said. “Having trucks stationed over there to bring the material over here is a little more cost effective for Nexlift, so we’re going to put another office over on the east coast in the next 12 months,” he said.

That will be a leased space.

As 850 Seagate Drive LLC, Knauf and his wife purchased the nearly half-acre property on the south side of Seagate Drive, across from Waterside Shops for $2.4 million in February.

It’s an expansion from their East Naples buildings, an industrial building and office they purchased in 2023. As 5911 Taylor Road LLC, the couple purchased 5911 Taylor Road and 5640 Taylor Road, No. 3, for $3.945 million.

Demolition and construction is expected in the first quarter of next year.

“We’ll give them notice when we’re getting closer to tearing the current building down,” he said of Big Momma’s Bicycle Shop and Seagrass Homes, a sublessee. “Once we get through all the Design Review Board and get site plan approval and get into permitting, then we’ll start moving on coordinating to get the buildings demolished.”

Attorney Sal Iandimarino purchased the bike shop in 2016, the third owner after Amy Ashby, the original Big Momma who opened the shop in 2005. He changed the corporate name slightly to Big Momma’s Bikes Inc., but kept the sign and original name.

“It is very nice,” Iandimarino said of the location, tucked into a small strip mall at the northernmost edge of the city, across from Waterside Shops. “We’re back here in the hole a little bit, but we’ll need maybe 2,000 to 2,500 square feet. We’re well known, so location isn’t that important to us.”

He noted the shop has more than 500 followers on Google, who gave it a 4.9 rating. Popular with bike groups, it offers tuneups and repairs, as well as selling bikes, tricycles and e-bikes.

“We have probably the most prolific mechanics,” he said of his four employees, noting they’re proficient at repairing anything. “They’re Cuban, which tells you that they can take a Coke can and make a Cadillac out of it. They’re so gifted.”

Ray Chea learned how to fix bikes as a child, and when his parents were making $12 monthly, he was earning $300-$400 weekly repairing bikes and renting them to tourists at Hemingway Marina, Iandimarino said, prompting then-president Fidel Castro to shut him down. However, he said, the president appointed the teen head mechanic of the Cuban bike racing team.

“I love the history behind these guys. It’s just amazing,” he said. “Their endurance, their resourcefulness and kindness. They’re salt of the earth. I just love coming to work.”

The office building could be the first of more changes for Seagate Drive. The original Big Momma’s father, Charles Ashby, of VIP Realty Group, is selling the adjacent two pink buildings for $7.5 million, an office building occupied by Williams Raveis Realty and Kunjani Craft Coffee & Gallery, which is closing Sunday.