Collier County’s CRA redeveloping Bayshore area in East Naples

Call it the price of progress. When gentrification begins, longtime neighbors are pushed out of homes and neighborhoods.

In Collier County, that’s the fear for some who live in the Bayshore area of Naples. There’s a question about your taxpayer dollars being used to fund the new buildings going up.

Naples is known for high-end shopping, high-rise condos, and beautiful beaches. But just across Naples Bay from Port Royal in East Naples, there is an area that some feel has been neglected for far too long.

Until now.

Tami Scott, project manager with Collier County’s Community Redevelopment Agency, said the Bayshore area is transforming. It’s something the CRA has been working on for years and it’s finally starting to take shape.

Developers recently released renderings of one of the mega projects proposed for the Bayshore/Gateway Triangle redevelopment area called Metropolitan Naples.

“This is 10 years in the making,” Scott said. “This doesn’t happen overnight. So, there is a lot of behind-the-scenes folks who have worked really hard to get to where we are today.”

There are high rises and mixed-use developments coming to the area. Why here and why now? It all comes down to location. The area is close to downtown and close to the water.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are being invested, both private and public money, to breathe new life into the Bayshore area, but what does that mean for people like Jamie Nunez who have lived and worked in the area for years?

He owns La Costa store, which sells a variety of Latino products and Indian spices. He has seen positive changes but is worried about the competition development could bring.

“If something better comes… I don’t think we have competition for the kind of business we have here. We are the only one in Naples, but if somebody else does something, what can you do?”

Brett Blackledge is a journalist who has been looking into the development taking place in East Naples for Gulfshore Business Magazine.

“It’s unique and artsy and it’s got a lot of character. It’s different than any other place in Collier County than you will find, and that’s what brought people to that community,” he said.

While the CRA has plans into motion, Blackledge said there is a debate whether taxpayer money is needed to help fund some of the upcoming projects.

“Are taxpayers comfortable with giving money — as much as $5 million — to a developer to build a $250 million development that they are going to profit from richly,” Blackledge said. “Is that the right use of taxpayer money? That’s always a debate that we have here in Collier.”

In the meantime, at the corner of Bayshore and Thomasson, construction is running full steam ahead. It’s out with the old and in with the new, funded in part with taxpayer money.

You can read more about the planned project in Bayshore and the role of the Community Redevelopment Agency in this month’s Gulfshore Business magazine.