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While most of the focus on the beach communities in Southwest Florida has been — rightfully — on the rebuild after Hurricane Ian, a major project is working its way through the regulatory process and is, ever so slowly, moving toward completion.
The project is the redevelopment of the Naples Beach Hotel & Golf Club, a property that traces its history back to the 1880s.
The redevelopment, estimated to cost more than $1 billion, calls for the property to be transformed into a 125-acre resort and residential beachfront development called the Naples Beach Club. This new entity will include a hotel operated by the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts and up to 185 luxury condominiums.
The property’s Phoenix-based owner and developer, The Athens Group, has been working on the project since it and New York-based MSD Partners paid $362.3 million for the site in October 2021. There were some early delays caused, in part, because of a neighbor’s lawsuit, but work has been steadily going on for some time now.
For one, construction has begun on the Four Seasons and expected to last a couple more years.
As for other aspects of the project, which includes residences, retail and conference space, the proposals, some tweaked, have won the approval of city boards and commissions in recent weeks — though a few legislative hurdles remain.
Naples City Council is scheduled to vote on a revised plan for residences in late March and plans to tackle changes to the market and conference center in April.
According to a breakdown of the project provided to the Business Observer by The Athens Group, this is where various elements of the project stand:
“The developers have continued to show a true commitment to their neighbors and the Naples community overall by making changes in the project that benefit the community, working hard to avoid any neighborhood disruptions during construction, providing post-Hurricane Ian support with dollars, labor and materials to neighbors, River Park residents, the city and the county,” says Jay Newman, Athen's chief operating officer.
“Most recently, The Athens Group has been working with the city and the county to use the Naples Beach Club's construction access road through the golf course for trucks involved in the sand berm project on the city’s beaches, which will significantly minimize the impact to the neighbors near the beach.”
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