Fort Myers sued over City of Palms Park bidding process

The City of Fort Myers is being sued by a developer who wanted to transform the empty City of Palms Park.

The United Soccer League wants to bring their brand of football to Southwest Florida but ultimately finished second in the bidding process, a process they claim was biased and prejudiced.

• RELATED: City of Palms Park continues to cost taxpayers

They say it’s partly due to some of the council members scoring with zeroes instead of a one through five.

Second place bidder USL said the scoring rules were not followed and that took points from them.

In their 100-page civil suit, USL says the problems with the city’s selection process were not just with scoring, but the city itself admitted there was not enough time or opportunity to ask questions about each proposal.

The suit also includes a motion for a temporary injunction, which would stop all negotiations with the winning bidder, Pitch Prime.

We asked Mayor Kevin Anderson if he fears this kind of pause.

“It’s disappointing,” he said. “We’re probably years behind on the stadium already in this country. They’ll delay it, but at the end of the day, what we all want is just a really great project on that piece of property.”

The mayor said they have started talks with Pitch Prime. He also said with this suit, he doesn’t think anything is off the table. He voted in favor of re-doing the whole process initially.

But here’s the hard truth: this place costs taxpayers half a million a year to maintain, and if things get stuck in court, that means more time paying to maintain something we don’t reap the benefits of.