Keeping the Lee Civic Center as an agricultural hub resonated the most with about 4,000 people who submitted an online Lee County government survey.  

Those survey results were released Aug. 17 during a meet-and-greet session for the public and county staff at North Fort Myers Recreation Center, where many citizens said they would like to see an improved Lee Civic Center.  

Continued agricultural-related uses on the property topped the survey list, with 2,010 responses hoping for new barns, stables and rodeo area, and 1,761 responses asking for continued 4-H club uses. Combined, that made for 3,771 responses among people hoping to keep an agricultural theme and feel to the center.  

“We want the residents of Lee County to know that the 4-H club, the fair and all of the other events will continue to be held there,” said Mack Young, who six months ago became the county’s director of parks and recreation. “Our team has been addressing all the issues.”  

Renovating the existing Lee Civic Center or tearing it down and replacing it with an outdoor concert amphitheater were lumped together in the survey as one suggested amenity called “amphitheater/concert venue,” which confused some who completed the survey and attended the meet and greet, they said. That entry received 2,515 responses of approval.  

The civic center opened in 1978 and served as the region’s top concert venue for about 15 years. Notable acts to have played there include Jimmy Buffett, Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica and Van Halen. More than 10 years have passed since the last mainstream concert was held at the center, with Everclear, Live, Filter and Sponge playing there in May 2013.  

Alva resident Adele Smith said she would be fine with renovating the current civic center.  

“We don’t need to put a bunch of money into another concert hall,” she said, noting a new amphitheater just opened 10 miles from the Lee Civic Center in front of the Luminary Hotel in downtown Fort Myers.  

Smith also praised the county for having the available land for a hurricane response staging area.  

“If we didn’t have that, we wouldn’t have been able to help people,” she said.  

Terrilynn Dunford of Alva also favored updating the current civic center.  

“They need to change the appearance of it and put it up to the current safety codes,” Dunford said. “I just don’t want to see hotels going up there. I want the county to take care of it. We need to take care of it.”  

Dunford and her friend and fellow Alva resident Amanda Cochran had trouble finding anyone they knew who favored an outdoor amphitheater for the land. They said tearing down the civic center in favor of an outdoor venue wouldn’t make sense during Southwest Florida’s hot and rainy seasons and wouldn’t be a good use of the taxpayers’ property.  

Brad Maloney and his daughter Megan Maloney have been lobbying with Lee County commissioners to build an 18,000-seat outdoor amphitheater on the public land, with about 8,000 of the seats covered in the event of rain. It would be similar in scope to the MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre in Tampa and the iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach. Those venues draw many big-name acts that skip Southwest Florida because Hertz Arena’s capacity of less than 7,000 for a concert in Estero is considered by some bands to be too small.  

Charity Pros, a startup nonprofit run by Megan Maloney, has organized a concert working with the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels. It will be held Oct. 7 at Hammond Stadium with Matchbox 20 headlining. Proceeds are slated to go to Music aLive SWFL, The Lewis P. Tabarrini Children’s Music Outreach Foundation and The Charity Pros Megan’s Wish program.  

The Maloneys want to put on more shows for Southwest Florida. They have brought in some of the region’s planners, surveyors and construction company executives to serve on the Charity Pros board of directors, Brad Maloney said.  

Charity Pros hopes to build its own venue, and it has about $25 million from undisclosed donors and investors to make it happen, Brad Maloney said.  

“It’s a proven concept,” he said of the amphitheater working in conjunction with county and regional fairs, noting that Tampa and West Palm Beach have similar setups.  

Maloney moved to Lee County in 1982. He recalled seeing performers, such as Jimmy Buffett, Styx and REO Speedwagon, at the civic center, and he would like to return big-name acts there but at an outdoor venue.  

“We will financially support the 4-H, and we want to help put on a bigger and better fair,” Maloney said, noting the success of the annual Florida Strawberry Festival in Plant City, which holds concerts in conjunction with its fair-like atmosphere.  

There are complications to the Charity Pros plan, including a two-lane road that is headed toward failure status, according to the county.  

Some of the region’s best weeks for weather coincide with the Southwest Florida Lee County Fair’s dates. The fair, which turns 100 in 2024, annually begins on the last Thursday of February. Next year, that will be Feb. 29. In 2017, Florida Statue 616.251 created the Florida State Fair Authority, which organizes the state fair system.  

“As a taxpayer, I would like to see them remodel the existing civic center,” said Mike Peak, president of the Southwest Florida Lee County Fair. But the option of demolishing the civic center wouldn’t necessarily be the end of the fair there, he said.  

“We don’t need the civic center to hold the fair,” Peak said. The annual event draws about 110,000 people over the course of 11 days, peaking at 15,000 to 20,000 on weekend days. “It’s the fairgrounds and the parking that we need.”

The civic center has 3,000 parking spaces.

Lee County Commissioner Mike Greenwell, who represents District 5, which includes the civic center, volunteered in February to oversee the future of the site. Since then, the county assessed all 14 buildings and spent $100,000 on fixing some of them enough to continue with future planned events.  

Earlier this summer, Greenwell had his 76-acre homestead across State Road 31 and about a mile north of the civic center rezoned to allow up to 400,000 square feet of commercial real estate and 122 apartment units.  

On Tuesday, Greenwell, reading from a prepared statement during a commission meeting, announced he would no longer be the liaison between the county and the public on the civic center’s future. He did not attend the Thursday meet-and-greet session.  

“We’ve continued our commitment to ensuring Lee County celebrates the 100th anniversary with the next year’s fair,” Greenwell read from the statement. “We also remain committed to the 4-H program. Talking with the community, we’ve had shareholder meetings, social media activity, lots of visits to our website. Our goal with this 100-acre site is make sure it’s an asset to the community that’s accessible and meets the community’s needs and desires. At this point, with the community involvement and the future board workshop to be held, we are on the path we need to be on.” 

County commissioners will host a workshop on the civic center’s future on a date yet to be determined.