Did you know that 70% of family-owned businesses* do not survive even one generation after the founder moves on? Costly disputes among family members can be a big reason. That’s why it’s never too early to start formulating your exit strategy, choosing a successor and start preparing your team for future success. It’s all about creating clarity. A lack of clear planning can be costly for the business as well as you, potentially even forcing a sell in a hurry at a low price.
“Succession planning is about knowing when the time is right to let someone else manage your business,” says James Jack, Head of the UBS Business Owners Client Segment. “Some people want to get completely out, and others still want to be a part of the business that they’re so proud to have built. Having a good management team in place allows owners to be ready for new opportunities or help mitigate risk from unforeseen challenges.”
Here are four ways entrepreneurs can benefit from succession planning, according to the UBS Business Owners Client Segment:
Maximize the value of your business. The sales price of your business has an inevitable impact on everything, including retirement plans, taxation, compensation levels, insurance, shareholder agreements and corporate finance strategies. Leaving a business to family members only increases the desire to ensure maximum value and long-term potential.
Secure harmony among the next generation. Disagreements over the running of a business or the distribution of assets can be a disaster for family unity. Succession planning can help to overcome these problems by defining very specifically how the business will pass between generations.
Be ready to seize new opportunities. There are examples of high-profile serial entrepreneurs who continually look for the next business opportunity. A good succession plan can help this type of entrepreneur embark on a new venture or move into philanthropy at short notice.
Preserve your legacy. A well-considered and rigorous succession plan can be a way to help ensure that your staff are treated well after your exit and that your values remain foundational to the running of the business and its financial performance.
Early and thorough succession planning can set you and your business up for success even after you part ways. Reach out to Matina Group to start a conversation about your succession plan.
* Source: John L. Ward, Keeping the Family Business Healthy: How to Plan for Continuing Growth, Profitability, and Family Leadership (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011)..Do you have a vision for your business that goes beyond your ownership? The sooner you put strategies in place, the more likely you can carve out a path on your exact terms.
As a UBS Private Wealth Management team, Matina Group can show you what is possible through planning by helping you address major questions including:
– What are your transition options?
– How can you get the optimal valuation?
– What’s your strategy for preserving your legacy?
To get the clarity you need to extend your business plan far into the future—and for generations to come—connect with Matina Group today.
Learn more at advisors.ubs.com/matinagroup
Matina Group
UBS Financial Services Inc. Private Wealth Management 801 Laurel Oak Drive, Suite 500 Naples, FL 34108
Joseph Matina Managing Director–Wealth Management 877-452-4344 toll free joseph.matina@ubs.com
Neither UBS Financial Services Inc. nor its employees (including its Financial Advisors) provide tax or legal advice. You should consult with your legal counsel and/or your accountant or tax professional regarding the legal or tax implications of a particular suggestion, strategy or investment, including any estate planning strategies, before you invest or implement. As a firm providing wealth management services to clients, UBS Financial Services Inc. offers investment advisory services in its capacity as an SEC-registered investment adviser and brokerage services in its capacity as an SEC-registered broker-dealer. Investment advisory services and brokerage services are separate and distinct, differ in material ways and are governed by different laws and separate arrangements. It is important that you understand the ways in which we conduct business, and that you carefully read the agreements and disclosures that we provide to you about the products or services we offer. For more information, please review the client relationship summary provided at ubs.com/relationshipsummary, or ask your UBS Financial Advisor for a copy. Private Wealth Management is a division within UBS Financial Services Inc. UBS Financial Services Inc. is a subsidiary of UBS AG. Member FINRA. Member SIPC. © UBS 2022. The key symbol and UBS are among the registered and unregistered trademarks of UBS. UBS Financial Advisors are Registered Representatives of UBS Financial Services Inc. CJ-UBS-630525620 Exp.: 08/31/2023
JANUARY 2023
NEWS BITES P. 10
ICYMI! Top stories from Gulfshore Business Daily
TRENDLINE P. 12
Florida’s entrepreneurial drive
SPACES P. 14
McQuaid & Company’s innovative vision
MAKERS P. 18
Eco-friendly kids’ clothes made in Naples
ENTREPRENEURSHIP P. 22
Craig Hazelett on becoming a steward of the family business
ECONOMIC COMMENTARY P. 26
Why recessions repeat
HORSEPOWER P. 94
The overpowered pleasures of the 2022 BMW M3 Competition
WELLNESS P. 96
Techno-driven treatments to aid cognition
NEW & NOTEWORTHY P. 98
Solo Stove’s petite fire pit
WEEKEND GETAWAY P. 100
Gainesville is a Gator town and so much more
BACKSTORY P. 104
Double duty for a bygone Naples landmark
LEADERSHIP P. 80
Passing the torch at Sanibel Captiva Community Bank
DEVELOPMENT P. 84
‘Horizontal apartments’ take shape in SWFL
COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE P. 88
Top sales in Charlotte, Collier and Lee counties
NEW & EXPANDING P. 90
Top leases in Charlotte, Collier and Lee counties
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Heidi
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Happy new year—but if you’re still coming to terms with that idea and halfway wondering what happened to the second half of 2022, you’re not alone. I recently read an interesting article in the New York Times about “temporal disintegration,” which basically, as I understand it, means a loss of focus, clarity or sense of continuity about the passage of time, often prompted or exacerbated by mental trauma (think COVID-19, war in Ukraine and other world events, wildfires, hurricanes). I’ve heard lots of people saying, “Every time I turn around, it’s Friday again.” “What day is it?” “I don’t remember if it was last week or last month, but ...” It’s a real thing, and it makes sense that locals might be experiencing it in some form, considering the events of the last few months.
Even for those fortunate enough to have escaped Hurricane Ian relatively unscathed, examining our mental health is every bit as appropriate at the start of the year as our physical health. People are planning tests, labs, physicals, procedures, dental work, etc. throughout this fresh calendar, so why not also perform a quick check above the neck?
Southwest Florida’s commercial fishing industry was definitely not unscathed by the hurricane; storm surge and extreme winds did massive damage to docks and onshore infrastructure, as well as to the boats themselves— many of which suddenly and catastrophically also became onshore fixtures. The devastation may be a crippling blow
JANUARY 2023to an industry that already was struggling, and while federal and state relief efforts are in motion, some observers fear that the necessary funds won’t arrive soon enough to keep fishing businesses afloat. Tim Aten delves into the details on page 36, including the potential complication of owners deciding to cash out instead of rebuilding by selling their facilities to developers. There’s always demand for waterfront property, after all, but if all that space gets turned into condos, what happens to our local seafood supply?
In the story “Year of Hotels Became Year of Hell” published in the December issue, the sale price for the Naples Grande Beach Resort was incorrect. The hotel sold for $218.4 million in 2022. The figure has been corrected in the online story. We regret the error.
Demand for property remains high all over the area, in fact. When people from out of state are willing to pay top dollar to move here, it drives up housing prices—and risks driving out the locals working essential, if less well remunerated, jobs such as nurses and teachers. As John Guerra chronicles on page 50, more than 17% of Collier County’s workforce currently commutes in from residences outside the county, and some large companies are even exploring building their own housing options for employees’ use. In every way, affordable housing remains a huge local priority for 2023 and beyond.
Growth comes with its own set of difficulties, but it’s generally a good thing for a community, and we’ve got plenty of it. So welcome to another year. It’s 2023, and it has a lot of potential … and I’m certain of both.
HEIDI RAMBO CENTRELLA EDITOR IN CHIEF
[ COLLIER ]
The One Naples luxury condominium redevelopment project has been rebranded as The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Naples. The project from developer Stock Residences, featuring a collection of 128 residences at Vanderbilt Beach Road and Gulf Shore Drive, will be on 6 acres with a pair of 12-story buildings, two mid-rise buildings, an adjacent 22-slip, full-service marina and a fifth mid-rise building.
The condos start at $2.5 million and will feature expansive terraces, contemporary European-style kitchens and baths, Cambria quartz countertops, 10- to 12-foot ceilings, porcelain and wood floors and private ele-
vator entrances. The amenities and services include an exclusive concierge and The Vanderbilt Club, a 28,000-square-foot club with a Grand Owner’s atrium and lobby lounge, private restaurant, business center and coffee lounge, fitness center and a full-service spa. The Residences will include a marina with Gulf access, a dockmaster and gas service, and a park with walking trails, a putting green, a dog-walking area and covered pavilions. The outdoor amenities will include a resort-style pool, lap pool, cabana suites and fire pits. Residents also will have prime access to the public Vanderbilt Beach across the street.
Construction for The Residences is scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2023, with completion expected in 2025.
[ COLLIER ]The Southwest Florida pickleball industry is receiving a $670,000 grant from Collier County’s tourist development tax, which was unanimously approved by the Board of County Commissioners.
Naples is often referred to as the pickleball capital of the country, as East Naples Community Park is home to the internationally renowned Minto U.S. Open Pickleball Championships, taking place in April each year.
The grant money will go toward renovating the pickleball courts at East Naples Community Park, along with beautifying the surrounding space.
The park had nine permanent pickleball courts when co-founders of the U.S. Open Pickleball Championships Terri Graham and Chris Evon held their first 800-player event in 2016. Now, the park contains 64 courts, with the 2022 tournament hosting 3,000 players and 35,000 spectators.
[ LEE COUNTY ]
The Carousel Beach Inn on Fort Myers Beach, which sold in November for $7 million, is becoming a luxury residential development called Gulfside Twelve.
Tim O’Neill, CEO of Dublin Real Estate Developing Group LLC, is in charge of the project, which has been in the planning stages since as early as October 2021.
Some locals have expressed concern about the direction the beach might be heading, considering that the development’s prices are expected to start at $4 million a unit. O’Neill, who said he is well aware of people’s concerns, is planning to build a product that fits into the community. The goal of Gulfside Twelve is to enhance Fort Myers Beach, not upstage it, O’Neill said.
[ LEE COUNTY ]
After being destroyed by Hurricane Ian, the Seminole Gulf Railway is in need of public and government funding to restore the Peace River and Caloosahatchee River railway bridges.
So far, the railway is spending about $6 million in restoring the damaged Peace River bridges, and Seminole Gulf Railway Executive Vice President Robert Fay hopes access across the Peace River will be restored by the end of January. Fixing the bridges across the Caloosahatchee River would restore the railway’s access to North Naples, but the railway doesn’t have the funds to make those repairs.
Congressman Byron Donalds is looking into a bill that would help railroads during emergencies, Donalds’ staff said.
The railway needs about $10 million to complete repairs to the bridges over the Caloosahatchee River within a few months rather than a year or more, Fay said. If the Seminole Gulf Railway has to do it on its own, it will take more than a year to reopen service to Fort Myers.
Established in 1987, the railway transports all sorts of supplies, especially lumber and drywall to repair homes, from all over North America and Mexico into Southwest Florida.
By Justin Paprocki
Floridians sure are enterprising folks. About 632,105 new business applications were filed in 2021, according to an analysis by Smartest Dollar. That’s the most from any state in the country. Southwest Florida, in particular, saw a healthy number of new start-ups. Per capita, Naples ranked 11th in the nation for new business filings, while Fort Myers-Cape Coral ranked 30th. Meanwhile, Miami registered about 270,966 new businesses, second only to New York City.
This is part of an ongoing trend nationwide ushered in during the pandemic. The Great Resignation saw more people looking to venture out on their own, while government stimulus and low interest rates gave them the capital to do so. The U.S. has had more than 400,000 businesses created each month since July 2020; pre-pandemic, that number rarely reached above 300,000. Despite rising interest rates and fears of a recession looming, the trend shows no signs of abating—yet.
WHAT’S BLACK AND WHITE AND RED—AND STYLISH—ALL OVER?
By Aisling SwiftWhen you walk through the glass doors at McQuaid & Company at Bayfront, the spacious real estate and marketing boutique exudes fun and creativity.
Beige walls are highlighted with black and white, with pops of red sprinkled throughout, including lighting, chairs, giraffes and lions, the firm’s mascot. The black-white-and-red color scheme is a nod to the firm’s branding.
“I winged it initially, but then was inspired by Facebook headquarters,” company President Tiffany McQuaid says of her design inspirations. “I want everyone to always feel inspired. There’s so much color around that evokes different emotions and nostalgia. It stimulates more creativity and activity.
“It’s different from a standard commercial office,” she says. “We want to keep innovation first and foremost and stay inspired.”
In 2017, real estate news company Inman named McQuaid a Real Estate Influencer of 2017 and her firm was nominated for an Inman Innovator Award, which honors companies and agents that increase productivity, efficiency and transparency.
Inspirational quotes decorate the walls, alternating in print and script. “Creativity is intelligence having fun,” says one, while another proclaims: “To be successful, be excellent. If you want the best the world has to offer, then offer the world your best.”
Inspired by Facebook’s HQ, McQuaid & Company President Tiffany McQuaid designed her company’s space with hopes of stimulating creativity and activity.
McQuaid, who expanded her Bayfront office in 2013 from 2,000 square feet to 5,000 square feet, employs 48 agents and staff. The office features individual offices and 11 sections, such as the Think Tank, Realtor Store, Beverage Bar, Zen Room, Print Room, a title company and The Tides at Bayfront room, where potential buyers can see and feel finishes for the luxury condos.
“Once we sell out The Tides, I plan to put in two old-fashioned diner booths and close them in with glass to make it a super-fun meeting space,” McQuaid says. “I’m constantly evolving, shifting, moving and redecorating.”
The lobby windows overlooking the street are lined with pale wood cubicles, where real estate agents work as the firm’s signature scent, Happy Home, wafts through the air. “I bought a truckload of cubicles off Craigslist,” McQuaid says, explaining that a business that bought them shut down.
Inside a conference room, two large blackand-white-striped, drum-style lights hang alongside a red top-hat light above the conference table. “I found them at Ethan Allen on clearance,” McQuaid says. “We always use pops of red to unify the brand.”
Down a hallway, the Snack Bar features shelves of chips, Skinny Pop, pretzels and
other snacks in red baskets, alongside a freezer packed with popsicles, ice cream bars and swirled frozen yogurt. It’s a first stop before real estate agents head out with clients.
An old jeweler’s safe was converted into a broadcast studio after McQuaid found it would cost $20,000 to remove the door, which now keeps the room quiet for recording.
In the Think Tank, shadow boxes featuring McQuaid’s early marketing efforts decorate the walls, inspiring employees to think outside the box while marketing. Red chairs surround a table with a checkerboard and a black chalkboard schedule covers a wall, while a giraffe inspires employees to stand tall above others. “We call it our creative conclave,” she says. A back area features a wall of bright red high-school lockers, where real estate agents can leave valuables.
“Everything is pieced together. Whenever I saw something online or locally, I kept adding and tweaking,” McQuaid says, adding that the offices undergo yearly refreshing and repainting after season ends.
When employees need a break, they head to the popular Zen Zone, where two large massage chairs sit alongside self-watering plants. “We’ve got to keep the agents moving and relaxed,” McQuaid explains.
Inside the Realtor Store, agents have an array of anything needed to make baskets for open houses. Branded baskets, T-shirts, gifts, marketing materials and other items line the shelves. “We make closing gifts. We do just about anything imaginable for teams in here. It’s kind of like one-stop shopping,” McQuaid says.
The marketing department handles the office and Realtors, in addition to large events
Agents have an array of marketing materials to make baskets for open houses and closing gifts.
McQuaid oversees, such as the Stone Crab Festival and Taste of Collier. Inside its production room, they can print brochures, booklets and mailers. “Everything is done in-house. It’s designed, printed and mailed out from here,” McQuaid says, adding that they do print jobs for a few outside clients.
Employees appreciate the inspirational touches and work freedom, which lured ABC7 anchor Krista Fogelsong to become McQuaid’s VP of communications and community relations. Marketing VP Nicole Hogue says of the atmosphere: “It makes it fun to come into work.”
By Justin Paprocki
Finding kids’ clothing that both fits and is fashionable can be a challenge. Especially if, as in the case of Ashley Nebbia, you’re also trying to find something two toddlers will like. So, she took matters into her own hands. She started making kids’ clothes for her daughters, and it has turned into a business, Solstice Kids.
“I used to love fashion for myself—and then I had kids,” she says. “I ended up passing that passion along.”
Originally from Kansas City, Kansas, she arrived in Naples about four years ago. Solstice Kids was born out of the pandemic; Nebbia was adept at sewing and had a little more time on her hands to create those clothes her kids liked. She focused on warm-weather clothes for families in Southwest Florida with cloth in playful patterns featuring sea creatures, alligators and the like. She also wanted to create clothes that are eco-friendly and organic, using salvaged fabrics to minimize waste. After family and friends showed support, she officially turned it into a business about two years ago.
She started selling on Etsy, the e-commerce platform that allows creators to sell online. Then she started going to farmers markets and art fairs to sell.
Ashley Nebbia started Solstice Kids during the pandemic using salvaged fabrics to minimize waste.
Solstice Kids sells a variety of dresses, rompers, shorts, shirts and pajamas. Ashley Nebbia seeks approval from her own children, knowing if they will wear her designs, other children will, too.
She’s found the personal connection at in-person events to be most beneficial in building the brand. As of now, she said her sales pretty much split 50/50 between online and in-person.
Nebbia makes a variety of dresses, rompers, shorts and shirts; the pajamas tend to be the most popular, especially around the holidays. She’s also started the Memory Collection, taking a keepsake—such as an old blanket—and turning it into something new. As of now, she cuts and sews almost all of what she does, but she does get help from a seamstress during the holiday rush. She pretty much makes the styles that she would like, although she seeks approval from her harshest critics—her kids.
“If my kids will wear it, I know other kids will wear it, too.”
Craig Hazelett grew up among the rows of tropical fruit trees, landscape palms and butterfly plants of Driftwood Garden Center. Mulch and fertilizer and heavy bags of topsoil are second nature to him. His parents launched the North Naples shop off U.S. 41 in 1984, and 14 years later they opened a second location in Estero. Hazelett worked at both Driftwoods as a teenager. “My parents were good role models,” he says. “They taught us what hard work gets you, and now we have a good system in place that’s been easy to build upon.”
Though the children of some entrepreneurs might chafe at the idea of returning home to run the family business, Hazelett looked forward to coming back after college.
“I always envisioned myself coming back and being a part of it,” he says. “It’s a great business to be in, with a lot of potential for growth.”
That continued growth has been the product of many factors, Hazelett said. The garden center’s long history is one of them. Many of Driftwood’s clients have been coming to the nursery for decades. “We have clients today that I first met when I was 14 or 15 years old, and we reminisce together,” he says. “In a business like this, it’s important to have those long-lasting relationships.”
Building relationships is essential to any entrepreneurial endeavor, especially one with an outward-facing business model. “Everything here is based on customer service,” Hazelett says.
At Driftwood, the key to ensuring great customer service over the years has been hiring outstanding employees. “Our employees are really knowledgeable. Whether it’s butterfly gardening or orchids or whatever they focus on, they become experts in that area. Our success is a testament to our em-
Anna Nuyen
Craig Hazelett looked forward to coming back home to Naples to run his family’s business, Driftwood Garden Center, which launched in 1984.
Driftwood started with five employees and, over the lifespan of the business, has expanded to 110 customer-oriented and passionate employees.
ployees and their desire to learn and take care of things.”
Over the lifespan of the garden center, Driftwood has gone from five employees to 110. Hazelett and his team make sure that they bring on people who are both customer-oriented and passionate about the products they’re selling.
In fact, passion is a word Hazelett uses often to describe Driftwood, and it’s a state of being he says is necessary for entrepreneurial success. “There’s a lot of passion involved in running a business,” he says. “My advice to other entrepreneurs: When you have something you’re passionate about, follow it. There will be a lot of ups and downs, but the rewards far exceed the challenges, for sure.”
Of course, any leap into entrepreneurship involves risk. And the risk of running a business that depends almost entirely on living things might seem daunting. But as with most aspects of running the business, Hazelett sees that potential pitfall through an optimistic lens. “We’re very fortunate to be dealing with living things,” he says. “Plants bring joy to people.”
It’s important to study the economy of the 1930s—because those who ignore economic history are doomed to repeat it.
I thought about this when Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz published work (with Bruce Greenwald) presenting statistical relationships between technological improvements in agriculture and unemployment in the 1930s. In it, he asked: What turned an otherwise normal market correction into a long, grueling depression characterized by persistent double-digit rates of unemployment?
His answer: It was, at least in part, agricultural technology causing all those workers to become displaced. Absent that, unemployment never would have skyrocketed while the U.S. job market would have main-
tained higher percentages of workers who worked on the farm. Surely, the economy of the 1930s as we know it never would have occurred.
So goes mainstream neoclassical research, where truth is only what can be measured and then fit into mathematical models. The problem is that these models are only as good as their assumptions, and that when real important information is not measurable, it is simply ignored.
There is abundant evidence that Stiglitz’s findings about the Great Depression reflect statistical correlations, and not causations. This is especially true since other countries made the transition from farm to manufacturing without significant employment stress. Stiglitz’s theory also lets the Hoover and Roosevelt administrations—whose disastrous
interventions hindered the price system from reallocating resources as efficiently as what took place in other countries—off the hook.
Think about it. By the first half of the 20th century, there’s a surplus of agricultural output for the first time in human history. This surplus, happily, places downward pressures on food prices and increases workers’ purchasing power and choices. Then along come Hoover and FDR with policies to keep ag prices higher than they otherwise would have been, or at some level reflecting their price levels prior to the explosion in ag output. The economic results of these interventions are predictable:
• The quantity demanded of farm output falls (because prices are kept high).
• Ag unemployment skyrockets (because of reduced demand for output).
• Millions of people who would otherwise have been able to support themselves and their families working in agriculture become destitute.
• Ag surpluses resulting from the artificial (and violently enforced) price increases lead to bizarre secondary interventions requiring government to destroy food at a time when millions earned starvation wages, if any at all.
I tell this story to remember the context in which economic ideas are promulgated today. Economists such as Stiglitz are paid well to provide intellectual heft to market failure arguments that justify an expansion of the government relative to the mar-
ket. So, it makes sense he would argue that technological improvements can lead to a decade-long depression at a time when many people, economists and non-economists alike, question the practicality of fiscal and monetary interventions that were unprecedented in the 1930s and unprecedented in our own time.
In the process, Stiglitz damns technology, ignoring its role in allowing mankind to emerge from solitary, poor, nasty and brutish lives. Technological improvements in the farm sector particularly caused much of the material progress in the 20th century, since they enabled the ag sector to increase productivity with fewer workers, who then moved to the cities
to work in other industries—industries that hadn’t even existed 50 years earlier—and caused aggregate GDP to explode. Absent this phenomenon, there would be no middle class today.
And today, severe structural imbalances characterize western economies fed by coordinated, off-thecharts intervention in market forces, much of it justified by the pandemic. Economies are only as good as the theories undergirding them. Our hope for the future is based on good theories being rediscovered—and the rejection of many of those promulgated by court intellectuals.
Christopher Westley is dean of the Lutgert College of Business.
It is important to study the economy of previous decades because those who ignore economic history are doomed to repeat it.
After Hurricane Ian hit, the management team at Sunshine Ace Hardware reached out to their 316 employees. The team asked about employees’ safety, their families’ safety, their homes. Then they just asked a simple question: How are you?
It’s a simple question but a loaded one. Mentally, the American worker has not been doing well. Stress levels have already been high because of the pandemic and its repercussions—and locally, the hurricane that made landfall on Sept. 28, 2022, significantly exacerbated the issue.
Sunshine Ace has tried to make the mental health of its employees a priority over the last few years. So in addition to physical safety after the storm, the company focused on mental well-being, too. It turned out that while all employees were safe, 12 had lost their homes.
Sunshine Ace already had an account set up with the Community Foundation of Collier County that can provide grants to employees in times of need, and was exploring other ways to help its employees financially. But the event has been traumatizing to many employees, even the ones who escaped harm or were relatively safe. The company worked to connect employees to mental health resources, including exploring the possibility of bringing in therapists for on-site sessions.
“We want to make sure they feel like they’re not alone,” says President Michael Wynn.
Sunshine Ace is among the businesses that are putting the once-taboo topic of mental health out into the open. The health scares of the pandemic, mixed with a hostile political climate and the financial strain of ongoing inflation, have created an atmosphere that’s unsettled the nation.
About 76% of American workers showed symptoms of at least one mental health condition in 2021, up from 59% in 2019, according to Mind Share Partners, a nonprofit that focuses on promoting mental health awareness in the workplace. Anxiety, depression and burnout were the most common conditions noted—but obsessive-compulsive disorder, eating disorders and PTSD were among the conditions that were becoming more common (see pg. 35). The workplace isn’t the only cause of all of these issues. But the vast majority of respondents reported at least one issue from work negatively affecting their mental health, whether their work was emotionally draining or Brian Tietz
Sunshine Ace is among the businesses putting mental health out into the open, and Michael Wynn wants to make sure employees don't feel alone.
interfering with their home life (see pg. 32). Plus, when people are experiencing symptoms, they’re experiencing them for longer. In 2019, only about half of respondents reported a symptom that lasted for longer than a week. In 2021, it was 80%.
Pre-Ian, Sunshine Ace and other businesses partnered with the David Lawrence Centers in Naples for its Mind Your Mind campaign, launched early last year after the nonprofit’s leadership noticed the decline in mental health across all sectors during the pandemic. DLC has hosted seminars on workplace mental health and provided support to employers on what they can do to take care of their teams. “There is no overall health without mental health,” says CEO Scott Burgess.
The old workplace mindset about mental health was this: Don't talk about it. And many businesses felt that was the way to success, too; that any change in culture could make the
business less successful. But the result of that way of thinking is the promotion of a toxic workplace that will drive people away, said Bill Greene, a principal with Mind Share Partners. "If you continue with that mentality, you will lose people,” he says.
Mind Share Partners started pre-pandemic with the intention of reducing the stigma around mental health discussions in the workplace. There’s the human element of just making sure your employees are in a good place, but it’s also a productivity issue. Mind Share Partners found that poor mental health leads to an increased number of employees leaving jobs, taking more time off and being less productive when they are at work. About half of workers in 2021 reported leaving a job in part due to mental health challenges, a 34% increase from before the pandemic. If there’s good news, it’s that more businesses are becoming aware of mental health’s importance and ways to promote it, Greene said. The tricky part is finding ways for those promotions to take hold.
Take Employee Assistance Programs, for example. Many compa-
nies offer EAPs, which can connect employees with mental health professionals for little to no additional cost to the employee. However, utilization of these services is still low. The Society for Human Resource Management estimates that fewer than 10% of employees actually take advantage of their EAPs. Why?
The problem is largely cultural, according to Mind Share Partners. Many employees fear that contacting a mental health professional through their EAP or even discussing a mental health issue with their boss could be seen as a negative in the eyes of their employer. To combat that, a culture shift needs to happen from the top down, Greene said. Some of this comes in the form of policy changes that can make the business a better place to work—offering flexible work schedules, expanding personal-time-off programs or shifting more money into EAPs or mental health programs. But according to Greene, it’s also part of a mentality.
Leaders need to set the tone and not be hesitant to share their own stories regarding mental health challenges. It’s not just having an EAP,
but encouraging it and even going a step further and organizing group discussions about mental health or mindfulness sessions (see pg. 33). They need to foster team building and positive interactions that eliminate the competitiveness or toxicity that can thrive in a workplace and deteriorate individuals’ mental health. At Sunshine Ace, the Wynn family developed 10 core values that emphasize respect and positivity in the workplace, beginning with "Love, Laugh, Work Hard." They back that up with employee appreciation events, team-building exercises and peer-recognition awards. The goal is to create a positive work environment. But it’s when trust and respect has been built among employees and between workers and management that barriers start to break regarding mental health discussions, Greene said. “The best solutions are a collective effort,” he says.
Greene said managers often can get intimidated about even starting conversations that might involve mental health. They don't want to seem intrusive, or they might be afraid of saying the wrong thing. Greene advised approaching these situations with curiosity and compassion. Keep everything fact-based and work-focused. Don't say, “You seem to be in a bad mood.” Say, “I've noticed you haven’t been participating in meetings” or “I've noticed you
Percentage of workers who say a workplace factor has negatively affected their mental health
Emotionally draining work Lack of recognition Poor communication
Lack of growth opportunities Job insecurity
Challenges with work-life balanceSource: Mind Share Partners’ 2021 Mental Health at Work Report in partnership with Qualtrics and ServiceNow
At Sunshine Ace, the Wynn family developed 10 core values that emphasize respect and positivity.
haven't been showing up on time the last few days.” It's a way to start a conversation that could lead to getting a person help. "Sometimes small conversations can make a big difference," he says.
After a traumatizing event, it's not business as usual. Much of the focus following a storm such as Hurricane Ian is on the physical damage, but don't forget about the emotional toll these events take on people, even if they weren't directly affected.
Bill Greene of Mind Share Partners offers advice for business managers on how to handle the tricky task of navigating a traumatizing event while still trying to remain productive.
Acknowledge the impact of the events as soon as possible.
Recognize that your employees are hurting. Share your own personal story of how that particular event affected you. Make it clear that you understand they may need time to recover. "Talk to employees as people—not just employees," he says.
Create room for compassionate conversations. Reach out to employees to discuss the event. Listen to their needs and respond. Attempting these conversations can seem awkward, especially if it's not commonplace in your workplace to discuss outside-of-work events. But they can be crucial in building trust and understanding among your team. Conflict can arise if certain people are called to take on additional tasks, so consider having discussions in group settings so people can understand what their fellow employees are going through.
Part of this is recognizing that employees need space to process things. People may not realize the full extent of how something may affect them immediately. Be open to the fact that needs may change over time. "The tail end of these
events is a long one," Greene says.
Focus on proactive solutions. These can be different things for different employees. The focus should be on how to get the work done while also meeting the team members’ needs as people. That could mean an adaptive work environment, flexible hours, additional time off, possibly even re-delegating tasks temporarily.
If you have an Employee Assistance Program, remind employees about its mental health benefits.
You can only do so much. It’s hard enough to run a business or manage people on a daily basis, but attempting to navigate a traumatic event on top of that can be too much. Don’t feel like you have to be a therapist and manager all in one. Connect people to resources so the burden isn’t all on you. "It's not on the managers to fix everything," Greene says.
What do I need to do to show up and be my best self? Melissa Severance asked herself this question a while back. She was
successful in her career in human resources, but she had run into a rough patch in her life that left her struggling to find peace at work. She’s since ventured out on her own, starting an independent HR consulting business and extolling the virtues of mindfulness at work.
Mindfulness is the practice of staying present in the moment. In the workplace, it’s a way to increase focus and lessen stress. Companies such as Google and Aetna are finding ways to incorporate mindfulness techniques into their workday. This isn’t necessarily hosting yoga classes in the middle of the day—although many companies do that—but can be little things that might make a big difference in how employees work.
Severance likes to talk about Very Important Pauses. These are just short breaks multiple times a day when you put aside work to recharge. The key is finding what works best for you. Taking a 15-minute mid-af-
ternoon walk may benefit some people. Maybe it's downloading something like the Calm meditation app and finding an exercise you can do in your office a couple of times a day. “The purpose is to disrupt your stress pattern,” she says.
This shouldn’t just be an individual thing, but a shift in company practices to allow people to feel comfortable taking breaks. She said she’s found that companies taking advantage of this find that employees are more focused when they are working.
Melissa Severance, who started her own HR consulting business that focuses on mindfulness at work, stresses the importance of taking short breaks throughout the work day to recharge.
Rework the schedule. Instead of scheduling an hour-long meeting, make it 50 minutes to give an extra 10 minutes for people to take a break. Also, take a true lunch break—don’t eat at your desk, don’t check emails. Allow yourself time away from work in the middle of the day.
Set limits to work-life balance. This means no emails after hours. And vacation days are truly time away from work.
Schedule meditation or yoga sessions. Companies have started reaching out to yoga or meditation practitioners for optional sessions. It’s not just a break, but a way to promote team bonding.
Work when it’s time to work. This can be challenging as we tend to get too distracted by the beeps coming from our phone or the dings of new email from our laptop. But part of mindfulness is being conscious of the moment. So when you need to finish that report, turn off the phone and don’t check email. Refuse to get distracted. You’ll find you’ll become much more focused and productive once you ditch multitasking.
View mindfulness as one piece of creating a culture that promotes good mental health, Severance advised. “It’s not just one fix,” she says. “It all needs to work together.”
More and more people are seeking low-stress environments now, so not taking these sorts of steps are putting you at a competitive disadvantage, she said. “If you don’t change,” she says, “you will be behind the 8 ball.”
Percentage of workers who showed symptoms of a mental health condition (2021, 2019)
BY TIM ATEN
A hurricane or tropical storm in open waters that seems to affect only marine life and poses no threat to land is often called a “fish storm.” Hurricane Ian, on the other hand, was a fishery storm, posing a serious threat to the livelihood of commercial fishermen along the Gulf Coast of Southwest Florida. After the storm devastated many of the coastal fisheries, docks, marinas and fish houses in the region, local fishermen worry that these damaged properties will be targeted for redevelopment and not be rebuilt.
Once fish house owners sell their properties, this will never be a working waterfront again, said Casey Streeter, whose Island Seafood Co. locations on Matlacha and Sanibel Island were seriously damaged by Ian.
“This is a dire situation. No one is going to come back and start a fish house if these ones go out because there’d be no reason to,” Streeter says. “The thing is with these properties, unfortunately, they’re more valuable not as a fishery. The property that I own is valuable—not as a fishery, but I want to keep it as a fishery. It needs to stay as a fishery.”
The leveled waterfront property would be more valuable as multimillion-dollar condominiums, hotels and other high-end developments. Streeter’s fish market in Matlacha took an incredible blow and was wiped out.
Casey Streeter, a commercial fisherman who operates fish houses in Lee County, worries that local fisheries won't be rebuilt after being damaged by Hurricane Ian.
A great deal of the Gulf waterfront in coastal Lee County was almost completely devastated by Hurricane Ian's high winds and storm surge last fall.
“In all reality, our infrastructure’s gone,” he says. “It’s the part that no one really thinks about, but it’s the most critical part. Because if you don’t have docks and you don’t have ice and coolers and freezers and the infrastructure for boats to pull up and execute whatever fishery they’re in— whether it’s blue crabs or stone crabs, grouper, snapper, the shrimp boats— if you don’t have that, you don’t have a fishery.”
Florida's Gulf Coast has experienced many hurricanes, but Ian wasn’t like anything local commercial fishermen had seen before. “I don’t think any of these storms in other places have wiped out all the infrastructure as they did for us,” Streeter says. “In Lee County, we definitely lost three of the deep-water working waterfronts, and on the island, we lost three out of the four fish houses that were executing fisheries. So, we took a major hit. It’s going to be really difficult to get these fisheries back online as they were until we get that infrastructure, until we get docks in and until we get refrigeration.”
At his local shop, Streeter had to tear out everything that made it a Brian Tietz
Scores of boats in the Fort Myers Beach shrimping industry were grounded last fall when storm surge from Hurricane Ian pushed them inland.
Dennis Wright
Pat Kirk of Kirk Fish Co. in Goodland says local commercial fishing is a dying industry that is important enough to be saved.
fish house. “It’s just a shell of a building now—no ice houses, no docks, no nothing," he says. “We’re in a hard spot right now and we definitely need some help from our governor. We definitely need some congressional federal help for our fisheries.”
Kirk Fish Co., based in Goodland, survived the storm and was able to open as scheduled Oct. 15, but owners of the local fish house say the state needs to help sustain the commercial fishing industry after this unnatural disaster.
“They need to help keep these important industries alive,” says Pat Kirk, who married into the Kirk family 34 years ago, joining a local seafood business her husband’s family started in Collier County in the early 1950s. Selling stone crabs, blue crabs, shrimp and fish only during stone crab season, Oct. 15 to May 1, Kirk has seen the commercial fishing industry take some serious hits over the years from Mother Nature and government restrictions.
“It is a dying industry, but we are hanging on as much as we can because it’s a huge, important industry and we don’t want people to forget that fishermen feed you,” Kirk says.
To help Southwest Florida recover from the storm’s significant impacts on the commercial and recreational fishing industry, Gov. Ron DeSantis requested in mid-October that the U.S. Secretary of Commerce issue a federal fisheries disaster. This declaration provides access to federal funding to allow offshore, nearshore and inshore fisheries to rebuild.
“Our marine fisheries have sustained huge impacts as a result of Hurricane Ian and those impacts are far-reaching,” DeSantis said. “I am committed to ensuring that Florida’s fishing industry stays afloat, and that includes supporting the Floridians who make their living on the water.”
A few weeks after the storm, the governor also waived an eligibility requirement of the Florida Small Business Emergency Bridge Loan Program to allow sole proprietors in the marine fisheries industry with businesses in Lee, Collier, Charlotte, DeSoto, Hardee and Sarasota counties to receive critical assistance. Administered by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity, the $50 million program provides short-
Like everything else on Fort Myers Beach, the shrimping industry got wrecked Sept. 28 from Hurricane Ian. But unlike most everything else, the shrimping industry already was facing immense challenges—from rising fuel prices to inflation to pricing pressures from international competitors.
Before Fort Myers Beach shrimpers can tackle any of those challenges, they must get their boats back into the water. The storm grounded 43 boats, most of which landed on San Carlos Island, just across Estero Bay from Estero Island. Two months after the hurricane hit, fewer than a handful of boats had been returned to the water.
“Every boat that gets in the water is a huge economic impact to the community,” says Tracey Gore, who with her husband Henry coowns Gore Seafood. “If it’s one, two, three boats, four boats, each one is going to be a big impact.”
The Fort Myers Beach fleet has a $50 million annual economic impact, said Gore, a former mayor of Fort Myers Beach.
“Then with that money, we buy everything locally,” she says. “Fuel,
supplies, net repair, welding, groceries, lawyers, accountants, seafood markets, freezer trucks, repairmen, our homes and taxes we pay toward government projects and infrastructure, etc. We hire locally and keep the working class working. Our industry is second only to tourism, and our working waterfront commercial fishing industry is part of the character and charm that locals love and draws tourists here.”
The Gores’ boat, the Lexi Joe, named for their daughter and son, was the second to be lifted by a crane on a barge from the land back into the bay. The process took 10 days.
“She’s 120 tons,” Tracey Gore says. “So, it’s just getting the crane
to be able to safely put her back in the water.”
To make matters even more challenging, the shrimpers aren’t just reeling from the lack of boats in the water. They are struggling to find places to unload them, even if they were floating. “The other thing here is we don’t have any docks,” says Chris Gala of the Trico Shrimp Company. “That’s going to be another challenge. We have to figure out some way to tie them up. Maybe anchor them here? We don’t know.”
The Southern Shrimp Alliance exists as a sounding board for industry concerns and also to seek solutions. It encompasses the eight shrimp-producing states in the southeastern United States, from North Carolina along the coast
south and then westward to Texas, with Florida in between.
“Florida’s shrimp season is happening now,” says Deborah Long, Alliance president. “A lot of boats from Texas have traveled to Florida to fish their area. They go to where the seasons are. You had a lot of Texas boats in Fort Myers, as well. So, it wasn’t just the local fleet that was affected.
“Some of these boats, they ended up all piled up on top of each other at the end of the dock. It’s quite a feat of engineering to unentangle them.”
To make matters worse, the industry had been struggling over the past 10 years because of international pricing pressures.
“A flood of imports have come into the market,” Long says. Some of the international companies have been dumping shrimp to increase domestic prices even more, Long and other shrimpers said.
“This has repercussions,” Long says. “Many of the major importing companies have been found to be dumping. There has been a longstanding trade dispute within the industry. It has driven a lot of the shrimpers out of business.
“When you’re talking about the hurricane damage, you have to realize that a lot of these shrimpers have been affected for years on the costs of doing business. Fuel is extremely expensive. Many of them have foregone insurance on their vessels. That puts them in an even worse predicament today. There’s a good question as to how many of these folks will come back. And how many will have to do different jobs.”
Trico and Jenson & Ericksen are the two largest Fort Myers Beach shrimping companies. Joe Andrews of Jenson & Ericksen said if fuel prices weren’t so high, maybe the
fleet could have been spared from the damage—because the fleet would have been elsewhere.
“Usually in the summer, we would send our boats to Texas,” Andrews says. “But this year, because of the price of shrimp and the price of fuel, we decided it wasn’t worthwhile to go. I guess I wish we would have gone.”
Many shrimpers already have moved on to other places and jobs, he said.
“Everybody survived, and there were no serious injuries,” Andrews says. “Many of the crews were displaced. They’re homeless. But most of them have moved on to other places and found employment elsewhere. They’ve gone to different ports. Others have moved on to develop different skills and find different careers.”
But Andrews refuses to give up.
“We’ve done it so long, that’s what you do,” he says. “You get up in the morning, and you go to the dock and try to make sense of it all. If we can get them put back in the water without tearing them up too badly … we have a demand for local shrimp. And, quite honestly and quite simply, we have the best shrimp in the world.” —David Dorsey
term, zero-interest loans to small businesses that experienced economic injury or physical damage from Hurricane Ian.
The federal fisheries disaster declaration for Florida brings in resources to try to make the devastated fisheries whole again. “But they’re federally flawed at a federal level because they take maybe two to three years to receive the money," Streeter says. “So, anyone who’s in dire straits—like I lost all my retail options and my business—I’m not going to make it two to three years to receive the benefit I have coming to me.
“What I would like to see—our state has a $20 billion surplus—I would like to see some immediate funds come in to get our infrastructure fixed. I hate to say we’re on our last leg, but that’s a pretty close analogy of where we’re at right now.”
"We’re very concerned as a country to keep our farmers around, to keep people coming into farming and all these other things, but we’ve done a very poor job as a society embracing our commercial fishermen who are out there producing food for our country and our businesses so that they can be profitable,” Streeter says. "The way I look at it is, if the state of Florida had 12 farms left, we would do everything we could to protect them. The state of Florida has 12 real deep-water working waterfronts—maybe not even that, to be honest with you.”
Florida leads the nation in the number of saltwater anglers employed as the farmers of the sea. They generate an estimated dockside value of more than $240 million in commercial food fish sales, and the state’s commercial fisheries generate $3.2 billion in income while supporting 76,700 jobs, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Hurricane Ian had a devastating effect on the local fishing industry through damaged boats and marinas, loss of refrigerated product from power outages, cancellation of charter trips and destruction of waterways and infrastructure. The disaster was a complete loss for some commercial fishermen, who lost their businesses, income and even homes, in some cases.
Streeter worries that local seafood production won’t be what it was before the storm. “I see my boats as my community’s boats because, honest-
ly, these fisheries are theirs," he says. “We just have the ability to go harvest it for them. We want to continue to do that, but without help we won’t be able to do that.”
In light of the population boom and march of progress and redevelopment along Southwest Florida’s coast, it’s not a stretch to imagine fishery dock
space being converted into residential towers with waterfront views.
“Just like everything, I’m afraid that there’s going to be the big money people coming around and saying, ‘Oh, don’t rebuild that here. Let me give you a couple of million dollars for your waterfront property.’ I’m afraid that’s going to happen if it hasn’t already happened," says Kirk. “This is an industry worth saving. We fight tooth and nail in this industry to keep it going. It’s worth saving, for sure.”
Phelan Family Brands owns and operates Island Crab Co., a Pine Island business that supplies seafood to its many regional restaurants, including Pinchers.
The threat is real, Streeter said, noting that the fishing industry was challenging enough already without this additional struggle.
“So, there are obviously investment companies that are already coming out trying to work their way into these places and try to purchase them,” he says. “But as a community in Southwest Florida what you have to understand is nobody is ever going to put in a fish house again if these fish houses don’t get saved. We’re going to lose these industries.”
Grant Phelan, president of Bonita Springs-based Phelan Family Brands, which owns and operates Island Crab Co. on Pine Island and the Pinchers regional seafood restaurants, thinks the area will rebound but it just won’t be the same.
“We’ll come back and Southwest Florida will come back, but it’s going to be very different," Phelan says,
noting that many businesses on Fort Myers Beach and other areas hit hard by the hurricane cannot be built back the way they were. “They’ll have to fall under the new codes. They’ll have to fall under new FEMA regulations. Anything that was destroyed 51% or more will have to come back to today’s codes and it will be different.”
The sights and smells resulting from Hurricane Ian's landfall are something Phelan will never forget. “I’ve been in Naples 35 years, since I was 12, and I’ve never seen something like this. Ever," he says. “They’ve always said the storm surge was going to come but it never did. This time they were 100% right. It came and it came in a massive way. I pray we never see something like this again. I hope it’s another 35 years that I live in Naples and I don’t see anything like this again, because it’s horrific.”
BY JOHN GUERRA
COLLIER COUNTY SUFFERS FROM LACK OF AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Bill Maples is a highly regarded director of outpatient wound centers. He and his wife, residents of the Galveston Bay area, enjoyed visiting Southwest Florida and its beaches. So like thousands of people who get a taste of life in our area, they decided to move here permanently.
He applied for a position at NCH Healthcare System, and they hired him. The next step: finding a place to live. “The more we talked to people around here, housing was an issue— even finding it,” he says. “We wanted to come to a short-term rental or lease to get to know the area before we bought a home. But coming in and finding a short-term lease wasn't the easiest thing.”
Maples found few housing options at sky-high prices. “We found a shortterm lease in the upper-$3,000-amonth range for a three-bedroom apartment,” he said. “It was complete sticker shock, but they allowed dogs.”
Maples is among the lucky ones. He is established in his profession and in his mid-40s, and he and his wife sold their home in Galveston and eventu-
ally used that money to purchase a home in Collier County. It was good news for NCH, a large employer that has hired nurses, wound care specialists, certified nursing assistants and other staff, only to lose them when the new hires can’t find a place to live. The result: They are short some 300 positions (See sidebar, "Companies building their own workforce housing," page 60).
Stories abound of people accepting jobs in Collier County only to find they can’t afford to rent a one-, twoor three-bedroom apartment, much less buy a home. That newly hired employee ultimately informs the school district, police department or hospital they can’t accept the job after all.
Hospitals aren’t alone; the Collier County Sheriff’s Office and other major employers can’t keep employees, either. The high cost of housing has created a worker shortage in the Collier County School District, too. The district’s website lists 250 job open-
ings, including bus drivers and other non-instructional support staff. But it sorely needs teachers.
“The Board of Education of Collier County schools is trying to hire 60 teachers right now,” says Joe Trachtenberg, chairman of the Collier County Affordable Housing Committee. “There are loads of teachers who want to live here, but they look for apartments and leave because they are priced out of the market.”
When Collier County Sheriff Kevin Rambosk told the Collier County Commission that his deputies had to live out of the county, the commission approved a pay raise to make rents reachable. The $40 million in raises took effect Oct. 1.
“Deputies have to commute from other counties to protect Collier’s citizens,” says an affordable housing official. “Before the raise, they made $40,000 to $45,000 a year. They are priced out of the housing market.”
The sheriff’s website shows deputy trainee pay now starting at $49,505.
Lack of human infrastructure—the service people and providers of ba- Brian Tietz
After being hired by NCH Healthcare Systems, Bill Maples and his wife looked to purchase a home in Collier County, only to be left with sticker shock.
sic services—is a societal problem. A community without health care professionals, teachers, police, electricians, carpenters and other “human infrastructure” lacks basic services that make that community complete. Not enough teachers? Schools close. Understaffed emergency rooms? Poor health care. Not enough police? Higher crime rates.
Many of Collier’s workers commute from other counties where they have affordable homes. Exhibit A: I-75 during rush hour. The jobs-housing imbalance is so bad in Collier that 40,000 people—some 17.4% of the workforce—commute daily from outside the county. They don’t clog just
I-75 South from Lee County, either. They come west across state roads 70 and 80, and into Naples down Alligator Alley. They come from Highlands County, Glades County, Miami-Dade County and affordable parts of Palm Beach County.
Collier County government officials can’t say they weren’t warned this was going to happen. In 2016, at the request of the Collier County Commissioners, the Urban Land Institute launched a broad study of the forces that make the county out of reach for so many professionals. The result: ULI’s Community Housing Plan to
create a county in which people can afford to live where they work.
The 2017 report opens with this: “Collier County has a statutory obligation to provide housing for its current and anticipated population. First responders, health care professionals, teachers and others have been priced out of the housing market and have to commute long distances. A vibrant and sustainable community needs to accommodate its workforce so that those people who educate our children and save our lives can live near where they work if they choose.”
The institute warned Collier County officials years ago that its shortage of nurses, police, teachers, construc-
tion workers, service workers and other human infrastructure would only grow worse. Today, when a housing advocate declares that it should be possible for working people to live affordably and raise children in Collier County, he or she holds up a copy of the ULI housing plan.
Nearly every sector of the community was involved in creating the ULI report, from business leaders and chambers of commerce to developers and major employers. The housing plan was presented after 20 Affordable Housing Advisory Committee meetings, 30 housing subcommittee hearings and five public hearings held by ULI and county officials.
When it issued its report in 2017, the institute listed six core strategies and 35 recommendations that included increased wages for workers; building affordable apartments around commercial and light industrial centers; and streamlining affordable housing development by reducing review time for plans, landscaping, setbacks, etc.
According to the Urban Land Institute Community Housing Plan, Collier County's workers have been priced out of the housing market and are commuting long distances to work.
A small sample of the suggestions include:
Increase density from the capped 16 units per acre to 20-25 units per acre in certain areas.
Create local development codes to suit dorm-room-sized apartments in desirable, walkable neighborhoods.
Increase the deferral of annual impact fees from 10 years to 30 years.
Provide housing opportunities in/near commercial job centers.
Use the housing trust fund that Collier County already has but is not using. Use impact fees, density fees and other planning costs that can be used for affordable housing.
Extend public transportation, bike lanes and other infrastructure to low-cost land where affordable housing can be built.
Though Collier defers impact fees for cheaper housing and uses other short-term solutions such as the Tenant Based Rental Assistance Program, the county
commission is not interested in doing what is necessary to solve the affordable housing problem, said Trachtenberg of the Collier affordable housing committee.
“I think the Urban Land Institute did a terrific job outlining the problems in Collier County and the proposed solutions,” Trachtenberg says. “Most of those were not implemented. Collier County still has the highest impact fees in Florida. The result: Things are much worse today than they were five years ago.”
For instance, the present impact fee deferment holds back the fees for 10 years; Trachtenberg and his committee have asked impact fees be deferred for as long as the housing is affordable.
He also points to money that he says is just sitting there, ready to be used. In 2018, voters approved a 1% increase in the county’s sales tax. Of the $490 million it would raise, $20 million was to go toward land for affordable housing, Trachtenberg said. The
Waiving utility connection fees and other permit costs;
Adjusting zoning densities so a portion of apartments or condos can be rented at below-market rates;
Reserving infrastructure capacity for housing for very-low-income persons, low-income persons and moderate-income persons;
Collier County’s affordable housing advocates may blame county leaders for not tackling affordable housing shortages, but in Lee County, things are different. Elected officials are on board with incentives and funding, while many residents oppose giving too many breaks to developers.
Gulfshore Business spoke with Lee County leaders to see how they’re using federal grants and developer incentives to spur more affordable housing. Here are some of the incentives Lee County offers in its Local Housing Assistance Plan:
Expediting approval of development orders, permits and other requirements for affordable housing projects;
Supporting development near transportation hubs and major employment centers, i.e. mixed-use developments; and
Preparing a printed inventory of locally owned public lands suitable for affordable housing.
Lee County Commissioner Ray Sandelli, who sits on the Lee County Affordable Housing Advisory Committee, said he and other commis-
sioners know affordable rents are vital to a self-sustaining community.
When Sandelli talks about affordable housing, he’s talking about taking care of people and families who want to live where they work.
“ We on the Lee County Board of County Commissioners understand the importance of affordable housing costs and rents to create a self-sustaining community,” Sandelli says.
The county regularly funds workforce housing projects. In June, the county commission agreed to give $2.5 million from the American Rescue Plan Act to Habitat for Humanity. The money will pay for infrastructure (water, sewer, electric, etc.) to build more houses in Hab-
itat’s McNeill neighborhood near Pondella and Pine Island roads.
In July, the commission agreed to use $7.5 million from its American Rescue Plan Act Recovery and Resilience Program for two affordable housing developments in Fort Myers.
Though Joe Trachtenberg, who chairs Collier County’s Affordable Housing Advisory Committee, says he is envious of Lee County’s workforce housing efforts, some Lee County residents are not so thrilled with their county’s efforts.
Neighborhood organizations including Women for a Better Lee have gone public with their complaints about Lee County’s affordable development incentive programs. Noting that the Florida Legislature in recent years has diverted $2.5 billion in affordable housing funds to other
programs, opponents don't like local taxpayers picking up the tab for impact fees, utility hookups, cheap land and other expenses they believe developers should pay. They decry the loss of mangroves in unincorporated areas where the county gives away prime land in exchange for promises of cheap housing.
The group points to the owner of an Estero apartment complex who was required to offer 63 affordable housing units in exchange for permission to build. The owner instead sold to another company for $90 million. He then paid the county $1.26 million for failing to build the affordable apartments as promised.
The $1.26 million went into the county’s affordable housing fund for a project slated for Cape Coral. Then came Hurricane Ian, which
knocked all classes of housing off the market. To say it has exacerbated the affordable housing shortage in Lee County is an understatement. The latest damage estimates from Lee County’s Hurricane Ian Damage Assessment Map show that the storm eradicated 4,671 homes along Sanibel, Estero Boulevard, Fort Myers Beach and inland. Some 12,384 homes sustained major damage, which means some 17,000 homes may be uninhabitable for some time.
There are reports of extremely high jumps in post-storm rent. According to one apartment seeker who spoke to WINK News, Springs at Gulf Coast in Estero told her a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment was $2,301 a month. Two days later, the ask was $3,491.
There is unintended irony in all of this. Police, nurses and teachers are not the only human infrastructure professionals that can’t find affordable housing. Skilled tradesmen, such as heavy equipment operators, steelworkers, concrete workers, carpenters, roofers and electricians, also can’t afford the higher rents in Lee County. But they are exactly the workers Southwest Florida needs to rebuild its communities.
commission has not yet agreed to write that check.
“One point irks me,” Trachtenberg says. “We are still unable to use the $20 million to the good of the affordable housing problem. The commission keeps telling us they’re working on it. If you ask the commissioners why they aren’t strongly advocating affordable housing, their answer [is], ‘Most people in Collier County are opposed to more development, especially this kind of development.’”
For example, the Collier commissioners in August discussed setting aside land in the mini-triangle for 114 more multifamily units to satisfy a growing population, but again, they will be priced at market rates. Trachtenberg criticized the decision.
“We are envious of the success Lee County has had with their affordable housing efforts,” he says. (See sidebar, "How Lee County is (was) doing it," page 56).
To measure the need for subsidized housing and spending on other social programs, municipalities begin by determining an area’s annual median income. According to the U.S. Federal Reserve, Collier County’s median income hit $81,895 in 2020. Two years
later, the median income of an individual in Collier is closer to $92,000.
The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity says about 64% of Collier County jobs pay less than $33,250 a year—about $60,000 less than the county’s median income. At that salary, a worker spending half his salary on rent and utilities pays $1,385 a month for housing (rent and utilities). Under ULI’s guidelines, that worker is “severely cost-burdened” when it comes to housing. The median income does not include income taxes, social security and other deductions. When that’s accounted for, that leaves very little for car payments, gas, groceries and other expenses.
“If you make $50,000 like a cop or a teacher and you spend 30% on housing, you can only afford $1,300 a month rent,” Trachtenberg says. “There are few one-bedroom apartments in Collier for $1,300 a month. In Collier County, a two-bedroom is $3,000 a month, a three-bedroom, $4,000 a month.”
The economic opportunity office’s statistic—that 61.4% of Collier workers make $33,250 a year or less—also means
Approximately 64% of Collier County jobs pay less than $33,250 a year, meaning those workers are spending most of their money on housing to live in Collier County.
The human infrastructure/worker shortage has become so acute that some companies, such as giant medical device manufacturer Arthrex Corp., have warned Collier officials that lack of affordable housing makes it extremely difficult to hire and retain workers.
David Bumpous, senior operations director for Arthrex, told the commissioners in July 2019 that if they could not fix
other ways to retain workers tired of paying sky-high rents. Some companies are going as far as building housing for their employees.
“The problem is too serious to wait,” says Joe Trachtenberg, who chairs Collier County’s Affordable Housing Advisory Committee.
“I’ve suggested to large employers that they find existing properties, such as schools and motels, that they can quickly convert into affordable housing.”
The Florida Hospital Association and the Safety Net Hospital Alliance said Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Manatee and other Florida counties were short 11,500 registered nurses and 5,600 licensed practical nurses in 2019. The numbers have not improved.
offices. That has been the norm in recent years.”
Matthew Holliday, director of government relations at NCH, said the hospital shared its plight with the Collier County Commission and other local government officials.
“We told them anecdotally about the people who have accepted positions at the hospital, and when the new hires found out how much it cost to rent an apartment or condo, they declined the job,” Holliday says. “They looked at the cost of living here and realized they got more bang for the buck where they were living up north.”
the problem, the company would move some of its billion-dollar business out of the county, possibly to spots in the Carolinas. Many corporate employers— some of whom postpone opening a second or third location or reduce their hours of operation to avoid employee shortages—are finding
NCH Healthcare Systems, one of the region’s largest employers, has seen too many new hires change their minds when they can’t find an affordable apartment or house.
“We have more than 300 open positions,” says Jennifer Hart, director of talent management for NCH. “We’re actively looking to fill positions in administration, nurses, respiratory therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists and clinical workers in physician’s
The hospital system is taking the bull by the horns: It is building affordable apartments of its own that new employees can move into upon hiring. It purchased a Super 8 motel and renovated it for employee housing.
“NCH Healthcare is building 20 fully furnished studio and efficiency apartments in close proximity to our hospital,” Hart says. “The monthly rental rate will be lower than fair market value, fully furnished and [with] amenities such as a pool, community living area, a community kitchen with utensils— people can move in right away.”
The project was finished in September as Hurricane Ian was building in the Atlantic. The Tollgate Apartments, as NCH dubbed its new housing, also served as a temporary hurricane shelter during Ian.
“The project never slowed down, and we were able to move the employees and families (children included) into the Tollgate Apartments on schedule,” says Hart. “In addition, NCH offered temporary housing in the apartments for those employees and their families deeply impacted by the hurricane.”
NCH also created a new Housing Coordinator position and put Nadine Fraser in charge. It is Fraser’s job to help new hires find rental apartments or houses on the open market. If the new employee accepts a job, the next step is to send them options for rental apartments and other available housing and contact numbers. Fraser talks to the rental offices to smooth the way.
“We partner with seven apartment complexes in Collier County
who waive or discount application and administrative and other fees for our NCH employees,” Fraser says. “Those fees can be from $100 to $400.”
NCH is not the only large employer considering employee housing. Ryan Carter, president of Scotlynn USA Division Inc. and Scotlynn Transport LLC, last year completed a multimillion-dollar headquarters in the Alico Road and I-75 area. The international transport company is diversified and must maintain a large staff of skilled office and administrative workers.
Hurricane Ian did some damage to the headquarters, but Scotlynn employees are using the company’s resources to help the area recover.
The company’s plan for employee housing, however, has not slowed. “A month or so ago, we had two employees who made $42,000 a year and could not qualify for a two-bedroom. That’s crazy,” Carter says.
The company hires interns to provide a career path for young people,
Jennifer Hart, Bill Maples and Matthew Holiday, of NCH Healthcare Systems, have seen new hires change their minds about moving to the area due to housing prices. NCH is building its own workforce housing as part of a solution.
“but there is no short-term place for them to live,” Carter says. “The places don’t exist, so we got creative. Florida Gulf Coast University has dorms they don’t use in the summer. We put 20 folks there, but it’s a short-term solution.”
Here’s an idea that Lee County Ray Sandelli has suggested for the county that Carter likes: letting industrial parks, hospitals and other large business campuses overlay residential buildings onto their properties. Industrial and business campuses already are zoned for concentrated populations. Building residential units would not require more density, and that number of people would not strain existing utilities.
“If the government is able to be flexible with zones that are commercial and industrial, we have room to build a 20,000-square-foot building for housing entry-level employees,” Carter says. “That will allow new hires to live there in the first six months to a year of employment so they can build up some savings. It also provides a good, close-proximity place for them to work and live.”
that 61.4% of Collier workers cannot afford even a one-bedroom apartment in Collier County. The institute warned Collier County officials that 11,000 more apartments or homes will be too expensive for the 61.4% in the next decades.
Why housing is so expensive
Collier County’s gorgeous shoreline is home to some of the most valuable real estate in the nation. Its mansions and luxury resorts are attractive to wealthier Americans looking for a warm place to live, especially after the
pandemic. Reading a book poolside is likely more inviting than spending a winter hiding from COVID-19 in a Pittsburgh or Baltimore apartment.
“People all over the country have various options when considering where they choose to live, and an in- Getty
Many people from all over the country can live anywhere they want, and they are coming to Florida, willing to pay top dollar for the chance to live in paradise.
creasing number continue to make Florida home,” says Lee County Commissioner Ray Sandelli. “As such, demand, as in any market, continues to drive prices up.”
Developers are in the business to make money for themselves or investors and have no incentive to build lower-cost housing when they can make such big profits building luxury houses and apartments. It costs about the same to build either. “The costs associated with development are similar,” Sandelli says. “Materials, labor and land have all seen notable increases due to such demand, which puts pressure on both buyers and the developers as all parties try to manage bottom lines and margins. Such pressures additionally make it increasingly difficult to meet the needs associated with the all-important workforce housing sector."
Vacation rentals and other short-term lease agreements sent rents into the upper atmosphere, even before Hurricane Ian hit Southwest Florida and destroyed housing stock. The damage in Collier is far less than that suffered by Lee County, so construction projects quickly resumed at the level before the Sept. 28 storm.
Of note, the Florida Legislature forbids local governments from regulating how much owners can get for rent, but the Collier County Commission did pass on first reading an ordinance that would require Collier landlords to give 60-day notice when raising rents more than 5%. It is expected to pass on second reading.
Airbnb has influenced the market, but not in the best way. When people can rent their homes out seasonally for high prices, there is no incentive to rent to locals at affordable prices.
That doesn’t mean landlords won’t charge what they can get for rent.
“Airbnb has been a destructive force in this market,” Trachtenberg says. “It’s not rare to see a waterfront house on Aqualane Shores rent for $100,000 a month. If people can rent their house out for $30,000 a month for January, February and March, why should they rent it out to a teacher for $1,000 a month?”
The human infrastructure shortage is not unique to Southwest Florida; ensuring there’s enough affordable housing in a community has become a professional specialty for city managers. Dan Rosemond is a former city manager who developed affordable housing in Indian River County and other Florida communities. He said municipalities rely on complex plans such as ULI’s when fashioning future communities.
“Managing growth and development is a formula-driven world,” Rosemond says. “The question that municipalities have to ask themselves is, ‘What efforts are they going to make to attract those people to live in the immediate geography?’ To have quality schools or adequate levels of service, you have to have housing they can afford. Either they won’t work in that location, or they’ll have to commute from a place they can afford.”
For Ian Schmoyer, success is defined personally. As a founding member of Christopher Alan Homes in 2017, he has led the company to become the largest privately held homebuilder in Southwest Florida and one of the top 100 builders in the country. However, he credits his team with achieving this impressive milestone in such a short amount of time. “The story is our team,” he shared.
Under Ian’s leadership, Christopher Alan Homes operates with a peoplefirst approach that is fundamental to its culture and experienced by both employees and customers. As a result, the company continues achieving year-over-year growth, servicing more than 500 homes each year and expanding into master-planned communities and other regions of Florida.
“Homes are one of the few products still built by hand. An incredible amount of detail and care goes into building someone’s home. It’s their personal space, which means it’s personal to us,” said Ian. “How we take care of our customers matters.”
And it’s not just about building homes, he noted. “It’s about how the team feels coming to work every day. It’s about families who are proud to choose us as their homebuilder. And it’s about supporting the community because we can, and it’s the right thing to do.”
Ian places a strong emphasis on employee engagement. He ensures that the team fully subscribes to the company’s vision and goals, as well as philanthropic activities. Community support is something Ian is very passionate about, and he channels that passion into a range of causes, from children’s healthcare and education to veterans’ assistance. He currently serves on the Lee Health Foundation Board of Trustees and is involved with several other local nonprofit organizations, including Behold Israel, Mission 22, and Lee BIA Builders Care.
“I’m incredibly proud of this team and what we’ve accomplished together,” he said. “Our team—that includes our trade partners—works extremely hard to make this company successful.”
Elite Jets first took to the skies in 2016, with the safety of clients being their highest priority. When the pandemic emerged, many in the aviation industry faced fear and uncertainty. At Elite Jets, President Mark London and Executive Vice President Stephen Myers stayed true to the pilot adage: aviate, navigate, communicate.
Through their exceptional leadership, Elite Jets seized the opportunity to capitalize on the changing preferences in air travel and carefully chartered a course that would boost the company’s astronomical growth. By educating future passengers on the benefits and safety of private travel, today Elite Jets is in a position of strength and the sky is the limit.
The influence of The Water School at FGCU is far reaching, with pioneering research that impacts our environment, economy and quality of life:
· Threats to local water quality, including blue-green algae and red tide
· Microalgae that poisons seafood and makes people sick
· The impact of climate change on Florida’s shores
The Water School’s educational mission ties together academic fields from across campus, including business, health and engineering, and reaches beyond FGCU to local communities and schools.
“The Water School is where investments can be made and solutions can be found. We can interact with partners from across the state, from across the nation and around the world.” – FGCU President Mike Martin
Learn more about The Water School at FGCU Fgcu.edu/thewaterschool
FGCU is proud to develop student athletes who have won 92 conference regular season and tournament titles in over 14 years.
Donate today to support the athletic programs at FGCU.edu/impact
NAA Board Commissioner Rita Cuddihy is an experienced travel and hospitality professional, who recently served as the Area Vice President at Marriott International She has also held several executive positions at several US based airlines.
Rita is dedicated to operating the Naples Airport with a commitment to enhancing the economy and the quality of life throughout the community Her experience working with federal agencies and career background uniquely qualifies her for her leadership role in driving success and seeking workable noise abatement solutions for the community Cuddihy works to ensure the airport continues to operate successfully while vigorously promoting our Fly Safe Fly Quiet (FSFQ) program
Since his arrival in 2019, Paul Hiltz has ushered in a period of transformational change at the NCH Healthcare System. With a focus on providing the best quality care to our community, NCH has strategically partnered with some of the best national organizations such as the Hospital for Special Surgery and Nicklaus Children’s Hospital. These collaborations will allow individuals to receive quality specialized care–right here close to home.
Thank you for your leadership and commitment to our patients, staff and community.
If you are looking for a doctor close to home, want more information about our services, or have a question about NCH, call to speak with one of our representatives about the many healthcare options and physician choices that are here for you, only at the NCH Healthcare System. Call us from 7am to 7pm, 7 days a week at NCH-7777 (239-624-7777)
Thirty-six years ago, Russell Budd envisioned creating an employer of choice that provided concierge-level service. He’s accomplished this by attracting an award-winning team, creating an exciting corporate culture, producing exceptional work, and consistently giving back to the community. His vision carries on through President & CEO Tim Dupre, who just celebrated his first anniversary. Tim leads the industry by encouraging a healthy work-life balance by adding unlimited Paid Time Off to an already attractive benefits package and continues building relationships in an atmosphere that values and respects team members. PBS knows that a happy team produces happy clients who rave about their luxurious results.
For 55 years, DLC has answered the call to meet the behavioral health needs of our community. Due to the generous efforts of many, DLC now stands as the premier mental health and addiction treatment facility in Collier County, providing over 314,000 services to children and adults annually. DLC will celebrate the lives changed and saved through an educational fundraiser featuring actress and mental health advocate, Goldie Hawn (visit DLCSoundMinds.org). Attendees’ support will help DLC address the growing demand for behavioral healthcare for the next 55 years.
6075 Bathey Lane, Naples, FL 34116 www.DLCenters.org
Founded in 2007, Wilson Creative Group takes pride in overcoming challenges and creating award-winning, memorable advertising, marketing and public relations campaigns to grow momentum and surpass goals.
We have played lead roles in successfully marketing Southwest Florida’s highest profile businesses by delivering expert advice, smart ideas and clever design through a full suite of creative services.
We bring order, thoughtfulness and attention to detail, inspiring our clients to challenge the status quo. Every day.
Subscribe to our e-newsletter, Gaining the Upper Brand!
Vanderbilt Galleria Naples, Florida (239) 597-9480 www.wcgpros.com
Holiday Inn Ft. Myers Airport & Town Center
9931 Interstate Commerce Dr. Ft. Myers, FL 33913 239-561-1550 hotel sales@hiftmyersairport.com www.holidayinn.com/ftmyerstownctr
Fully renovated meeting rooms, restaurant and bar. Our versatile event space will accommodate groups of 2 to 200 people. Collaborate with your team in the Studio, raise the bar in our Boardroom, celebrate your successes in the Ballroom, sharpen the skills in the breakout rooms, share drinks and laughs around the firepit on the Oasis lakeside patio. Catering, group rates, shuttle to RSW airport will complete the planning.
With various dining opportunities and an abundance of event space, Luminary Hotel & Co. is more than a place to stay. Steps away from the hotel, the 30,000-square-foot Caloosa Sound Ballroom is the ideal venue for general sessions and elegant receptions. Directly across the street, the new Caloosa Sound Amphitheater sets the stage for a private concert or an unforgettable closing reception.
DeRomo’s La Fontana Banquet Room can comfortably accommodate parties of up to 100 guests with indoor and outdoor seating. While our beautifully decorated private dining room is perfect for smaller events up to 25 guests.
DeRomo’s offers plated lunches and dinners customized to fit your event, theme, and Italian favorites. With an event planner on staff, we can assist you in designing the perfect menu, along with all other aspects of your event, to make your visit a truly unique and unforgettable experience.
DeRomo’s
Market, Restaurant & Banquet Room 26811 South Bay Drive, Suites 140 & 148 Bonita Springs, FL 34134 239.325.3583
By David Dorsey
Craig Albert realized he wouldn’t have to look far to find his successor as the CEO of the Sanibel Captiva Community Bank. Kyle DeCicco joined the bank in 2016 as a commercial loan officer; a year ago, Albert put a succession plan in place, promoting DeCicco to president. Now, that plan has been finalized, with DeCicco, 37, being promoted to CEO effective Jan. 1. Albert, 62, will remain involved as chairman of the bank’s board of directors, two decades after founding it.
“You know what was so great about Kyle when he first started with the bank?” Albert says. “Every time I saw him, he’d say, ‘What can I take off your plate? What can I do to help make things easier?’ He did that from early on.”
Albert founded the bank in 2003 with two other employees: the late office manager Nora Mohr and original bank teller Debbie Norris, who advanced to become a vice president and branch manager.
As the bank enters its 20th year, it has grown to 108 employees and more than $800 million in assets with eight branches serving all of Southwest Florida—not just Sanibel and Captiva islands, where the bank dominates.
DeCicco, a Fort Myers High School graduate, graduated from Florida Atlantic University on a swimming scholarship and then went through the ABA Stonier Graduate School of Banking Program through the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. He counted SwimFlorida coach Mac Kennedy as an incredible mentor among a host of others, including Jack Thomas, a Fort Myers financial adviser and fellow swimmer who introduced DeCicco to Albert.
Kyle DeCicco joined Sanibel Captiva Community Bank in 2016 as a commercial loan officer. As of Jan. 1, DeCicco, 37, will be promoted to CEO.
Being surrounded by respected leaders can only further instill leadership qualities in someone, Albert said.
“He does such a great job,” Albert says of DeCicco. “He’s a really solid banker. Very smart. But more than any of that, he’s just a really good person. He’s a great family man. He’s a great banker, but he’s a better person. That’s what I saw in him.”
DeCicco sees a lot in Albert, too.
After Hurricane Ian devastated Sanibel Island on Sept. 28, the bankers were forced into recovery mode. They began commuting to Sanibel by boat from DeCicco’s home dock. While DeCicco oversaw operations
Kyle DeCicco believes that leaders are made by learning from other leaders, such as Craig Albert, former CEO of the Sanibel Captiva Community Bank.
mostly from the mainland, Albert was doing just about everything on Sanibel, including grilling hamburgers and hot dogs for his employees, relief workers and construction crews—when he wasn’t coordinating the renovations on the Periwinkle Way branch that had to be gutted after flooding.
“Craig has been a great role model for me to watch,” DeCicco says. “He is very different than what you would consider a standard bank president. If somebody says, ‘Paint me a picture of a bank president,’ a lot of people wouldn’t paint the picture of Craig Albert. He’s the leader next door. He’s not flashy, by any means; he’s the guy who blends into any normal office space."
He also, DeCicco continued, is “the guy who speaks directly to the customers. I’ve seen Craig Albert drive across the bridge to meet with somebody
about a $30,000 car loan. That, to him, is as important as a $30 million business loan. He allows the other 107 employees who work at the bank to see that from the top down, we treat every customer with that level of service.”
Leading a bank requires a different set of skills than leading other businesses, Albert said. In addition to pleasing employees, clients and shareholders, there’s also the need for pleasing the government regulators.
“You have to deal with a lot of regulation,” Albert says. “We’re very heavily regulated. Oftentimes you have to look at things from a regulated standpoint, as well. We get audited every 18 months by the FDIC and then 18 months later, we’ll get audited by the state of the Florida. They’re pretty heavy audits. They take weeks at a time. You have to wear a lot of different hats.”
Asked the perennial question—are leaders born or made?—DeCicco went with the latter.
“You know, I think opportunities are presented to you, and you have a very split second to make a decision on which way you’re going to go,” DeCicco says. “I feel as though opportunities have come along in my life that have made me become a leader. I don’t know that they’re born. I think they’re made, because it’s based on how quickly you can make a decision.
“I’ve gotten the opportunity to sit back and watch Craig for seven years now. I’ve been very blessed to be able to be in this position.”
‘Horizontal apartments’ take shape in SWFL
By David Dorsey
Danville Leadbetter stands at the walkway of his company’s creation. Behind him, crews are finishing the construction of the swimming pool and community clubhouse. Ahead of him are dozens of the 129 rental units.
It’s a couple of weeks before Odyssey by Soltura celebrates its grand opening at 10131 Soltura Drive, off Forum Boulevard in Fort Myers, and Leadbetter is breathing a sigh of relief. Everything’s about finished for a new concept of rental living that’s arriving to Southwest Florida after catching on in California and Arizona after the Great Recession.
“It feels great,” Leadbetter says of pioneering the concept in the region. “When we first walked into this, I was astonished that this isn’t already in Florida. We had this little window, where the apartment guys were doing apartments, and the homebuilders were getting into the rental space, but they were just renting their own product. It was fun to be able to change that.”
And change it they have.
Leadbetter and business partner Arron Simon created Soltura Development Group. Their business model is to build communities that resemble luxury apartment complexes … but imagine that the apartment units are plucked out of one mega structure and built instead as tiny homes. “Horizontal apartments” is the term for a concept that’s generating some buzz.
After Hurricane Ian hit Southwest Florida on Sept. 28, devastating the coastal areas, the phones started ringing with displaced San-
Danville Leadbetter and his business partner Arron Simon created Soltura Development Group, which has brought the idea of “horizontal apartments” to SWFL.
ibel Island residents on the line, looking to rent these tiny homes. “Our property sustained very little damage and never lost power,” Leadbetter says. “All standing inventory was immediately leased by those displaced from the storm.”
At Odyssey, each unit has its own backyard with artificial turf and its own four walls. The concept means Soltura can buy oddshaped pieces of land at lower market prices—such as the Odyssey land, which was narrow and long, not ideal for building a traditional apartment complex. Soltura paid $650,000 for the 12 acres in February 2021, about $54,166 per acre.
In May of this year, Soltura bought another 12 acres for $3 million, about $250,000 per acre, for land sandwiched between Interstate 75 and Champion Ring Road—a much higher price, as the land fronts the interstate. Soltura already has broken ground there on Altair by Soltura, which will have 160 units. Some of those will be two stories.
“Rather than doing one big building with all the units, we’re kind of deconstructing that building, putting those units on the
ground, putting four walls around them,” Leadbetter says.
In May 2021, Soltura bought about 31 acres for $1.6 million off Schoolhouse Road in Fort Myers, under the name FL Schoolhouse Investors LLC. Only about half of that land will be developed, for environmental reasons. Because it was an odd shape, Soltura was able to buy it at below market price, about $51,612 per acre. This will be the third Soltura development and could break ground by the end of next year.
“This was a great piece to start on,” Leadbetter says of Odyssey. “It’s kind of linear. It’s just a long rectangle. It allows us to figure out the space between the units.
“For us, there wasn’t a lot of competition. It’s coming now.”
The competition is coming from Marquesa Capital Partners. It recently broke ground on the Villas of Gulf Coast, a 140-unit rental community that should welcome its first tenants in the fall of next year, off Alico Road and east of Interstate 75.
Marquesa paid $2.24 million in October 2020 for that 16-acre site at the southwest corner of Alico Road and Centerplace Bou-
Built to resemble luxury apartment complexes, each unit is its own tiny home, including a backyard with artificial turf and its own four walls.
you, where you hear every boomboom, pounding noise either next door or above you. Or a dog barking. I used to have an old townhouse, and I liked having my own, separate spot. It’s just more quiet and more peaceful.”
levard, about $140,000 per acre. Marquesa’s plans to develop were set going into 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic began.
“We used that timing in the market to get this under contract,” says Peter Olesiewicz, principal owner of Marquesa. “We closed relatively quickly by October. It took us some time to take it through the entitlement process with Lee County. From a zoning perspective, it doesn’t fit neatly into a box. Is it single-family or multifamily? They went with single-family.”
The city of Fort Myers went with multifamily for Odyssey. Monthly rents are competitive with those of other luxury, traditional apartment complexes. A 750-squarefoot, one-bedroom starts at $1,994 per month. A 1,031-square-foot two-bedroom, two-bath leases for $2,594, and a 1,245-square-foot
three-two is $3,199 per month. There are 40 one-bedroom units, 57 two-bedroom units and 32 three-bedroom units.
Carisa Barrett just moved from South Carolina into a two-bedroom unit at Odyssey with her 13-year-old son.
“I wanted to rent something,” Barrett says. “But I also wanted to not have a neighbor right up on
The concept of four separate walls has been a main draw, said Joshua Novo, 35, who just moved into a one-bedroom unit. He just relocated from Connecticut, and is the institute director for student success at Hodges University.
“I was a homeowner for a few years,” Novo says. “I wanted the feel for having a home again. It felt like a one-bedroom house, which is something that you don’t feel too often in the apartment complexes. It feels great to have a backyard again. Just the feeling of having a little privacy.”
By Adam ReganTamiami Port Charlotte Wash LLC purchased a 30,780-square-foot warehouse on 3.85 acres at 4618 and 4628 Tamiami Trail in Port Charlotte from CP Kinds and 41 LLC for $4.5 million. Ty Hensley of Trinity Commercial Group represented the buyer and seller.
Cardinal Residential Ventures purchased the 268-unit Meadow Brook Preserve apartment complex at 1130 Turtle Creek Blvd. in North Naples from Atlas Real Estate Partners and Andover Real Estate Planners for $83 million. Tyler Minix and Hampton Beebe with Newmark represented the sellers.
Butterfli Holdings 004 LLC purchased the 4,230-square-foot Chase Bank building at 10975 Tamiami Trail N. in North Naples from Chase Bank NA for $3,875,000. Gary Tasman and Shawn Stoneburner of Cushman & Wakefield Commercial Property Southwest Florida represented the seller.
CL Naples I LLC purchased 23,000 square feet of office space at 671 Goodlette-Frank Road N. in Naples from Ninigret Technology East L.C. and G&R Realty Company L.C. through Ninigret Park Development L.C. for $5.3 million. Clint L. Sherwood, CCIM, of Investment Properties Corp. represented the seller, and Rainer Filthaut of IRC International Realty Corp represented the buyer.
Stai Properties LLC purchased a 5,966-squarefoot retail space at 9967 Triangle Blvd. in Lely Resort from SD Tract 4 LLC for $3.3 million. Ty Hensley of Trinity Commercial Group represented the buyer and seller.
Collier County purchased 252.41 acres of scattered agricultural parcels at Burn Road, Section 33, in East Naples from HHH Limited Partnership for $2,072,500. Randy
Thibaut, ALC, and William Rollins, CCIM, ALC, of LSI Companies Inc. represented the buyer and seller.
Monterey Development Inc. purchased a 6,060-square-foot, fully leased, industrial building at 1502 Rail Head Blvd. in North Naples from 1502 Rail Head LLC for $1.35 million. Ed Boeder of SWFL Properties LLC represented the buyer and seller.
DNA Cape Coral LLC purchased 418 SW 47th Terrace in Cape Coral from KB + LL Holdings LLC for $1.42 million. Gary Tasman and Shawn Stoneburner of Cushman & Wakefield Commercial Property Southwest Florida represented the seller.
ET Ft Myers purchased the 183,456-square-foot warehouse occupied at 8270 Logistics Drive from Seefried PSO Fort Myers LLC for $67,800,365.
PSPR Forum LLC purchased a 70-acre mixed-use development at State Road 82 in Fort Myers from C-Hack LLC and Keystone Creek LLC for $30 million. Justin Thibaut, CCIM, of LSI Companies Inc. represented the buyer and seller.
SD-Palm Villas LLC purchased the fourbuilding, 68-unit Palm Villas Apartments at 8372 Beacon Blvd. in Fort Myers from Village Capital Corp. for $9.1 million.
Hunter Ward, CCIM, of LSI Companies Inc. represented the seller, and Nils Richter of Barclays Real Estate Group represented the buyer.
Sunset Somi Investments purchased a 13.89-acre residential property at 13390 Sandy Key Lane in Fort Myers from 13390 Sandy Key Lane LLC for $2.4 million. Justin Thibaut, CCIM, and
Casa Napoli purchased 3.61 acres at the northwest corner of Alico Road and Domestic Avenue in Fort Myers and an acre at 3673 Prospect Road in Naples from Linder Industrial Machinery Co.
for $1.7 million. Derek Bornhorst, SIOR, CCIM, Bob Johnston, SIOR, Jerry Messonnier, SIOR, and Adam Bornhorst of Lee & Associates Naples-Fort Myers represented the buyer and seller.
Ronald and Sharon Palmer purchased an 11,000-square-foot industrial building at 3150 Old Metro Parkway in Fort Myers from Anthony and Gina Leopardi dba Cornerstone Builders for $1.3 million. James B. McMenamy of RE/MAX Realty Group Commercial Division represented the seller, and Adam Palmer of LandQwest Realty represented the buyers.
Glam Room Beauty Lounge LLC leased a 1,800-square-foot retail space in Charlotte Square, 2150 Tamiami Trail, Unit 1, in Port Charlotte from Equity One (Florida Portfolio) LLC. Brent Westerfield of Lee & Associates Naples-Fort Myers represented the lessor and lessee.
COLLIER COUNTY
East West Sports Cards & Collectibles leased a 4,000-square-foot office space at 6634 Willow Park Drive, Suite 200, in North Naples from Karate Center Building LLC. Dave Wallace, CCIM, SIOR, and David Wallace of CRE Consultants represented the lessor, and Brittany Thornton of Coldwell Banker Commercial represented the lessee.
Aviano Ventures LLC leased 2,134 square feet of office space at 4501 Tamiami Trail N., Suite 206, in Naples from FLP 4501 LLC. Clint L. Sherwood, CCIM, and Rob Carroll, CCIM, MAI, of Investment Properties Corp. represented the lessor and lessee.
The Center of Being LLC leased 1,380 square feet of office space at 671 Goodlette-Frank Road N., Suite 140, in Naples from
CL Naples I LLC. Clint L. Sherwood, CCIM, of Investment Properties Corp. represented the lessor and lessee.
Matthew A. Linde P.A. dba Linda Law Group leased 1,106 square feet of office space at 3001 Tamiami Trail N., Suite 204, in Naples from Collier Place Holdings LLC. Patrick Fraley, CCIM, of Investment Properties Corp. represented the lessor and lessee.
DeAngelis Diamond Construction LLC leased 29,848 square feet of retail/office space and 0.69 acres of commercial land at 4820 Leonard St., 909 Miramar St. and 913917 Miramar St. in Cape Coral from Alegian Group and Nautilus Equity Group. Gary Tasman and Hanna Ray of Cushman & Wakefield Commercial Property Southwest Florida represented the lessor and lessee.
Traditions Ltd. Inc. leased 2,950 square feet of office space at 909 Sixth Ave. N., Suite 100, in Naples from Sixth Avenue North Holdings LLC. Rob Carroll, CCIM, MAI, of Investment Properties Corp. represented the lessor and lessee.
White Cap L.P leased a 45,000-square-foot building on 5 acres at 16542 Oriole Road in Fort Myers from Seagate Aico North LLC. Derek Bornhorst, SIOR, CCIM, Bob Johnston, SIOR, and Jerry Messonnier, SIOR, of Lee & Associates Naples-Fort Myers represented the lessor, and Tom Strauss of LandQwest Commercial Real Estate Services represented the lessee.
SanCap Group Real Estate Co. leased a 10,520-square-foot office building at 13525 Bell Tower Drive in Fort Myers from HB Family Limited Partnership. Michael J. Frye, CCIM, with RE/MAX Realty Group, Commercial Division represented the lessor, and Coleen Frye, ACP, with RE/MAX Realty Group, Commercial Division represented the lessee.
Raymond James & Associates Inc. leased a 6,951-square-foot professional office at 14541 Hope Center Loop in Fort Myers from SCI Hope LLC. Justin Thibaut, CCIM, and Christi Pritchett, CCIM, of LSI Companies Inc. represented the lessor, and Todd Brandon of Cushman & Wakefield Commercial Property Southwest Florida represented the lessee.
Sky Chefs Inc. leased 15,938 square feet of space at 13830 Jetport Commerce Parkway, Suite 1, in Fort Myers from SW Coast Properties LLC. Michael J. Frye, CCIM, with RE/MAX Realty
Group, Commercial Division represented the lessor, and Dan Miller with Colliers represented the lessee.
American Woodmark Corp. leased a 6,000-square-foot space in Country Lakes Business Park, 5701 Country Lakes Drive, units 18-20, in Fort Myers from EB Properties Inc. Derek Bornhorst, SIOR, CCIM, Bob Johnston, SIOR, Jerry Messonnier, SIOR and Meaghan Schmitt of Lee & Associates Naples-Fort Myers represented the lessor, and Chas Simcox of Avison Young represented the lessee.
Endure LLC leased a 4,491-square-foot retail space in Pinebrook Park Plaza, 12995 S. Cleveland Ave., Unit 145, in Fort Myers from Pinebrook Pine LLC. Jeff Forsythe, CCIM, Jose Pastor and Brock Rasmussen of Lee & Associates Naples-Fort Myers represented the lessee, and Gretchen Smith of Cushman & Wakefield Commercial Property Southwest Florida represented the lessor.
Florida Fitness Enterprises Inc. leased a 2,208-square-foot space in Alico Commercial Park, 7851 Drew Circle, Unit 3, in Fort Myers from Swedberg Real Estate Investments III LLC. Brock Rasmussen and James Walls of Lee & Associates Naples-Fort Myers represented the lessor and lessee.
Mazen K. AbuAwad, MD
Todd D. Bethel, MD
Karl H. Horsten Jr, MD
Vishal P. Patel, DO
Shawn
Debra G. Shepard, MD
Shona V. Velamakanni, MD
By James Raia
The overpowered pleasures of the 2022 BMW M3 Competition
By James RaiaAmid the ongoing dominance of sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks, there’s a far smaller but more exciting driving segment. For performance-oriented drivers who enjoy solo journeys or bringing the family along, the luxury sedan marketplace has its share of wonders, notably the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, Audi RS5 Sportback, Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing and Mercedes-Benz AMG C 63. Joining that august company is the 2022 BMW M3 Competition.
The M3 Competition package, which debuted in 2016, gives the new sedan impressive specs. It boosts horsepower to 503, retunes the suspension and provides 20-inch alloy wheels, an upgraded exhaust system and lighter front seats. It’s ideal for where the sedan is at its best—on high-speed highways such as the Autobahn, the German federal motorway.
But as a daily driver, the M3 Competition has far too many BMW traits. The manufacturer’s signature stiff ride, clunky shifting and overload of racing-geared features are all present. Common driving circumstances are all lost in a race car.
For 2022, the M3 Competition features all-wheel-drive for the first time, adding to the vehicle’s adept handling and overall control of the road. BMW is athletic, with the performance trim an acceleration wonder. The 3-liter, 24-valve twin-turbo inline six-cylinder and its eight-speed automatic transmission catapults to freeway speed.
Performance is further emphasized with the 12.3-inch digital gauge cluster. It switches to M View in the sportier drive modes and engages with red buttons on the steering wheel. The option adds a shift indicator and replaces the regular tachometer with one easier to read. Gesture controls, a subscription-based WiFi hotspot and a wireless charging pad are options. Blind-spot monitoring, rear
Acceleration: 0-60 mph, 3.5 seconds
Airbags: 8
Fuel economy: 16 mpg, city; 22 mpg, hwy
Horsepower: 503 Manufacturer’s
Suggested Retail Price: $76,900
Manufacturer’s website: bmwusa.com
Price As Tested: $96,045
Warranty: Bumper to bumper, 4 years/50,000 miles; Powertrain, 4 years/50,000 miles; Corrosion, 12 years/unlimited miles; Complimentary Maintenance: 3 years/12,000 miles; Roadside Assistance, 4 years/unlimited miles
cross-traffic alert, lane-departure warning, lane-keeping assist and adaptive cruise control are standard.
As a sedan, the M3 is surprisingly roomy, boasting plenty of front and backseat leg and headroom, as well as a sizable trunk. But the spaciousness overshadows the BMW’s poor seating. The driver can adjust their position in various configurations, none of which help the subpar bolstering. The seating looks great, but the construction lines never seem right. Taking the M3 on a long highway haul normally
would be a driving enthusiast’s pleasure—but not with those seats.
BMW also has updated its infotainment offerings; the manufacturer now offers Apple CarPlay without a subscription, and Android Auto is also standard. A Harman/Kardon sound system and a one-year subscription to SiriusXM satellite radio are in the standard mix.
Nothing about a BMW is ever value-priced. The M3 Competition’s M Carbon exterior is $4,700, the exterior Frozen Brilliant White exterior
paint is $3,600 and the non-matching Kyalami Orange and black leather seats are $2,550. The M Driver’s Package ($2,500) and Executive Package ($1,800) push the vehicle toward the six-figure price plateau.
With its polarizing split horizontal oval grille, carbon details and pristine exterior, the M3 Competition attracts plenty of attention. And it earns its place wherever high-speed pleasure driving is the goal. The luxury sedan represents automotive excess everywhere else.
Techno-driven treatments to aid cognition
By James RaiaSixty years ago, Robert Butler was an outlier. A physician in New York with specialties in gerontology and psychiatry, he believed seniors could experience cognitive benefits for their current and future well-being by revisiting the past. Butler wrote about his ideas to the dismay of colleagues, who dismissed the idea of “living” in the past. Today, Butler’s ideas are no longer discouraged but embraced: Reminiscence Therapy is a modern version of work done by the founder of the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health.
Butler, who won the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction for his book Why Survive? Being Old in America, died in 2010. He believed in the “therapeutic value” of individuals revisiting the past. His theory was first practiced at its basics. Individuals or groups discussed important memories after viewing photographs or listening to music.
Reminiscence therapy is now widely practiced, with the added components of virtual and augmented reality and using four key elements: virtual world, immersion, sensory feedback and interactivity. The treatments have several additional names, including virtual reality immersion therapy, simulation for therapy, virtual reality exposure therapy and computerized cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). By any name, the idea is the same. Patients complete specialty tasks tailored to specific diagnoses via digitally created environments, often by wearing earplugs or goggles.
Rendever, based in Somerville, Massachusetts, and MyndVR, headquartered in Plano, Texas, are among the half-dozen companies pro-
Reminiscence therapy is widely practiced, with the added components of virtual and augmented reality. Patients complete specialty tasks tailored to specific diagnoses via digitally created environments. Getty;
viding VR reminiscence therapy for senior care. Rendever, a combination name from the words “render” and “endeavor,” is the largest company in the field with about 450 facilities in the United States, Canada and Australia.
“The impact of Rendever’s technology is remarkable,” says Rendever VP David Stoller. “Whether it is seeing someone with dementia smile for the first time because they’ve unlocked a memory they’d otherwise forgotten, or hearing the excitement from participants after a competitive bike ride in RendeverFit, the Rendever community consistently demonstrates there is no end to the moments and magic created through this virtual reality platform.”
The Rendever platform is part of the care at Cypress Cove, the assisted living community in Fort Myers, and retirement community Vi at Bentley Village and transitional care facility Gardens at Terracina Health and Rehabilitation, both in Naples. The company’s program is also used in several affiliated locations of the Volunteers of America in Fort Myers.
Harmonia the Club, the senior day stay business in Naples, utilizes virtual reality and augmented reality products from different companies with its club members. Harmonia’s staff helps club members, ages 62 to 97, achieve well-established clinical benefits for various ailments. It helps victims of post-traumatic stress disorder, and also improves clients’ cognitive skills from dementia and muscle control after strokes.
“The whole idea is to keep people cognitively active and also physically active,” says Peter Spisak, co-founder of Harmonia. “When a club member is in the right group, it stimulates their brain and slows down the de-
mentia process. When they spend the whole day here, they sleep better, they eat better.”
In some instances, caregivers have used virtual reality to simulate dementia patients’ experiences. It helps professionals gain insight into what seniors are experiencing.
“When they (a club member) are in a group with their peers who are on the same level, people really feel like they are a part of something,” says Spisak. “Of course, everyone is a little different; they are all individuals. But in a group setting, people socialize and they become friends.”
In recent years, field studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California in San Francisco reported seniors experienced “better perceived overall health” after the use of virtual reality.
The MIT study cited that nearly 39% of a group reported health improvement after watching relaxation and travel virtual reality images. Only 14.3% of the same group reported better health after watching the same images on television.
In the UCSF study, 48 adults with an average age of 68.7 showed long-term memory improvement after playing a specially developed VR game regularly for a month. Those who play the same game on a computer tablet didn’t have long-term memory improvement, according to the results published in the magazine Nature
“Some people can barely talk, but when you play or sing the right music or sing the right song, they come back to life,” says Spisak. “The long-term memory is still there and they may sing along, but they may have never said a word in a discussion. We’ve had people here who after a few months go to their neurologist and have far better test results.”
Solo Stove is a Texas-based company that makes camp stoves, fire pits and pizza ovens, all shiny and portable. Its latest offering is Mesa, a miniature tabletop fire pit that’s as versatile as any outdoor cooking equipment, only in pint-size dimensions: 6.8 inches and 5.1 inches in diameter, weighing 1.4 pounds.
Made of stainless steel and ceramic and available in five colors, the Mesa has dual-fuel capability— wood or pellets—and a 360-degree airflow. It houses a smokeless fire, ideal for outdoor dining surfaces where space is limited or intimate.
Solo Stove also offers larger fire pit options including the Bonfire, Ranger and Yukon, as well as varied compact and efficient fire-burning equipment for companies that like using corporate logos on gifts for clients. It markets the idea with the clever slogan: “A gift to gather around.”
Largely centered around the University of Florida, the city of Gainesville is often described as having heart, surrounded by a quiet, slow-paced charm.
A drive through the outskirts of Gainesville feels like a drive through many of the small Florida towns that run through the middle of the state—quiet, slow-paced, surrounded by thick greenery and mossdraped oaks. But at the heart of the city, there’s a vibrant university scene that few other places can boast. Gainesville is largely centered around the University of Florida, and the school brings a unique vibe to an area that’s unlike any other place in the Sunshine State.
A university town is a great place to learn, both in and out of the classroom. Stop by one of Gainesville’s exceptional museums for an infusion of knowledge.
The Florida Museum (3215 Hull Road, Gainesville; 352.846.2000; floridamuseum. ufl.edu), on the university’s campus, is one of the top-five natural history museums in the nation. It has extensive displays on the waterways and wildlife of north Florida, as well as the Indigenous people who called this area home. Don’t miss its fossil collection, including a jaw of the giant megalodon shark.
Downtown Gainesville buzzes with unique restaurants, cool bars, sultry nightclubs and hip coffee shops. It’s a great place to spend the day.
Book tickets for a show at the Hippodrome Theatre (25 SE Second Place, Gainesville; 352.375.4477; thehipp.org), one of the leading regional theaters in the country. In addition to its main stage productions, the theater also screens first-run foreign and limited-release films.
Bo Diddley Plaza (111 E. University Ave., Gainesville; 352.393.8202; bodiddleyplaza.com), named for the legendary musician and Gainesville native, sits at the heart of the historic downtown. The plaza has a standing free concert series on Friday nights and runs musical events and festivals throughout the year.
The Harn Museum of Art (3259 Hull Road, Gainesville; 352.392.9826; harn.ufl.edu), also on campus, has 11 galleries dedicated to specific collections—African, Asian, modern and contemporary art and photography. The museum houses a permanent collection, as well as traveling exhibitions.
A university town with exceptional museums, such as The Florida Museum and The Harn Museum of Art, provides an opportunity to learn inside and outside the classroom.
Outside Gainesville itself, the surrounding area has some of the most beautiful and remarkable landscapes in the state. Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park (100 Savannah Blvd., Micanopy; 352.466.3397; floridastateparks.org) is known for its herds of wild horses and bison. The wild horses are descendants of those brought by the Spanish in the 1500s; the bison arrived more recently as part of a State Park project. When wild bison once roamed the plains of the western United States, their territory extended as far south as northern Florida, so a herd of wild bison was introduced to Paynes Prairie in 1975 from Oklahoma as part of an effort to return the grass savannah to its native state. Today, the park has 21,000 untouched acres. The La Chula Trail is three miles round-trip and offers excellent opportunities for spotting wildlife on the hoof.
Double duty for a bygone Naples landmark
By Justin PaprockiBelieve it or not, downtown Naples used to have a golf course—and airplanes occasionally landed on it. The nine-hole course ran south of Fifth Avenue South and east of Third Street. And because there weren’t many flat, dry spaces in swampy Naples, it also served as a landing strip. Pictured here in a photo from May 4, 1919, are two World War I-era Curtiss JN “Jenny” planes with ground crew and spectators assembled.
It was an inauspicious start to the sport for a town that would eventually be nicknamed the “Golf Capital of the World.” But eventually, the municipal course would be upstaged by better alternatives. About a decade after the Jennys landed on the municipal course, Naples’ first 18-hole course had been built about a mile north, and would later become the centerpiece of the Naples Beach Hotel & Golf Club.
Pilots continued to make use of the municipal course; legend has it, Charles Lindbergh would land there to shop in Naples while he vacationed in Captiva in the early ’30s. The Naples Airport, initially an Army training facility during World War II, once and for all displaced the need for golf courses (and the beach) to double as runways.
Twenty years goes by quickly when you love what you do, the people working alongside you and the community you serve. We’re celebrating two decades of delivering smart banking and lending solutions to our customers, taking care of our SanCap Bank family and supporting the community who has been so good to us.
SanCap Bank started as a small island bank chartered on Sanibel and has grown to eight locations throughout Lee County with over 100 employees. Although we’re a little bigger these days, we’re still that small island bank at heart. We pledge to remain locally owned and operated with the unwavering commitment to our customers, team members and community we’ve had since the day we opened.
You can bank on it.
I’m Soren Christensen, Founder of Advanced Wealth Advisors. My colleague Annette White and I are honored to be recognized as the Best Financial Advisory Firm in the Gulfshore Business Best of Business awards for the third year in a row. As fiduciaries, we always put your interest first. Let’s meet to ensure you feel confident about your financial present and future.
Focused on giving you financial peace of mind.TM
