Improving affordable housing, nonprofit grant money and job creation, these were some of the enhanced benefits Fort Myers Mayor Kevin Anderson wanted to see from developers before awarding them tax breaks to build.
The Community Redevelopment Agency of Fort Myers hosted a workshop for its leadership Monday afternoon at The Collaboratory. Anderson and city council members attended but in their roles as CRA commissioners. The rest of the CRA advisory board attended, along with real estate brokers, prospective developers and property appraisers.
The developers were hoping to be in line to receive tax increment financing rebates, or TIFs.
“There’s room for improvement,” Anderson said of the TIF allocation. “What I’d like to see is for us to show a little more backbone. We want to lower the risk for the developer to come in.”
But Anderson also said he wanted the work force and affordable and low-income housing to increase as a result.
“In those areas that we really are in need, we have not seen activity,” he said.
Jared Beck, a consultant to the city, works for Stantec, a municipal advisory company. He put on the presentation, which included a history lesson on the growth of Fort Myers. Much of that growth, he said, included TIFs.
“Every community is different,” Beck said. “Every redevelopment area is different. At the CRA, there’s a lot of flexibility. You’re always trying to attract private investment. You’re trying to create opportunities for entrepreneurship.”
The 12-story Luminary Hotel downtown, a $91 million construction project, received $2.6 million in CRA TIF rebates.
A four-story Hampton Inn off McGregor Boulevard, nearing the end of construction, has been approved for a $1.9 million TIF rebate.
Silver Hills at Fort Myers/Triton Cay and West End at City Walk were built adjacent to one another. Each received TIF rebates. City Walk is receiving $5.5 million in TIF rebates at 95% over 10 years. Silver Hills is receiving a $12.96 million TIF rebate for Phase I and a $4.95 million TIF rebate for Phase II.
Randy Krise, a longtime land broker in Fort Myers, is hoping to receive a TIF rebate for his forthcoming 305-unit apartment project, Aldea. It will be located off Fowler Avenue and Central Avenue in the Midtown area of Fort Myers, just south of downtown.
“Developer’s not a dirty word,” Krise said during public comment at the workshop. “I’m 69-years-old, and I’m putting it all on the line here. I’m reading in the paper that the city is just giving away tax dollars. That’s absolutely not true.
“I’m making the city hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars. I’m making everybody money.”
Krise explained it this way: He owns nine aging and decaying buildings on 5.7 acres and pays about $51,000 a year in taxes to the city for it. An apartment complex costing $60 million to $80 million to build would exponentially improve the taxes paid on that land, he said. But to get started, he needed the city’s support.
“If I can’t count on the city’s support, I’ll just keep it the way it is,” Krise said. “I need your help. You’ve got to understand that you’re helping us get it done.”
