FORT MYERS, Fla. — The City of Fort Myers council is discussing what to do with the old new press site, which has been vacant for years.
Fox 4 attended a workshop on Monday and saw the proposal to transform nine acres into mixed-use amenities.
The developers at Catalyst CD are offering the city $8.5 million for about nine acres of land in midtown.
The city says they bought the property for $9.1 million for about 11 acres.
The development company's president says they are quoting the land for nine acres, which is two acres less than what the city purchased.
The old news-press site on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard could soon be a mixed-use building project with hotels, residential units, office spaces, retail, and even a grocery store.
The idea is to clear out about nine acres to build these mid-rise buildings, as you can see in this graph.
The president of Catalyst CD, Joseph Bonora, said one of the goals in creating this site is to make it more walkable and decrease traffic impacts when the project is completed.
"Everything from bank to be there a dry cleaners plan to be there restaurants stores grocery store," says Bonora. "So I mean there are just all of those things in the area that don’t exist, so there’s going to be all the things that the public wants to use."
During the workshop, the city council decided to have the city manager continue negotiations with the company.
