Millions of tax dollars on the line as Luminary Hotel deed issue goes to trial

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FILE: Luminary Hotel rendering (Graphic via Mainsail Development/FILE)
FILE: Luminary Hotel rendering (Graphic via Mainsail Development/FILE)

A judge ruled Monday that depositions in the Luminary Hotel case will begin next month.

The case will be moved to trial.

If you’ve been downtown recently, you may have noticed all the construction near Harborside.

That’s because the City of Fort Myers broke ground on The Luminary hotel last October.

However, an uncovered 1936 property deed brought has created a dispute over the land use

That deed says the property can never be sold or leased for business and can only be used for park or yacht basin purposes.

MORE: Descendants of deed owners fight against Luminary Hotel plans

At least 15 descendants of the original deed owner wrote letters to the city, expressing frustrations over the city’s construction plans and are fighting back.

This past April, the City Council grilled former Mayor Jim Humphrey on how the city missed this.

Well apparently, they didn’t.

Humphrey said they knew about it in 2014 and possibly as far back as 2010, but didn’t go public with that information.

WINK News reached out to both the city’s attorney and Mayor Henderson for comment.

Henderson was the only one who got back to WINK and said:

“It is ill-advised to remark while in litigation.  This is an important and long-term initiative for our city.  It has been substantially vetted with many public hearings over several years.
We remain optimistic that we will meet with success and move on.”

The city filed a Quiet Title Lawsuit on May 16 in an attempt to work around the issue and a hearing was held Monday morning.

 

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