$2.1 million spent on Fort Myers warehouse

An empty Fort Myers warehouse will now be put to good use.

Fort Myers City Council has approved the purchase of a warehouse along Michigan Avenue at Palm Avenue.

The 1.84-acre commercial warehouse will cost $2.1 million and will be used to house general city records and the parks and recreation office.

WINK spoke to neighbors who originally opposed this project and are now happy with it.

They are because the city agreed to what the ordinance says. They said there are very tight restrictions about just how much traffic this warehouse should cause on the historic district’s residential roads to get.

They don’t want big trucks. People take their quality of life seriously in the historic district.

“The Dean Park neighborhood stood up and said, ‘you can’t do that because it’s not zoned for that,'” said Carole Dennis, Dean Park resident.

Ann Martindale has lived in Dean Park for over a decade.

She and her husband moved here from Connecticut to live the dream, and now she is confident the city will make sure the traffic is kept to a minimum.

“Kind of a nicer-looking low-traffic warehouse. I don’t think it can be invisible, but we can try,” Martindale said.

And so are her neighbors.

“Let’s face it, if it’s everybody,” said Gary Eck. “You have all of these people coming and going getting their personal items. It’s going to be a lot of traffic. We think that there’ll be a lot less with the city. We don’t believe they’re going to expand, and we think it’ll be a good thing. We think they will work with the neighbors.”

The city will use the warehouse for parks and recreation department offices and general city record storage purposes.

The neighbors WINK spoke with said they plan to talk with the city about how to further minimize traffic and make the warehouse a bit prettier going forward.

They hope the city helps make it a win for everyone.