Collier County’s new Community Redevelopment Agency director, the third in the last year, has promised he isn’t going anywhere and wants to overcome challenges to continue the redevelopment momentum.
John Dunnuck made his remarks before a joint CRA meeting with the Board of County Commissioners on July 23, where he detailed the progress and plans of the Immokalee CRA, the Bayshore Gateway CRA, the Immokalee and Bayshore Gateway Beautification Municipal Service Taxing Units and the Haldeman Creek MSTU.
“We’ve had three directors in the last year, and that has caused some stop-and-start momentum,” Dunnuck said, adding that it affected several Bayshore Gateway Triangle initiatives that lost their impetus over the years.
He listed beautification, Shadowlawn Drive improvements, the former Del’s 24-Hour Store and warehouse properties on Thomasson Drive, which the county purchased for $2.11 million in 2020, and 17 acres the county bought for about $4.6 million to build a cultural center and boardwalk to Sugden Regional Park.
After two months in the job, Dunnuck, who worked for the county from 1995 to 2004, said other challenges are ensuring effective communication with county departments, ideas that end in “paralysis through analysis” and delays and distractions prompted by other opportunities. But he branded the county’s new priority-based budget decision-making an opportunity.
The Bayshore Beautification MSTU was created in 1997, the Bayshore Triangle and Immokalee CRAs followed in March 2000, the Immokalee Lighting & Beautification MSTU in 2002 and the Haldeman Creek MSTU in 2006. MSTUs are funded by ad valorem taxes and are based on a property’s assessed value, meaning property owners invest in improvements.
The baseline for funding was established in 2000, with Immokalee’s 24.38 acres funded at $148,645,590, and the 1,800-acre Bayshore Gateway Triangle at $288,081,106. Bayshore’s CRA sunsets in 2030, while Immokalee’s is set to end in 2052. “It means we have a limited time to get a lot of things done,” Dunnuck said.
Among focuses for both CRAs are community engagement, aesthetic enhancements, murals and art installations, safety and crime, cultural preservation, transportation and infrastructure, economic growth, affordable housing, workforce training, health and wellness.
“When the (Bayshore-Gateway) CRA was created, a lot of the blight had to do with homelessness, prostitution, drug use in the community and trying to get out in front of that,” Dunnuck said, adding that homelessness and encampments still occur. “They pop up, we address them, they move. We address them, they pop up, and it’s a kind of a cycle.”
But as the community gets revitalized, he said that will lessen. In May, the CRA, Sheriff’s Office and Code Enforcement removed 3 tons of trash there, adding to a prior 3-ton cleanup. The community gathered for a charette to transform Del’s Corner and opted for a mixed-use development with workforce housing over retail space surrounding outdoor areas that include a movie lawn and courtyard seating and a public parking garage.
Last year brought new development to the area, when 1,151 residential permits were issued with a declared value of $89 million. Commercial building permits also increased, with 566 issued worth more than $77 million.
The catalyst Gateway Triangle project, underway now, is Metropolitan Naples’ $400 million high-rise development featuring shopping, dining and luxury condos on the southeast corner of Davis Boulevard and Tamiami Trail East. It’s being built on land the county sold to the developer in 2020 for $6.3 million, roughly what the county paid in 2009.
The CRA also purchased 15 “deplorable mobile home sites” that were transformed by a developer into quaint single-family homes. The CRA received $5.87 million in grants since 2012.
In comparison, the Immokalee CRA has received $10.53 million since 2010. Last year, 231 commercial permits with a $31.2 million value were issued, in addition to 667 residential permits worth $35.4 million. The community, which is 69% agricultural, has grown from mostly housing migrant farmworkers, with transformations on Main Street, a growing airport, a pending National Guard Readiness Center, new businesses, affordable housing and rentals and more projects pending.
Immokalee CRA Assistant Director Christie Betancourt told commissioners the master plan was updated in 2019 and in 2022, they began redoing the land-development code, holding one-on-one stakeholder meetings and public workshops. This year, Immokalee’s vision statement was changed “to be a thriving rural community to live, work and play.”
Community engagement strengthens the community so the CRA tries to participate in as many events as it can daily, Betancourt said, adding, “We need a lot of TLC out in Immokalee.”
“… We have a hand in the development coming in, either a letter of support or finding land for them,” she said. “If we don’t award a grant or give them some kind of incentive, our time is crucial to making sure these developments move forward and the right development is where it’s being proposed.”
