Fort Myers city council balks at talks with Bruno's owners about plans for vacant downtown site
A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the value of the initial offer made by the Bruno family for the site of its proposed business. The total value was more than $539,000.
The Fort Myers city council has rejected negotiating with the owners of a popular downtown restaurant who want to buy the city's former fire headquarters and grow its restaurant business.
White Rose LLC, owner of Bruno's of Brooklyn, a popular but small Italian restaurant on Second Street downtown, wants to buy part of the city-owned property at the site of the former News-Press building to serve larger crowds and expand the company's business beyond dining.
The council voted against moving the proposal forward, refusing to even allow its staff to try to work out an agreement with White Rose for a higher price for the property.
"That is something that we can negotiate with Bruno's," said deputy budget director Christine Tenney. "This is a matter that is not formalized. We can negotiate that price."
Restaurant news:Proposal recommended by a city committee for new restaurant on MLK Boulevard
JLB food review: What JLB ate: Bruno's of Brooklyn
Other news: Fort Myers won't back off finding new police headquarters site
The vote by the council means the negotiations won't happen, at least for now, though the door was left open to further talks.
City council rejects proposal
By a 5-2 vote, the council rejected Bruno's proposal to spend nearly $540,000 to acquire both the former fire headquarters and a parking area near the building. Councilor Liston Bochette, whose district includes the Bruno's property, and Mayor Kevin Anderson were the only votes in favor of the plan. Council members Fred Burson, Johnny Streets Jr., Teresa Watkins Brown, Terolyn Watson and Darla Bonk voted against the plan.
White Rose planned to then spend even more to not only upgrade the building but to add shops and a dozen apartments in addition to the restaurant.
Tenney reminded the council that even with negotiations over the price, the council would have final approval.
Calcedonio Bruno, who operates the family-owned business, said the firehouse on the edge of the downtown district would allow his eight-year-old business to expand.
"My brand needs to grow. If you've ever been in my establishment, it's very small it's intimate. I don't dislike that, but we do have other entities that I want to move forward with," Bruno said. "We jar our sauce now, I am producing the sauce off-hours, so I really want to have a production facility."
Bruno's offer the only one for city-owned site
Bruno's offer was the only response the city received to an invitation to bid on the site.
Council members who opposed to even conducting negotiations with Bruno opted to stay on the sidelines and wait to see if the city gets a better offer before moving forward with developing a parcel that has gone unused since the city bought it in 2019.
At the time the building was good for more than $80,000 in annual property taxes. As a city-owned property, it produces no tax revenue.
The former fire station building is on the corner of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Central Avenue at the entrance to the planned Midtown development, a slow-moving city project to revitalize areas on the fringe of downtown.
But like the redevelopment of the News-Press property, the dream of a successful Midtown proposal continues to flounder with no definitive plan in place.
Calcedonio and Genevive Bruno have previously remodeled an historic property on McGregor Boulevard.
After running his restaurant on Second Street for eight years, Bruno calls himself "a Fort Myers guy," who wants to expand.
"This is not a guy that is looking at pictures of the fire station on the internet in New York City. I'm here, I pass in front of that every day," Bruno said. "I look at it and I say, 'This could be something really special.'"
Bruno has said his design plan is intended to co-exist with the new developments that would be part of Midtown and with future development of the established downtown area.
Gina Sabiston, director of Lee Trust for Historic Preservation, told the council her group considers the old fire station site an underappreciated building with historical roots in mid-20th century architecture.
"This particular building is a gem, it doesn't look like that right now but with a little bit of lipstick and a little bit of love, I think it's going to be a fabulous project," Sabiston said. "This could be the first real project for Midtown and give people the reason to walk those first steps from downtown First Street into the Midtown."
Streets said he was concerned about the impact development at the old fire station part of the site could have on the value of the entire parcel.
"I'm a little bit skeptical about breaking up a piece of the puzzle for that site," Streets said. "I would love to see that site become the city of Fort Myers' new governmental complex."
A publicly owned development would cost the city a potential six-figure tax payment every year.
Bonk said she was worried that developing the fire station separately would "impact the appraisal price" for the rest of the unused property.
"We have major city assets that we have on the line here," Bonk said. "I want to see and hear what the council's real estate assessment is from a nonjudgmental unbiased assessment.'"
Burson said the council needs to wait and get "fair market value for what we own there and not just parcel it off."
Members of the council have yet to even agree on whether the property is best used for residential, commercial or mixed-use development or even whether whatever eventually is built on the site will be privately or publicly owned.
While some prefer that it be used for governmental purposes, it would cost the city millions in property tax revenue, given its prime site on MLK Boulevard.
City Manager Marty Lawing cautioned council members that Bruno needs to know where he stands without too much further delay.
"We do have an unsolicited proposal for the appraised value, these developers are going to move fairly quickly so if we are going to wait until we have a report back sometime after the first of the year, that could be awkward," Lawing said. "We need to think about how that looks in regard to the proposal we have and any unsolicited proposals we haveI just want you to think about those two things."
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Bruno's of Brooklyn expansion plans get cold shoulder from Fort Myers
