Royal Palm Square Fort Myers: council vote Aug. 17 on expansion

Fort Myers council decides on August 17 whether Royal Palm Square can grow, and Lee County's roll already carries the site cut into seven tracts across 14.10 acres

Money & World

The Editorial Team · August 9, 2026

An overhead view of many blank white paper squares of similar size, overlapping in an irregular grid across the whole frame. No lettering, drawing, building, person or place appears. A generic paper texture, not a photograph of Royal Palm Square, of Fort Myers, or of any document in this story.

Photo: DS stories / Pexels

What it changes

For anyone who owns near Colonial and McGregor, this is a live decision rather than a settled one, and that is the unusual part. The city's own planning board voted 4 to 2 to recommend denial on traffic grounds and city staff recommends approval, per the WINK report, so the council arrives on August 17 with its two advisory channels pointing opposite ways and a noticed public hearing in front of it. That is the meeting where a resident's comment is worth something, because the outcome is genuinely open. The county record adds the part the hearing will not cover. Whatever the council decides about density, the land underneath has already been reorganized: seven tracts under one owner, Royal Palms Square LLC of Lombard, Illinois, created in the 2026 roll year with new interior street names, and the two 1981 buildings still standing on 77,071 square feet between them. Recording a replat and amending a planned unit development are separate steps, and one does not decide the other. For the city's finances, the number to watch is not the unit count but the value. Six of these seven tracts currently carry a just value of one dollar or zero, and the seventh carries 5,780,313 dollars. A redeveloped site is assessed on what stands on it, so the gap between those figures and whatever the finished project is eventually worth is the entire tax question here, and it lands on the Fort Myers city roll rather than the unincorporated one. Nothing about that timing is set by the August 17 vote. For a buyer looking at the surrounding office condominiums on Royal Palm Square Boulevard and Colonial Boulevard, the same record shows what those streets have been doing without any of this: units in the 1342 Colonial Boulevard complex changed hands as recently as February 2026 at 98,000 dollars, and a 0.597 acre commercial parcel at 1361 Royal Palm Square Boulevard sold in March 2026 for 1,500,000 dollars.

Fort Myers City Council is scheduled to hold a public hearing on August 17 on an amendment to the planned unit development that governs the Royal Palm Square redevelopment on Colonial Boulevard.

The application was reported by Damien Alvarado at WINK News. According to that report, it would enlarge the project from 12.64 acres to 14.09 acres by taking in 44 additional townhome parcels, raise one bedroom apartments from 160 to 197, two bedroom apartments from 240 to 296, commercial space from 250,000 to 288,000 square feet and parking from 1,437 to 1,616 spaces, and reduce the hotel from 175 rooms to 150. WINK reported that the Fort Myers Planning Board voted 4 to 2 in July to recommend denial, citing traffic from the additional residential units on Colonial and McGregor boulevards, that city staff recommends approval as consistent with the comprehensive plan, and that the city pointed to an accepted traffic impact statement in a statement to the station.

The land has already been reorganized on the county's books. Lee County Property Appraiser records list seven adjoining tracts under the name Royal Palm Square Subdivision Replat. All seven are owned by Royal Palms Square LLC, with a mailing address on East Butterfield Road in Lombard, Illinois. All were created in the 2026 roll year, all were last maintained on June 16, and the legal description on each cites the same recorded instrument, 2026000156152.

By the appraiser's own acreage, the seven tracts total 14.10 acres. That is the acreage the pending amendment would establish. A recorded replat and an amended planned unit development are separate steps, and the parcel record does not say what the council will do with the second.

The replat has put new street addresses inside the site. Alongside the Royal Palm Square Boulevard frontage there are now tracts addressed on Alessia Vista Drive, Caley Marie Drive and Bella Mia Way. Two of the seven are zoned PUD and the other five remain general commercial. Two buildings from 1981 survive, of 39,008 and 38,063 square feet.

Value has not followed. Six of the seven tracts carry a just value of one dollar or zero on the appraiser's current record. The seventh, the 3.57 acre tract holding the larger of the two 1981 buildings, carries 5,780,313 dollars.

All seven sit in the City of Fort Myers taxing district.

Fort Myers council decides on August 17 whether Royal Palm Square can grow, and Lee County's roll already carries the site cut into seven tracts across 14.10 acres

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