Reputation Recovery

You know Collier County is a tough place to do business when even the chairman of the chamber of commerce has a hard time with a simple real estate deal.

But as Michael Wynn's experience shows, Collier County is making strides to overcome its anti-business reputation. Last year, the county commission created a new position of hearing examiner that lets property owners bypass the bureaucratic bottleneck of the planning commission and board of zoning appeals. Wynn's deal was the first case to go through the examiner's streamlined process.

Besides being the chairman of the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce, Wynn is chairman of the Wynn Cos., which operates hardware stores, grocery stores and has interests in real estate throughout the region. Over a year ago, Wynn contracted to buy nearly two acres on U.S. 41 where his company planned to build a 22,000-square-foot hardware store. The lease was expiring at another Wynn-owned hardware store nearby and he felt two years was plenty of time to get through the planning and zoning process to move into a new building.