Fort Myers Beach council green-lights resort hotel project

After almost three years, the Fort Myers Beach city council finally approved its most extensive and largest hotel project the city has ever seen. And it’s a reason why the community became more involved than ever before.

There were applause, celebrations and hugs after the massive hotel project finally got the green light to move forward. The council unanimously approved the TPI-FMB resort plan Monday. But it didn’t come without controversy.

People packed into town hall to share their concerns and support. It was something developer Tom Torgerson says he listened to after scaling back his initial project.

TPI-FMB now includes more than 250 rooms, restaurants, bars, a pedestrian bridge and water park.

While some are still skeptical of development, Torgerson hopes they become part of the process moving forward.

“It’s time to move on and why not be a part of this still going forward because there’s still a lot of time in the next eight months to be involved in the design piece,” he said.

Something many can now look forward to.

“I’m really excited to see something really good happen to our downtown area. We’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” said neighbor Rosanna Riley.

Torgerson adds that it’s already back to work Tuesday to set project duties and schedules as they move forward.