Hall of 50 States Committee passes talks to City Council

The Hall of 50 States Committee voted to pass talks on to the Fort Myers City Council on Friday.

This comes after incorrect rumors that the hall had been sold.

The discussion around the Hall of 50 States is a hard one. Many don’t want to see it go because the building is over 100 years old.

It also has not been used in the last two decades.

There were mixed feelings, but this is just the beginning of figuring out the best thing for this space.

While this proposal is moving on to the city council, there are still a lot of unknowns.

The City of Fort Myers Evaluation Committee passed Atlantic Realty Partners’ proposal onto the council.

Richard Aaronson is the CEO of Atlantic Realty Partners, and he has a plan for the space.

“Our proposal is to relocate the architectural elements of the Hall 50 States, which is the roof to a new facility at IMAG Museum,” said Aaronson.

Then, they would use that space, as well as the Repertory Theatre parking lot, to build an apartment complex. It would have 250 units, a maximum of seven stories and a 500-space parking garage.

Those aren’t the only plans that Aaronson has.

“We’re also going to have a commercial space. We hope to have about 6,000 square feet of retail space so we can add some more storefront space to serve the downtown community as well,” said Aaronson.

They are facing many obstacles. The first is the theatre’s agreement to lease its parking lot to them. The other obstacle is the city’s agreement on what to do with the historic hall.

Aaronson said there may be complications in completing the project.

“We’re working very hard to try to get that coordinated, but we also understand that we may reach a point where we can’t do it because we can’t coordinate it,” said Aaronson.

While not everyone could agree on what to do with this space, they did agree that something needs to be done.