Once the top shopping draw in Collier County, 48-year-old Coastland Center mall in Naples has fallen into disrepair and its management company faces at least $42,500 in fines that continue to accrue for failing to maintain the 36.2-acre property.
Fines assessed at a January hearing for trash, debris, weeds, overgrown and dead vegetation and crumbling asphalt had accrued at $250 daily from May 8 to Oct. 24 after a Feb. 7 order demanded that three violations be fixed, one within 45 days and others within 90 days. Mall management was ordered to cut grass and weeds that exceeded eight inches, trim bushes and vegetation that encroached onto sidewalks and remove dead plants to come into compliance with its 2016 landscape plan. Landscapers added mulch and cleaned some areas within 45 days, but other violations remained.
“It wasn’t the team ignoring the violations or not trying,” said Rick Jackson, Coastland Center’s general manager, noting that management had gone through several hurricanes and three landscapers. “The lender was controlling our budget and we simply just had to stick with what they would fund us.”
He referred to a $114.5 million mortgage for the 1998 purchase by Coastland Center Joint Venture. He and the mall’s attorney assured the board the new landscaper signed a sworn affidavit promising to fully restore the property by Nov. 24. Jackson said a landscaper is now onsite daily, “so you should never see that property coming out of compliance again.”
Opened in 1976, Coastland Center was originally anchored by Sears and Maas Brothers, a Tampa-based department store that opened Feb. 3, 1977. Over the years, the mall underwent two expansions and a change of ownership in 1998. It is now 950,000 square feet and anchored by Macy’s, JCPenney and Dillard’s.
The mall’s problems began in summer 2023; violations involving grass and shrubs were corrected immediately, so it wasn’t fined for that. But problems persisted and the city cited the mall in November, prompting the January hearing. Photographs showed old, broken asphalt, overgrown bushes and vegetation encroaching onto sidewalks and trash strewn on the property, including entrances on Goodlette-Frank Road, Ninth Street North and Fleischmann Boulevard.
“There is notable improvement at Coastland Mall,” Bill Quinsey, the city’s code compliance manager, told the board, calling it a “difficult situation. One of the improvements is that you have a general manager on site … so we do have some local interest in the property.”
Quinsey explained that the problems involved funding and decisions at the corporate level, Chicago-based Brookfield Properties Retail Group, which manages the property.
Jackson, a Brookfield employee, said he took over in mid-March, when he learned of the landscaping issues and fines. He discovered problems began before Hurricane Ian, when its long-term landscaper retired and the mall began seeking a new landscaper. But then Hurricane Ian hit.
“We lost a lot of vegetation and had a lot of debris to clean up,” he said, adding that he secured $50,000 for that cleanup.
In early 2023, it hired a new landscaping company, the lowest bidder. At the time, the mall’s commercial mortgage-backed security loan was due, and Brookfield began negotiating an extension because interest rates were skyrocketing and Brookfield couldn’t refinance it. It had to take the lowest bidder for the landscaper, so that budgeted amount was locked in.
“Then we found out that … the reason his bid was low was because he didn’t bid the full scope,” Jackson said, so the mall team tried to supplement the landscapers’ work.
“They were out there on the mowers, using trimmers, doing the best they could,” Jackson said, adding that when rainy season began, it was hard to keep up. “They pushed themselves so hard that one of my maintenance techs actually had a heart attack on the mower, so we backed off of that.”
After receiving the violation notice, Brookfield discovered the landscaper wasn’t even doing the work promised under the low bid, Jackson said, adding, “So now we have to kick them out and restart that process all over again.”
When he arrived, he found there were mechanisms under the loan that allowed him to request a budget increase, which he received in August. That allowed him to secure a fullscope landscaping contract, with a landscaper onsite daily.
“We secured $150,000 in capital to be able to restore all the dead landscaping, everything that was ordered from that hearing in January, and we’re right in the middle of that project,” Jackson said, adding that work began before hurricanes Helene and Milton, which caused further delays.
The mall’s attorney asked that fines be reduced or paused until Nov. 24.
Quinsey, who agreed there were improvements, said compliance requires an inspection by a city planner and suggested hearing the case again in January, the next hearing date. “The whole idea of a daily fine is to … compel someone to get compliance,” Quinsey said, noting the mall admits it’s not in compliance.
Jackson said he met with the mayor and city manager to tell them 90 days wasn’t enough for such a large property, but city officials couldn’t change the Feb. 7 order. Board members questioned whether they could reduce the fine once it’s in compliance.
Code Enforcement Attorney Robert Eschenfelder said the fines will continue to accrue because it’s beyond 90 days, but the board can waive or reduce fines in January or any time before it becomes a lien, when City Council would take over. The board unanimously voted to continue the case until Jan. 23.
