Damaged Cape Coral Yacht Club: tear down or rebuild ballroom?

Writer: Rachel Murphy
Published: Updated:
Cape Coral Yacht Club plans before Ian.

The Cape Coral Yacht Club has been closed since the storm. The city wants to discuss if they should tear down the ballroom or rebuild with what they have.

“They’re talking about three years down the road. Me being my age, I might not be here in three years,” said Al Sparrow, a regular at the yacht club before Hurricane Ian.

Sparrow fears that’s how long it will take for Cape Coral to tear down and rebuild the yacht club.

“When I wasn’t working, I would be taking walks, riding my bike over there to see what’s going on. You know, there’s a lot that happened over there,” Sparrow said.

“It breaks my heart, having it all fenced off, not allowing anybody in,” said another man. “You know, I understand we went through a devastating hurricane, which it’s understandable, but it was such a small, simple beach.”

Rebuilding the Yacht Club would cost an estimated $3.2 million.

A conditional assessment done in April showed the building has $2.5 million in deferred maintenance. That includes wear and tear such as roofing, plumping and interior construction.

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