This week Cape Coral City Council members went into sticker-shock when they heard the price tag to rebuild all the elements to the Yacht Club had ballooned to nearly $300 million. They have instructed staff to look for ways to accomplish the rebuild without burdening the taxpayers.
Staff presented the City Council a $225 million rebuild price tag this week, however, that didn’t include the cost to rebuild the Hurricane-Ian destroyed pier which Mayor John Gunter believes will push the total cost for the entire project to $300 million. The original renovation and rebuild price tag for the Yacht Club years ago was about $12 million.
If built as is, the City would have to borrow the majority of the money. That’s millions of dollars in debt for years to come, and it will be years before anything on that land generates any revenue for the city, most likely 2029 at the earliest.
The current plans include a resort-style pool, upgraded boat slips to attract bigger and higher-rent-paying vessels, a 4-story parking garage, a community building, and possibly a second restaurant. The City recently signed a new long-term deal with the owners of The Boathouse to lease land near the beach. The Boathouse was destroyed by Hurricane Ian and was finally demolished last month. From design, permitting and construction, it could be another two years before the restaurant rebuilds and reopens.
City Council members were clearly taken aback by the $300 million price tag of the Yacht Club project this week. District 6 Council member Keith Long said, “We need to either bring in partners or reduce the scope of the project. If you brought this project to the private sector, they’d laugh you out of the room.”
The Council instructed staff to go public with what’s called a ‘Request For Interest’ to see if there are any developers that would want to partner with the City on any aspect of the rebuild, whether it’s the parking garage, the restaurant, or perhaps even taking over the responsibilities to rent out the ballroom of the community center.
Mayor Gunter said, “If we have to bring in a partner to lessen the burden on taxpayers we’d be foolish not to explore this. It would be a win-win.”
District 7 Council member Rachel Kaduk added, “Unless we get a partner, we really need to scale this project back.”
District 4 Council member Jennifer Nelson-Lastra said, “I don’t want this burden on the taxpayers.”
Staff is expected to put the RFI out to the public over the next 30 days and bring back their results to the Council in January. Staff was instructed to continue with work repairing the seawall on the property.