Going upscale

Fort Myers Avenue Shops in Fort Myers will stand out with class, style, substance

Valerie Roche/news-press.com Eduardo Bautista welds a metal piece that will hold the framing of the outside wall to one of the buildings at the Fort Myers Avenue Shops on U.S. 41 in Fort Myers.

The construction of Fort Myers Avenue Shops on U.S. 41 in Fort Myers is well under way ? with a spiffed up, more upscale shopping area emerging from the hodgepodge of retail buildings that's there now.

But some businesses there now say they'll be moving as rents rise and the disruptions of the construction project make it harder to do business for the time being.

"Actually the first phase is under construction now," said Rodney Fidler of Fidler Real Estate Services, the rental agent for New York-based Orbis Properties, which bought the 237,000-square-foot complex for $15.8 million in 2003.

Special to news-press.com Rendering of Fort Myers Avenue Shops, which is taking shape on U.S. 41, south of Page Field in Fort Myers.

The complex south of Page Field airport includes 17 structures formerly known as Old America Center and Dragon Plaza. Orbis purchased them from a trust for the survivors of the late Charlie Johnston, known as "The Rental Man."

Johnston died in 1998 after assembling an empire of commercial space throughout south Fort Myers.

As the work to reposition some of the shops to improve traffic and shopping proceeds over the next year and a half, he said, "Some of the tenants are willing to stay during construction and others don't want to put up with the construction."

One of those that will be leaving, at least for the time being, is the Fred Astaire dance school franchise owned by Steve Wilkie.

"That period of time when everything's torn up, these things have a way of stretching out," said Wilkie, who expects to move to a larger space on College Parkway near the Cape Coral Bridge. "We could be looking at six to nine months when the building front's all torn, and we're going into a building-up phase and that would kill us" by discouraging customers.

Wilkie said, however, that Fort Myers Avenue Shops management has been "really nice and open about everything" and he leaves the door open to returning at some point to the complex after the work is done.

Others are not as happy.

Deirdre Baker, president of Family Thrift Center, said Orbis management would like her to leave but she can't afford to.

"We've put half a million dollars in that building and we've been there two years," not enough time to recoup the investment, she said.

Family Thrift's lease runs out at the end of 2007 and Baker said she'll stay at least through then. She bought the old 84 Lumber location on Colonial Boulevard last year for $1.7 million but said she can't afford to renovate the 120,000-square-foot facility.

Customers worry popular stores will move out of their reach.

"I hope not," said James Khan, 37, of Fort Myers, when he was told that Family Thrift might not stay at Fort Myers Avenue Shops. "It's fantastic. They have great deals.''

The store draws people from all over Southwest Florida and beyond, said Khan, a regular customer who was buying a jacket. "There are people here from different states" who are here on vacation and come for the bargains, he said.

Allison Moorhead, owner of Al's Scrapbook Barn, said she probably will move although "I love the location, especially for my customers who drive from Lehigh Acres and south Fort Myers. They come from all over" because the store is centrally located.

When her lease runs out in March 2007, she said, "I'll be looking for another home" ? preferably in a similarly central area.

Fidler said it's premature to say exactly who the tenants of the renovated complex will be but that he's negotiating with several new ones.

Some of the old tenants will also be staying, he said.