Cape Coral advances Bimini East, the 500 million dollar project where the city recovers 26.3 million dollars of the 45.2 million it spent assembling the land

Money & World

The Editorial Team · July 31, 2026

A heavy three strand mooring rope coiled in loose loops, its pale fibres worn grey, filling the frame against an out of focus red shingled wall and a dark green door.

Photo: Laura Stanley / Pexels

What it changes

The number a Cape Coral taxpayer should hold is not 500 million dollars, because that is the developer's projected investment and not the city's. The city's numbers are smaller, they are already partly spent, and they are set out in its own presentation. The city put 45.2 million dollars into buying and demolishing 47 parcels, and it intends to finance the gap between that outlay and the eventual sale price with debt. Against that, the developer would pay 26,292,325 dollars for the land, based on an appraised value of 25 dollars a square foot. The presentation and the term sheet also commit the city to buying two more properties, George's Garage and the Trumbull Apartments, at 5.5 million dollars each for a total of 11 million dollars, against a 1.99 million dollar upfront payment from the developer toward that purchase. Run those four figures together and the city is out roughly 45.2 million plus 11 million, or about 56.2 million dollars, and takes back about 26.3 million from the sale and 1.99 million from the developer's contribution, leaving something in the region of 27.9 million dollars to be recovered from increment and from whatever the eight remaining structures cost. That is arithmetic performed here on the document's own figures rather than a total the city published, and the city has not published a net figure in these materials. The second thing to hold is the timing, which is where a tax increment financing rebate is easy to misread. The rebate recommended to the Community Redevelopment Agency board is 95 percent of the annual tax increment the project generates, capped at 45.75 million dollars, and expiring on September 30, 2042. A rebate of 95 percent means that for as long as it runs, almost none of the new tax revenue this project creates reaches ordinary city spending. It is not money taken from the current tax base, since increment by definition is the growth above the base year, so nothing existing is diverted. But a resident who reads 500 million dollars of investment and expects a near term easing of the city millage should understand that the design of this deal defers that effect for as long as sixteen years or until the cap is reached, whichever comes first. Third, the protection the city built in is real and worth naming. The purchase price is prorated block by block and must be paid in full before the city issues a building, site development or construction permit for that block, and the whole balance is due within ten years of the initial conveyance. If the project stalls after one block, the city has been paid for one block and still owns the rest. That structure is the single most important consumer protection in the term sheet for a Cape Coral taxpayer, because it converts a bet on an eight year buildout into a series of much smaller bets. Fourth, for anyone renting or buying in the South Cape, the supply number is 900 units of apartments and townhomes on about 34 acres, alongside 250 hotel keys, 130,000 square feet of ground floor retail and dining and 310,000 square feet of medical and office space. That is a large amount of housing to add to a downtown that currently has very little of it, and it arrives over an eight year buildout rather than at once. Finally, none of this is agreed. The term sheet says on its face that it is non-binding, several of its dollar and unit figures are still blank lines, and the purchase and sale agreement and development agreement have to come back to the Council and to the CRA board at future public meetings before anything is signed.

Cape Coral has told its staff to keep going on Bimini East.

At a Committee of the Whole workshop on July 29, the City Council reviewed a redevelopment proposal for about 34 acres east of Bimini Square and agreed to move to a developer agreement, which will have to come back for approval at a later meeting. WINK News reported that outcome on the evening of July 29. The Cape Coral Breeze had published the workshop materials two days ahead of the meeting, on July 27, and Evan Williams covered the workshop for Gulfshore Business (subscription) on July 30.

The two documents underneath that coverage were obtained and read in full for this brief, and every figure below comes from them rather than from anyone's account of them.

The city's own presentation states that Cape Coral assembled 47 parcels into a single developable site with a 45.2 million dollar investment in property acquisition and demolition, authorised by five resolutions numbered 259-24, 362-24, 363-24, 392-24 and 405-24. It released a request for proposals in October 2025. The site carries MXB, mixed use Bimini, zoning. The selected developer is Bimini Basin Redevelopment Co., with Crown Development, which built the adjoining Bimini Square, as lead developer. Total project investment is put at 500 million dollars.

The program described in the presentation is two national brand hotels with 250 keys, 130,000 square feet of ground floor retail and dining, 310,000 square feet of medical and office space, a 45 slip transient marina with public access, 900 units of apartments and townhomes, four structured parking garages, an arts and culture bandshell with an expansion of Four Freedoms Park, and a new downtown police substation. The existing playground would be relocated to another site inside the development. Eight privately owned structures still sit within the project area.

On the money, the city would convey a 22 acre city owned site and the developer would owe a purchase price of 26,292,325 dollars, calculated on an appraised land value of 25 dollars a square foot. That price implies about 1,051,693 square feet, or roughly 24.1 acres, which is more than the 22 acres conveyed because the figure also covers four further parcels the city has agreed to buy and pass on. Payment is prorated block by block, and the term sheet makes it a strict condition precedent that the city is paid the full allocated price for a block before it issues any building, site development or construction permit for that block. The entire balance falls due within ten years of the initial conveyance.

The incentive package recommended to the Community Redevelopment Agency board is a tax increment financing rebate of 95 percent of the annual increment the project generates, capped at 45.75 million dollars and expiring on September 30, 2042. Alongside it sit impact fee credits of up to 500,000 dollars a fiscal year against fire, advanced life support, parks and mobility fees, capped cumulatively at 5 million dollars; demolition grant reimbursements of up to 200,000 dollars for each of eight eligible structures, capped at 1.6 million dollars; and a city contribution of half the cost of a pedestrian promenade linking Bimini Square to Bimini East, capped at 1 million dollars. The city's slide states that every incentive is generated only after the project produces new tax base, public improvements or blight removal.

The term sheet names the outstanding properties precisely. Five parcels remain inside the 22 acre site, comprising George's Garage, the Trumbull Apartments and a duplex. The city would buy George's Garage and the Trumbull Apartments at 5.5 million dollars each, 11 million dollars in total, at a price the developer negotiated, with the developer making a 1.99 million dollar upfront payment toward that acquisition and taking title afterwards. Securing the duplex and three further adjacent properties falls to the developer.

Two figures in the presentation deserve a label rather than a repetition. The construction phase job and output numbers, 3,401 total jobs supported and 750.9 million dollars of total economic output, are modelled figures broken into 2,218 direct, 591 indirect and 592 induced jobs. They are the city staff's projections of an eight year buildout that has not started, not measurements, and this publication has not seen the model or its assumptions.

Several limits apply to this brief and are stated rather than smoothed over. The city's own agenda portal at capecoral.novusagenda.com serves its meeting list through a postback grid that returned nothing to the tools used here, and capecoral.gov refuses direct requests, so the presentation and the term sheet linked above are the copies the Cape Coral Breeze posted alongside its July 27 story. They are the city documents themselves, extracted and read here page by page, but they are not served from a city address. The minutes of the July 29 workshop have not been read here, no vote tally has been obtained, and no city official, CRA board member or representative of the developer was contacted for this item. The term sheet is marked non-binding on its own first page, and several of its numbers, including the nominal conveyance fee and the total and public parking space counts, are still blank lines in the document.

One number in the broadcast coverage does not match the city document, and the document is what this brief follows. WINK reported the city had bought more than 40 parcels and invested more than 43 million dollars. The presentation says 47 parcels and 45.2 million dollars.

The presentation is here and the non-binding term sheet is here.

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