The vacant City Marketplace acreage in downtown Punta Gorda hit the market recently with a $12 million price tag and is being marketed as a mixed-use development opportunity that will blend residential, retail and hospitality for a live-work-play environment.
The 5.42-acre parcel, owned by PGI Marketplace LLC of Naples, is in the heart of the downtown area and bordered by northbound U.S. 41, Marion Avenue, Taylor Street, Harborside Avenue and Retta Esplanade. The property is being marketed by SVN Commercial Partners’ Ron Zeigler, Ashley Bloom and Margeaux McCarthy.
Bloom said the seller hired Texas-based Humphreys & Partners Architects to create a plan within the city’s code that would complement and blend in with structures already in place.
Among the feedback residents provided over the years was the desire for a local market on the site, such as a Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods, a variety of shops and stores and green space.
The development proposal includes 270 residential units, 17,268 square feet of retail shops, a 60-room boutique hotel and a four-level parking garage with 549 residential and 71 commercial spaces.
“Staff is still reviewing the application for sufficiency,” Punta Gorda Interim City Manager Melissa Reichert said.
The parcel has been vacant since a strip mall and outcropping buildings, built in the 1960s, were destroyed by Hurricane Charley in 2004.
As the structures were torn down after the hurricane, many officials and residents called the vacant land an eyesore and a blight in a city that had its rebirth with new businesses, restaurants, hotels and homes.
Over the years, the lot was leased for various events, including concerts.
Many pushed for development as the acreage is one of the first things one sees when visiting Punta Gorda.
Zoning in downtown allows up to six stories of 75 feet and density of 50 units per acre.
However, the current City Council announced it will review the current Land Development Regulations that were changed by the last Council.
The property has been on and off the market over the last two decades.
In 2022, Geis Construction Inc. proposed a densely populated multipurpose development and asked the city to revise its zoning codes and give up amenities in and around the site.
Geis presented its proposal at an August 2022 Planning Commission meeting with the commission not recommending moving forward with the project. One of the criticisms of the project was it called for too much density and wouldn’t provide enough parking.
Geis withdrew its planned development application the following month, according to TEAM Punta Gorda, a citizens group that developed the 2005 Citizens Master Plan, which shaped much of what is seen in the city today.
