In the Know: New Hilton brand hitting Naples, Fort Myers; changes coming to Lee County riverfront
Big players keep coming into the Southwest Florida market, with hotels and adjoining lands in their sights.
We'll include a few of those in today's column including a new Hilton brand hitting Collier and Lee counties soon. But the latest is the Big Apple's National Realty Investment Advisors, which just scooped up a significant portion of the downtown Fort Myers riverfront.
Big buy: Check out what it's like inside the largest, new mansion on Fort Myers Beach
For $20 million, NRIA hauled in five acres that includes the Legacy Harbour hotel and marina and the Joe's Crab Shack property along West First Street, as reported Thursday by my colleague Laura Layden.
With $1.25 billion in assets currently under management, its focus, except for Palm Beach, has been almost exclusively in its general vicinity, in particular Brooklyn, north Jersey and Philadelphia.
Then what's it doing in Lee County, buying up what had previously been a not-that-lovely Travelodge that I'd rapidly roll by on my regular bicycle rides as a kid?
"Southwest Florida has great growth potential. We feel it is underserved," said Chief Operating Officer Glenn A. La Mattina, who oversees NRIA's daily operations, and by the way, has bachelor's and master's degrees in psychology. "NRIA saw a need, and we decided to help fill the need."
So is the region the start of a new chapter for the firm?
A pair of 25-story towers
"I wouldn’t say a new chapter but trying to fill a greatly needed commodity: Housing," La Mattina told me. "NRIA is very particular when it comes to choosing locations for our projects. We want to purchase and develop in the areas that will give our investors the best return for the money."
He said that best return is in locales leading the nation in migration, which In the Know addressed this past week and previously when it comes to The Coastal 5 from Collier to Manatee counties being at or near the top.
"More and more people will be looking for high-end, well-constructed new housing," La Mattina said. "This goes for the purchase and rental markets. Both segments will have needs to be filled. The rental market will need modern, luxury units that have amenities to enjoy at affordable prices. The purchase market will also be looking for luxury units that Baby Boomers can downsize to or new families can grow into."
The property, with its 131 slips that can accommodate 100-foot yachts and larger, has been previously approved for 352 units in a pair of 25-story towers, 37,685 square feet of retail and a parking garage.
"NRIA is working on some updated development ideas for the site. The project will be a trendsetter for the area: Incorporating modern design with an Old World Floridian lifestyle," La Mattina said. "One common factor today we see requested is a home/work area for remote employment and high-end technology."
Hence, changes are in store for his Caloosahatchee River shore.
"All our deals are unique and are designed to give our buyers and or renters the best housing experience they can have," La Mattina said, noting an example he's proud of that illustrates NRIA's capabilities.
Adapted to historic Society Hill off the Philly riverfront near Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, energy-efficient Adagio features extravagant condos of up to 5,500 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, complete with personal elevator and roof deck featuring a plunge pool and outdoor kitchen.
More: In the Know: Mind-boggling, soaring house prices in Southwest Florida
Plus: In the Know: New data shows Southwest Florida led state with incoming migration during pandemic
'Sudden rush of new developments'
Proximity to water has been a draw as well for the firm, such as a pair of 43-story edifices in various stages on the Sunshine State's east coast.
But Legacy Harbour gives him more buzz: The adjacent $3.4 million Centennial Park upgrades, the 2020 debuts of Luminary Hotel & Co. and the Caloosa Sound event center, a proposed Marriott, the planned Palmera on the River and The Irving buildings, the reshaping of the Hotel Indigo into a Hilton brand and the ongoing Campo Felice transformation.
And last month, among all that bubbling, we wrote about the United Methodist Church of Fort Myers property redevelopment and the latest on the nearby West End at City Walk next to the new Triton Cay complex and close to the Edison Home.
"The location was the prime motivator for NRIA to get involved," La Mattina said. "This area is growing right into the downtown. The city is planning to expand its downtown district right up to us."
La Mattina told me he was impressed with the "well-run and organized" nature of it all and wants to continue to be part of it.
"The company does not just develop and leave but gets involved on a granular level," he said. "The company’s philosophy is to give back to the communities we develop in, such as in Palm Beach County. We have donated to educate underprivileged children in the county and in Haiti. We have donated to different community food drives and helped clean the beaches."
NRIA's arrival can be attributed to a lot of previous ground work by Fort Myers and Community Redevelopment Agency leaders and "isn’t an overnight thing, or even due to just this market," said Fischler Property Co.'s Michael Curran, who helped broker the deal.
The "foresight to fund city improvements for over a decade has led to what feels like a sudden rush of new developments, apartments, restaurants, businesses," Curran said. The CRA's (Tax Increment Rebate) has been an integral part of this success."
'Transforming' downtown Fort Myers
Now La Mattina's crew will play an important role, he said.
"NRIA will choose a local team of professionals and work closely with the city to bring the best possible mix of uses to the property," Curran said. "It is ideally located to potentially be the best property on the river tying the River District/Edison area together with the park and historical downtown."
Don't look for a complete redo of what had been largely in the hands of the late Boston Red Sox owner Haywood Sullivan and later his family for more than two decades.
"For the most part, the red-hot market met the same timing as the Sullivan family’s threshold to sell, to come together at the end of the year," Curran said. "Joe’s Crab Shack has a lease that is current. It’s likely that the restaurant will stay in place, with possible improvements, due to the current lease, and that development will eventually occur on the remainder of the property, but no plans have been finalized."
This is all good for downtown, which River District Alliance President and CEO Lisa Sbuttoni says "has one of the largest concentration of locally owned businesses."
Even before this came together, merchants already had told me they noticed the emerging energy from all the activity, and that "the future looks bright," said Tim Ferguson, of Enjewel Boutique, 2266 First St.
"Fort Myers and the downtown area with the hotels, convention center, restaurants, theaters and shops (are) transforming," said Ferguson, Enjewel's owner since last year after four decades in public education. "We have transitioned well into small business ownership and believe that the continued growth and development of the downtown Fort Myers River District is a good financial investment, and so far it is paying off."
That makes folks like Curran, a 30-year commercial real estate veteran, feel good.
"The best deals are always the ones that improve the community you live in, and you get to see and feel the benefits from that every day," he said. "We have been involved with many of the biggest deals in downtown Fort Myers recently: Legacy Hotel and Marina, West End at City Walk, Triton Cay, a handful of office building sales and projects we are currently working on."
Curran's having a blast: "I drive my son to work daily, and it’s certainly fun to be able to point out to him, years in advance, where an apartment building will be even though there’s only a sign with my name on it at the time."
New Hilton brand heads to Collier, Lee
What other firms are investing in Southwest Florida?
MCR, the nation's fourth largest hotel owner-operator, is transitioning the 99-room Inn of Naples into a Hilton brand after acquiring it.
The plan is to turn the pet-friendly 4055 Tamiami Trail N. property that it says opened in 1987 into a Tapestry by Hilton. The Hilton chain says it has about 70 of those, and markets them as "vibrant and unique" properties. The downtown Fort Myers Hotel Indigo is also going through the same changeover that should wrap up by the summer under the name, The Hotel Banyan, according to Hilton.
The Naples transition should be finished by April 10 when Hilton will begin taking reservations for the lodge on its site, with the lowest price available that night being $284. A check on rates for tonight at the inn found $169.
In less than a year, MCR has picked up more than 40 hotels and expanded its portfolio from $3 billion to $4 billion. It now has 140 hotels, with more than 20,000 guestrooms, up from 13,000 just a few months ago and can be found in 100 cities, up from 75, according to its information.
Based in New York City and Dallas, it hasn't had much of a presence in Florida, with Naples being only its fourth in the Sunshine State to go with Tampa, Orlando and Pompano Beach.
The group has been playing with its cost structure, saying it is working to lower room prices while charging customers for other items like pool access and early check-in.
"Really, this is how the airline industry started when they started charging for bags," MCR CEO Tyler Morse recently told CNBC. "It took them about five to seven years to lay in a lot of those ancillary fees. Customers were not very happy on day one, and then they kind of got used to it because it allows businesses — in our case, hotels — to charge lower room rates, which everybody is appreciative of."
The gateway to a new Naples hotel
The dusty, empty lands at Tamiami Trail and Davis Boulevard will be ushering in The Ellington, a 10-story, 125-room hotel topped with 24 swanky condos.
As we've previously reported, there's been a contract for well over a year on the 1.98-acre pizza-sliced mini-triangle, but the deal was sealed for the holidays to make way for the start of construction.
The goal is for completion in 2023, according to Indigo Road Hospitality Group, which would be adding Naples to its portfolio of 25 of the nation's fanciest restaurant and inn addresses.
Traffic questions aside, the 377,421 square feet will be a welcome change for the Gateway Triangle spot, which, based on public records, has been a code enforcement nightmare for two decades even before remaining small businesses were torn down in the last five years.
While condo costs haven't been made public yet, pricing was released Thursday for a 15-story tower to rise on an adjacent 5.3 acres, where work has begun on the 56-unit Aura at Metropolitan Naples. Project completion has been targeted for two years from now or slightly sooner.
The range is planned from $1.5 million to more than $5 million. In addition to two-, three- and four-bedroom suites, Aura will boast five penthouses, with a pair of additional towers in the planning stages.
“We spent four years designing Metropolitan Naples with the goal of introducing a best-of-class luxury community, which will continue the high-quality redevelopment of downtown Naples and Fifth Avenue South eastward,” said Jerry Starkey, one of the developers. “We look forward to creating an upscale destination and reshaping this area for the benefit of generations to come — just as we’ve seen on Fifth Avenue South.”
Based at the Naples Daily News, Columnist Phil Fernandez (pfernandez@gannett.com) writes In the Know as part of the USA TODAY NETWORK. Support Democracy and subscribe to a newspaper.
This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: New Hilton brand hitting Naples, Fort Myers; Lee to see riverfront changes
