A Compromising Vue

When father-son developers Don and Ron Throgmartin homed in on downtown Fort Myers as a prime spot for development, they couldn't have imagined that theirs would become the most complex and public of all the city's proposed projects.

Their basic plan for a residential tower has evolved through a series of interactions with city officials, public opponents and sailing-school advocates. The resulting project, which will rise 27 stories high, provides not only residential, retail and office space, but extensive public facilities, including plazas, a riverwalk and a permanent home for the Edison Sailing Center.

The Vué, one of no fewer than a dozen high-rises in the works for downtown Fort Myers, "is probably the most complex of all the development projects because of the public-private nature of it," says Downtown Redevelopment Agency director Don Paight. "This is quite involved, and I'm sure a lot of developers would never have agreed to go through all the approvals."

The owners of Throgmartin Company Realty and Development first viewed the potential "with developers' eyes, so what we saw there was basically a high-rise," says Ron Throgmartin. "We were looking at it as a private community, like most of them are."

He and his father have been in the development business since 1987, focusing primarily on commercial properties in the Midwest, including 17 Staples locations that the company built and owned as landlord. It still works with the office-supply chain; but when the retail market faltered around 2001, the company turned its attention to residential possibilities.

About five years ago, when Don Throgmartin discovered Fort Myers, it reminded him of Indianapolis, their hometown, says his son. "Ten to 15 years ago, it also had a population of about half a million; and within 10 years it exploded and ended up being a market of over 1.2 million in population," he says. "The growth here is just tremendous, so it was the perfect time and the perfect place."

Since arriving in Lee County, the company launched Gardens of Beach Walk, a 320-unit condominium project where 300 units sold in nine months. Also in progress are its 56-unit Blue Water development in Cape Coral and a 310-unit mid-rise at McGregor Boulevard and Pine Ridge Road in Fort Myers. Three more projects are on the horizon. The Throgmartin company also is among the city's finalists to redevelop a five-acre site downtown that includes the City Pier, which houses The Vué sales office, and the Fort Myers Exhibition Hall. The Vué, however, "is the one that's getting the attention," says Ron Throgmartin.

"The Vué is the only project that's had as much public input as it's had,"

says former city councilwoman Tammy Hall. "A lot of the design, a lot of the architectural character, came out of people working with the sailing school [and city councilman] Mike Flanders. It was really done by consensus, and they

were very accommodating to everybody. None of these other projects have had that kind of public input."

The Vué promises "breathtaking views," says Ron Throgmartin, and it claims a permitted marina-a coveted asset. The bottom six floors will provide parking, but in accordance with recommendations by urban planner Andrés Duany, two-story townhouses of 5,500 square feet each will face the river-and the riverwalk-to obscure the garage. Of the 21 stories of residences, 18 will be "standard," with units ranging from 1,700 to 3,800 square feet. Penthouses, with up to 6,000 square feet, will occupy the top three stories. All of the townhouses and nine of the 15 penthouses had been reserved by early August. Units were priced starting in the low $400,000s and going above $2.5 million. Construction is expected to begin in January or February and will take about two years to complete.

Although the project has support from city staff and council, not everyone is happy about the idea of a high-rise adjacent to, and overlapping, what has been public property along the Caloosahatchee. At 27 stories and 180 units, the proposed tower's height and girth sparked objections that it exceeds the 18 stories recommended by Duany. The city's planning board unanimously voted against the tower, but the council approved it anyway. Among the objections were that the tower's shadow would overwhelm neighboring Centennial Park.

Advocates of the project argue that Duany's plan allows flexibility for 27 stories, that the shadow of 27 stories versus 18 is irrelevant, and that the city set a precedent by approving the 32-story High Point Place towers.

Private Project, Public Use

When the Throgmartins bought the riverfront property on the southwest border of Centennial Park, along West First and Carson streets, the city had the option to buy it but was not in a financial position to do so, says Hall.

Next to it, the city owned a slice of land that it leased to Edison Sailing School. In July 2003, the city requested proposals for a developer/builder to do something to enhance that property, says Elly Soto McKuen, principal planner for the city's community-development division. Throgmartin, which rose to the top of the stack, figured it would be perfect for a second residential tower.

But city leaders faced wrath from the public, especially supporters of the sailing center, which had also bid to develop the property. City council responded by asking the Throgmartin Company to accommodate the school in its plans.

As a result, Throgmartin will build a four-story building on part of the property and donate the first floor to the sailing center. The upper three stories will be leased as office space, with the top floor reserved for Throgmartin's corporate offices, which will move here from Indiana.

The city retained ownership of the waterfront portion of the property, which the sailing school would continue to lease. The Throgmartins asked in return to encroach about 50 feet into Centennial Park, a request that required working through grant restrictions with the National Park Service. The developer also proposes to buy city property between the sailing center and the park, where it will build an "urban plaza" by West First Street and donate it back to the city. Just off the plaza, facing the street, will be about 4,000 square feet of retail space on the tower's ground floor, which Ron Throgmartin hopes to see filled by spa-type services.

In addition, the developer is planning a public riverwalk from the park around the tower, will pay to relocate the bathrooms in the park, and will move the maintenance building from the park. It will build a new maintenance and storage facility, in cooperation with the Southwest Florida Historical Museum, which needs additional storage, next to the museum. Throgmartin also will foot the bill to landscape along the western border of Centennial Park, to move a tree planted as a memorial and to move, and possibly replace, playground equipment in the park, says McKuen.

Responding to criticism for giving or selling public land, Hall, McKuen and others say that the exchanges benefit the public and result in more, not less public land.

According to figures McKuen got from the developer, "They're looking at about $1.9 million that will be strictly public," she says.

"We're giving title of the unit the Edison Sailing Center's going to be occupying in the form of condo ownership. The value of that alone is approximately $1.2 [million]," says Ron Throgmartin. "It would have been better for us to lease it to them, even for a dollar a year, but the reason we did that was so everyone understood our intentions; we want to remove all doubt that the developer's going to try to kick them out."

Other developers are also proposing to accommodate public use in their downtown projects, notably the Cypress Club, which will include a riverwalk and linear park. "But nothing of the magnitude that the Throg-martins are proposing, nor the public investment," says McKuen.

"Certainly that will benefit their project, because the nicer surroundings around the park are going to be nice for their development," says Paight. But it's a lot of money and effort that many developers would have shied away from, he adds. "It involves a sale of city property, a leaseback of some of that property for the sailing school, a donation of some of the property that the developer's buying back from the city so it can expand the park, [and] taking some of the park space, which had to go through not only the city but the National Park Service."

Ron Throgmartin trusts it will pay off in the long run, but the project has to be able to carry the extra costs.

"The more you give back to the city, the more strain it puts on the financial side of the building," he says. "We wanted to build a nice public walk, we wanted to improve the park, we wanted to build two public plazas, we wanted to provide a permanent home for the sailing school. But to do all those things, you have to pay for them. What we're doing is making sure the project we build is successful enough to accomplish those things."