Since 2018, Fort Myers’ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard corridor has seen noticeable revitalization, with new businesses, public art and restoration projects at sites such as McCollum Hall and Mt. Olive AME Church. That year also marked the last time the Fort Myers Community Redevelopment Agency updated its master plan for the area.
“Things change and the needs of the community change,” said LaShaun Collier, the CRA’s deputy director of communications.
On Aug. 7, Collier and other CRA staff met with the public for a fourth and final time to review a draft of its 2025 Dr. MLK Jr. Revitalization Plan. It’s a binding document that sets the stage for future development since any CRA-funded projects must be included in the plan.
The MLK corridor is one of four official redevelopment areas in the city, each with a separate trust funded by tax increment revenue. The others are East Fort Myers, Cleveland Avenue and Downtown/Midtown.
At the MLK Jr. Plan meeting Aug. 7 at the Quality of Life Center of Southwest Florida, residents peppered CRA staff with questions and suggestions. The staff will make tweaks to the document before it goes before City Council at a future meeting this year.
Council — whose members also act as the CRA’s board of commissioners — may either approve the plan or send it back to staff for changes.
Edward Hardin, president of the Dunbar Festival Committee Inc., suggested the CRA develop a community center that can accommodate groups of at least 300 and up to 1,000 people under one roof.
“We just wanted to see someplace local where people don’t have to drive as far,” Hardin said.
CRA staff said the largest community center now in the MLK redevelopment area can accommodate up to 225 people. A long-awaited McCollum Hall reopening or a planned African American Cultural Center in Roberto Clemente Park might satisfy that need, but completion of those projects is likely years away.
The CRA’s recent accomplishments include acquiring old junkyards at 3312 Edison Ave. and 2419 Henderson Ave. They sold the property to Cincinnati-based Megen Construction Co. to develop affordable housing on the sites.
Hardin asked if Megen Construction will clean up the property to make sure the ground isn’t toxic. Al Long, Megen’s director of business development in Florida, said that the company had extensively tested the ground and found it clean.
“From what we know the ground is not contaminated,” Long said.
Through its series of meetings to update the 2025 Plan, CRA staff polled residents about their wishes and concerns for development in the area.
They found that many community members wanted more restaurants and small businesses. Many described the corridor as unwelcoming and blighted. They wanted stricter code enforcement and worried about traffic congestion. One of their top concerns is that the Dunbar community could lose its cultural identity even as residents support the changes.
The MLK redevelopment area is about 4.3 square miles and home to 10,100 people.
“It’s supposed to look like what it is,” CRA Assistant Director Mellone F. Long said. “Dunbar is Dunbar, and it has its own feel.”
