Long-awaited tower project in East Naples marches on

The old will soon make way for the new, transforming a high-profile corner in East Naples. 

A years-in-the-making mixed-use tower project, now dubbed Metropolitan Naples, is advancing — quietly for now.

Demolition permits have been filed for in Collier County.

Once those permits are in hand, the long-idle, vacant buildings are expected to come down quickly at the site, which stretches between Davis Boulevard to the north and U.S. 41 to the south in an area known as the Gateway Triangle, named for its pizza-like shape.

"It's mainly old metal buildings and they were used as warehouses. They have been vacant for a long time, so it will really clean up the site, just getting rid of those old buildings," said Jerry Starkey, one of the project's developers.

Previous coverage:Developers close on land for 'transformative' tower project in East Naples

With the buildings gone and a clean slate, site work should begin by June, which will involve putting in all of the community's infrastructure, from water and sewer hook-ups and electricity to streets, landscaping and entryways, he said.

"Then we expect the first building to begin construction probably in January," Starkey said.

The development will feature a mix of housing, retail and entertainment in up to three towers, each as tall as 15 to 16 stories — or up to 160 feet.

Most of the retail will be restaurants.

Luxury features and amenities will include rooftop swimming pools, gardens and gathering spots.

A movie theater is no longer in the cards. A hotel remains a question mark.

Long time in coming

The upscale development is the brainchild of Starkey and Fred Pezeshkan, both longtime local developers, who won the right to purchase and develop the property from the county through a competitive bidding process. 

The county has targeted the Bayshore/Gateway Triangle area for redevelopment since 2000 — or for more than 20 years.

After some unexpected delays the sale of the redevelopment site closed late last year. The biggest delay? The relocation of a 200-foot communications tower, which took a few years.

Starkey and Pezeshkan signed an agreement to purchase the five-acre property back in 2016.

County records show a bi-furcated sale by the Collier County Community Redevelopment Agency, with a slice of the property turned over to another partnership, operating under the name Naples Triangle Development JV/Propco LLC and managed by Roger Saad, with SK2 Capital, a real estate private equity and capital markets advisory firm headquartered in Naples.

That group will actually build the first tower, which will include roughly 270 luxury rental apartments, along with one or two upscale restaurants on the bottom floor.

With a second group involved, the entire development can get done much sooner, Starkey said.

Construction should begin on the second tower by next summer. This tower will have luxury condos for sale, but Starkey and Pezeshkan are still in the planning mode, so they can't offer too many details yet.

"We hope to come to the market with those at the end of the year," Starkey said. "At this point, we are having focus groups and listening to the market to determine the size of the units, and the features that people are most interested in."

Each of the two towers will take 18 to 24 months to build.

A question mark

Plans for the third tower are still in flux. There had been strong interest in making it a hotel, but the interest in that has faded since the pandemic hit, turning the travel industry upside down.

"At this point, we would still be interested in a hotel, but we might end up seeing if the county will allow us to build more residences, instead of a hotel, if the hotel market doesn't turn around," Starkey said.

Despite the uncertainty over what will go in the third tower, the developers remain confident and upbeat about the redevelopment project.

"We think it's going to be a very successful community and there is tremendous interest for this community, this product, this close to downtown and the beaches. So it's pretty exciting," he said.

It might be even better if the condos were already finished, given the strength of the Naples housing market at this time, Starkey said.

Naples — and the surrounding area — has seen a surge in residential sales and interest over the past year, thanks to the spread of COVID-19 and other factors, including bad weather and high taxes elsewhere in the country, which are only encouraging more Northeasterners and Midwesterners to relocate here.

High-end real estate has been hot.

"I think the demand in Florida generally and Naples specifically is sustainable for a long time into the future," Starkey said. "People like the lifestyle here." 

Still a secret

As for the restaurants, the developers remain tight-lipped about the ones they are trying to attract, or have shown interest.

The developers hope to bring in top-notch restaurants that aren't in this market yet, including national chains, as well as smaller, but highly successful concepts in larger cities, such as New York and Chicago.

"I think when it's all complete we'll have three to five very nice restaurants in the community," Starkey said. 

More:Collier County rejects taxpayer incentives for East Naples triangle redevelopment site

More:One East Naples development grows, with some concessions and county soul-searching

With so many northerners migrating to Florida, he said, it's only natural that more restaurants will follow.

Metropolitan Naples won't be the first redevelopment project in the Bayshore/Gateway Triangle area, but it's still seen as a catalyst project that will spur more urban renewal.

"We just hope to continue the redevelopment march that was started a long time ago," Starkey said.