In the Know: What's up with the 'demolition zone' at Davis and Santa Barbara? Plus, plans for new Neapolitan Publix
Phil Fernandez
The inquiries have been many in recent weeks, in part due to a rarely seen construction operation, especially out in the open on a busy street corner.
At a bustling high-profile intersection, the most popular topic has been the "huge mounds of cement boulders" as an In the Know reader who goes by RD called them. Naples resident John Hill referred to them as "godawful piles of broken concrete." To one of my favorite followers, "Mac" McDermott, it's a "rock/cement breaking apart party."
"Santa Barbara and Davis Boulevard now looks like a demolition zone," Nancy Kumskis of Naples told me about the undertaking on parts of the 82 acres there. "This eyesore makes no sense."
Well, it does make sense to at least one person: Bobby Cadenhead of Highland Properties of Lee and Collier, who's been in the hot seat with code enforcement over this excrescence, appearing before county officials on more than one occasion.
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Considered a "legend in the community" by Collier Commissioner Penny Taylor, Cadenhead's ventures include building and demolition, and he's known a bit for his creativity, which, believe it or not, is in play with this mess.
"I've lived here 76 years," said Cadenhead, who just might be one of the region's earliest recyclers if his former house is any indication. "I'm a native of Naples."
About a half-century ago, he bought the 1898 wood-framed home of the city's first mayor, Speed Menefee, and moved it from its 17th Avenue South berth to 3145 Cherokee St.
Using the best parts of high-end homes and historical sites that he demolished, such as the Naples Train Depot, he kept adding and adding and adding to it over a 40-year period until he had 10,000 square feet on two stories.
It was among the structures wiped out in an April 2011 blaze "because there wasn't enough fire hydrants," Taylor said.
The nearest hydrant required unrolling 2,500 feet of hose, according to Naples Daily News archives.
"There wasn't enough water, yeah," Cadenhead remembered.
But now there's plenty of cold water pouring over his latest inspiration that has involved a lot of noise, dust, smoke and potential danger adjacent to the Boys & Girls Club of Collier County. And it ain't pretty. Ain't pretty at all. Cadenhead concedes that.
Instead of hauling in fill, which is the norm when trying to elevate property above flood level, the Demolition Man is bringing in concrete and pulverizing it right there on the land as "a cost saver."
"We realize we're trying something new," Cadenhead said. "I figured out this here, due to costs, that we're able to do this for about a third of the cost of importing fill."
Paving contractor Tad Durrance said fill dirt had been selling for about $3-$4 per cubic yard, and over the past year that's climbed to $4-$5, partly due to the cost of diesel fuel.
So you can see how the price would add up pretty quickly.
"This site has to be raised up four feet, which, to me, is pretty significant. And so there's a lot of fill. It's going to be a lot of cost savings for Mr. Cadenhead, and I recognize that," said Mike Ossorio, director of county code enforcement. "We have gotten multiple emails."
But "the activities that are happening at Davis and Santa Barbara, which has, obviously been a hot topic" are legit in themselves, County Engineer Jack McKenna said.
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"It's an allowable fill source. It's not what we typically see, admittedly. Most projects, I think, don't have the time to go through this process," McKenna said. "Fill's a lot quicker to get in there. This needs to be crushed and re-crushed, but there's nothing prohibitive in the code relative to the utilization of concrete as a fill source."
Legal or not, County Commissioner Burt Saunders was among those filing code enforcement complaints at the end of last month after previously raising concerns to no avail, with worries that go beyond simply that the "site looks awful."
"There's a lot of dangerous material there, a lot of dangerous equipment," said Saunders, bothered by the potential of "a kid walking out of the Boys & Girls Club" and innocently wandering onto the site. "I wanted to make sure that every effort was being made to protect the neighborhood, and especially the Boys and Girls Club."
In response, fencing was put up by Cadenhead, who said the ongoing mashing should be completed by around the beginning of autumn.
"The next step is for us to sell this piece of property to somebody," Cadenhead said of the land, which previously had been touted as the future Taormina Reserve, a commercial and residential mix. "Our deal is to work with the county and do whatever we have to do to keep everybody happy, so to speak."
But there is no joy in Rubbleville.
As hurricane season prepares to kick into gear, parts of the fence keep falling over and issues continue. After a code enforcement visit Monday, inspectors found fencing not buried deep enough as required.
The case has been escalated to the county legal team, which officials said could consider a stop-work order. A pre-hearing inspection has been scheduled for next week.
Nice, new Neapolitan Publix coming?
One of the earliest Publix stores in Collier that I can remember from my younger days is slated for a redo as part of an overall new look for the Neapolitan Way Plaza in Naples.
City Council votes are planned for September that would pave the way for the project, which would include a fresh 51,908-square-foot grocery at 4601 Ninth St. N. that dates to the 1980s when it seemed like it was at the gates of Naples. And it kind of looks the part. But I'm one of those who doesn't mind architecture from that era and well beyond. Like pink or green tile in the bathroom.
Publix Community Relations Manager Brian S. West wasn't ready to talk about that, but he did have a mini-update on at least one location you've been asking about. And there are quite a few projects going on for the company.
A redevelopment of what has been known as the "big Publix" on Marco Island is on track for an opening date of late third quarter or early fourth quarter, West said.
The Publix at Shops of Marco, 175 S. Barfield Drive, closed last summer so that it could get even bigger, from a little more than 40,000 square feet to 48,000.
And on the highly anticipated East Naples Publix, where Lucky's Market used to be, I was at the Naples Towne Centre South site at 3815 Tamiami Trail E. when construction began there last month.
I plan to go into more detail in a future column on the 38,000-square foot store that I previously dubbed "Baby Publix," and hopefully a few others as I gather additional information.
Estero gets its own Jersey Mike's Subs
You have all those Jersey folks moving into your town, Estero. So why not? You get your own Jersey Mike's Subs now, too.
No more eight-mile drives to Bonita Springs or the Fort Myers Shoppes at Plantation Drive for a Big Kahuna although it wasn't bad listening to The Boss on the way. You could almost do it in one song. You'd play "Jungleland" or "New York City Serenade", and boom, you were there.
Now, you can have "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" and hit the shop's latest iteration that opened this past week in "The Promised Land" to fill that "Hungry Heart".
Owner Mike Silverman set up the franchise at 19521 Highland Oaks Drive, using the same recipe the chain started with in 1956 that has expanded to more than 2,500 spots under founder Peter Cancro.
The restaurant’s hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week. Phone: (239) 990-2021.
And yes, Naples, more Jersey Mike's are coming in the near-future. No exact dates have been set.
Based at the Naples Daily News, Columnist Phil Fernandez (pfernandez@gannett.com) writes In the Know as part of the USA TODAY NETWORK, which supplemented this report. Support Democracy and subscribe to a newspaper.