The City Gate Commerce Park: Expectations vs. Reality
In 1988, the City Gate Commerce Park was permitted for 90,000 commercial, 836,000 office, 1,920,000 industrial, 250 hotel/motel rooms, and 80,000 square feet of public, utilitarian, recreational, and educational space. This planned unit development (PUD) takes years to plan and build because developers look for crucial economic indicators including population growth, surrounding region growth, and public infrastructure expansion (such roads, water, and power). Developers pay for rezoning, taxes, and even some infrastructure to prepare the area for future companies.
By 2018, the City Gate Commerce Park included 212 hotel rooms, 3,643 square feet of retail (gas station and car wash), 18,083 square feet of SFWMD Big Cypress Field Office office space, and an authorized self-storage facility.
The project plan was altered in 2018. Collier County proposed buying 61 acres and building a sports complex at City Gate Commerce Park using City Gate roads. Eight general purpose sports fields, a 3,000-seat stadium, and a 125,000-sf hurricane shelter field house were planned for the project.
The Paradise Coast Sports Complex completed Phase 1 almost five years later with five synthetic grass rectangle fields, a 3,500-seat stadium, jumbotron, snack bar, and merchandise store. Construction expenditures have increased due to sluggish pace. Phase 2 contains five fields, lakes, roads, infrastructure, and the northwest parking lot package. The construction manager recently requested an extension to finish by 2022.
The Board of County Commissioners authorized Paradise Coast Sports Complex Phase 2.1 and 2.2A Change Order No. 16 on April 11, 2023. This enabled a 45-day contract extension to finish the phases due to delays. Manhattan Construction (Florida), Inc., the construction manager, requested a delay owing to FPL’s unfinished work.
FPL must finish:
Lighting: FPL is installing lights for the South Stadium parking lots, Cove parking lot, north parking lot, City Gate Boulevard South, pedestrian lighting inside park, and City Gate Boulevard North.
Primary feed: City Gate Boulevard North irrigation pump and light electrical design is underway.
This change order raises park building expenses. The board approved a $32,998,449 contract for Phases 2.1 and 2.2A at the Stadium Complex in our previous post about Paradise Coast Sports Complex’s future debt service requirement. The Beach Renourishment Fund loaned $9.9M and the Beach Park Facilities Fund loaned $7.3M for this deal.
The Paradise Coast Sports Complex’s construction costs include county ownership and property tax removal. The Great Wolf Lodge built a 250-room hotel with an indoor waterpark next to the sports facility with a $15 Million tax incentive. Uline, which declined tax incentives to move to the PUD, was supposed to be a light industrial business park.
It is difficult to see a point in which this project will provide a positive return on the investment, unless it is sold to a profit making entity.