3A | TENT SHOT DOWN
Naples City Council denies tent dining at Port Royal Club while construction continues
Tim Aten Knows Tim Aten
Naples bookstore reopening delayed until 2025
Q: Do you have the opening date for the relocated Barnes & Noble store in Naples? Before the original store closed, they were predicting the new store would open in September. Thanks. —Adam Christopher, Naples
Q: What’s going in the vacant Barnes & Noble site at Waterside? —Kathy Pope, Naples
A: When relocation of the Barnes & Noble bookstore in Naples was initially reported, the new store in Park Shore Plaza was expected to open a week after the old one closed in Waterside Shops. Then, just before the Waterside location closed July 23, the bookstore announced its reopening date in Park Shore would be in early September. Unforeseen issues have delayed the opening until early next year, said Janine Flanigan, senior director of store planning and design for the Barnes & Noble chain.
“Unfortunately, we’ve had some delays due to some roof issues. The new target opening date is Jan. 29, 2025,” Flanigan said. “With some of the weather conditions, we experienced some severe roof leaks. Getting those addressed has set us back a bit and, of course, we want to be sure they are addressed completely before bringing books into the building.”
Brixmor, the New York-based property group that owns Park
See ATEN KNOWS, Page 9A
3B | LIME IS KEY
CURTAIN UP!
New Gulfshore Playhouse theater a lightyear leap in space, potential
By Harriet Howard Heithaus harriet.heithaus@naplespress.com
Kristen Coury positioned herself on the balcony that rides the stone wave coursing around the new Gulfshore Playhouse, a cruise liner of a building that seems built to sail Naples’ coronary artery of Fifth Avenue South. That seagoing theme is no accident. The front doors of the new $72 million structure— full title, Gulfshore Playhouse Baker Theatre and Education Center—are within walking distance of the Gulf of Mexico.
If Coury, who was up there for a photo,
looked ecstatic, it was because she has worked 20 years, 10 of them in direct fundraising and planning, for this scenario. Yet it’s what’s inside the 40,000-square-foot building hugging the perimeter of central Naples that excites her. The potential for new theater in Naples is why she is standing there, delighted to christen the building she has championed since well before the inaugural pledge from Patty and Jay Baker in May of 2015, a $10 million matching grant.
Gulfshore Playhouse opens for previews of its inaugural musical, Cole Porter’s Anything Goes, Oct. 27. Its repertoire is about to become vastly broader, with a two-stage season that tucks intimate plays such as the single-star Ev-
COUNTY
By Aisling Swift
Collier County commissioners rolled back taxes for a second year, approving a $2.97 billion 20242025 budget. But they didn’t decide to repay $29.6 million taken from Conservation Collier funds last year, despite repeated pleas at the meeting. (See accompanying story for details.)
Commissioners Burt Saunders and Bill McDaniel Jr., who supported reimbursement, said it’s important to discuss it with the public in the future and to be transparent about their actions.
“As important as it is to take care of our current taxpayers and to keep taxes as low as possible, it’s also important to keep in mind that in the longterm future, this type of a program is critically important, so I’m hoping that we do ultimately put
ery Brilliant Thing and Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill into its flexible 50-by-50-foot Struthers Studio theater. Larger-than-life musicals, including Sweet Charity, and stage-consuming farces, such as Noises Off , will be in the balconied Moran Mainstage theater.
Increasing boundaries exponentially Coury can now think about complex works on a stage with 50 set lines that can create endless scene changes. Can she set its perimeters a-twinkle for a work such as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time? Yes.
See PLAYHOUSE, Page 7A
those funds back in Conservation Collier,” Saunders said just after the Sept. 19 vote. “I hope that we ultimately continue just putting that program in a position of importance going forward.”
For a second year, commissioners adopted a 3.77 rollback rate, down from 4 mills this year— taxes that cover the general fund, Conservation Collier and Pollution Control—and approved an
See BUDGET, Page 10A
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Naples Philharmonic names
associate conductor
Manuel López-Gómez is the new associate conductor of the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra. López-Gómez, who is currently associate conductor of the Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra, will assume his Naples role beginning with the 2024-25 season.
As associate conductor, Lopez-Gomez will lead the Naples Philharmonic in select programs and assume the role of director for the Naples Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. He replaces Radu Papioniu, who became music director of San Francisco Youth Orchestra.
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López-Gómez is former director of the Bogatá (Colombia) Youth Orchestra. In addition to his symphonic work, López-Gómez has directed opera including the world premiere of the newly orchestrated opera Atahualpa and Gounod’s Romeo and Juliette, with Juan Diego Flórez. For more than 15 years, López-Gómez also has collaborated with internationally known conductor Gustavo Dudamel on symphonic and opera productions. López-Gómez is a former musician in the El Sistema youth orchestra program in Venezuela, which Dudamel championed.
Naples Trolley begins stopping at Naples Design District on Oct. 1
Naples Trolley Tours, a staple of Naples transportation and tourism since 1988, will include a stop in the heart of the Naples Design District starting Oct. 1. This addition to the trolley route will benefit locals, seasonal residents and tourists exploring one of Southwest Florida’s most vibrant cultural and creative communities. The new stop will be located in front of Vision Source, 60 10th St. N.
Professional park to add retail center, Starbucks
Naples-based investment firm Halstatt is adding a 10,000-square-foot retail center and a 2,500-square-foot standalone drive-thru Starbucks to the fully leased Poinciana Professional Park in Naples.
Located at the intersection of Golden Gate Parkway and Airport-Pulling Road, the retail hub is offering leasing opportunities for spaces ranging from 1,400 to 10,000 square feet. The site is zoned to accommodate outdoor dining and patio seating. Halstatt officials anticipate that these retail spaces will begin welcoming tenants by the fourth quarter of 2025.
East Naples retail property sells for $2.1 million 2253 Edward Road (WBRFP) LLC purchased the 5,854-square-foot re-
tail property at 4335 Tamiami Trail E. in East Naples from LJ 1 LLC. for $2,175,000. The property previously was home to Perkins Restaurant & Bakery for many years. Jessica McEvoy and Tom Strauss of LQ Commercial represented the seller.
Vanderbilt Beach Road meeting set for Oct. 2
Collier County Transportation Management Services Department will host a Vanderbilt Beach Road Extension Project Phase II 60% Design Plans public information meeting from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Oct. 2 at the UF/IFAS Extension Office multipurpose room, 14700 Immokalee Road. The meeting will be in an open-house format. Residents, business representatives and visitors can review the project displays and talk one-on-one with county staff and the county’s design consultants. The approximately 2-mile new roadway extension will continue from the terminus of where Vanderbilt Beach Road Extension Project Phase I, which is currently being constructed, will end at 16th Street Northeast and continue to Everglades Boulevard. Phase II will be initially constructed as an undivided two-lane roadway with shoulders, curb and gutters and a paved multiuse pathway to accommodate preliminary traffic needs. The improvement is being designed within a four-lane divided roadway right-of-way footprint, expandable to six lanes, accommodating future projected traffic volumes.
Baker Senior Center receives $242,000 grant
Baker Senior Center Naples was awarded a $242,500 grant from the Collier Community Foundation to expand essential services to more lower-income
seniors in the community. The funds will be used to hire a new case manager, who will support about 50 additional older adults each year, of which 70% to 80% will be low- to moderate-income seniors. The case manager also will field an additional 1,500 case management calls annually.
Collier County teachers reach contract agreement
After months of negotiations, Collier County teachers reached a contract agreement with Collier County Public Schools. The county agreed to a total of more than $24 million for teachers, an 11.65% unit increase for educators. One of the most notable changes is a $3,000 increase for both grandfathered and performance salaries, raising the base salary for teachers to $57,000, WINK News reported.
Marlowe Naples begins leasing, set for 2025 completion Charleston, South Carolina-based developer Greystar began preleasing and will welcome the first residents of its 216unit apartment complex in East Naples in November. Marlowe Naples, along Whitaker Road near its intersection with Santa Barbara Boulevard, offers floorplans in one-, two- and threebedroom layouts that range from 715 to 1,258 square feet. The community features a resort-style pool overlooking one of two on-site lakes and wildlife preserves, a pickleball court, dog park, fireside lounge, outdoor dining and gaming areas, fitness center and on-site coworking areas. Greystar secured a $54.3 million loan through Centennial Bank for the construction of the apartment complex, slated to be completed in the first quarter of 2025.
Manuel López-Gómez, currently associate conductor of the MedellÍn Philharmonic Orchestra, is the new associate conductor of the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra. Contributed photo
PORT ROYAL CLUB TENT DINING LOSES NAPLES COUNCIL VOTE
By Aisling Swift
The
The
But Council voted 6-1 on Sept. 18, with Council member Bill Kramer opposing,
“Temporary use is defined as about 180
in length,” Vice Mayor Terry Hutchison said
vote. “The petitioner here is
PUSHING FORWARD
By Aisling Swift
After approval to more than double the cost to $68.2 million, construction on a Collier County Sheriff’s Office forensics building in East Naples should begin later this year.
The Collier County Infrastructure Sales Surtax Committee voted unanimously Sept. 12 to provide $35,213,832 more in funds from the 1-cent surtax to cover a shortfall. After the Board of County Commissioners approves the expenditure and a contractor, construction will begin.
“We approved this project five years ago and we’re now being asked to increase this project to almost double. But there are some enhancements,” Chairman Scott Lepore said before the vote. “I’ve been chairman for five years and … this is probably one of the most important projects that we’re ever going to be involved in.”
The sheriff’s office, which stores equipment in several locations, outgrew its space on East Horseshoe Drive, which also holds Youth Relations and Patrol Administration.
The new building, funded by sales-tax dollars, will be built off City Gate Drive, just north of Paradise Coast Sports Complex and Great Wolf Lodge, east
of Collier Boulevard and north of Interstate 75. The state-of-the-art forensics-evidence and Criminal Investigations Division building will be on about 29 acres of a 344-acre parcel the county acquired in 1999.
The Collier County Sheriff’s Office had been asking for a new building for 20 years before the surtax committee approved the $33 million project in May 2019. It has navigated various challenges, including the pandemic, rising costs and market rates. In January 2022, county commissioners approved adding 40,000 square feet to the roughly 100,000-square-foot building to consolidate CCSO operations in one location
LEGAL SETTLEMENT MEANS BIG CHANGES FOR SWFL REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS
By Therese McDevitt terry.mcdevitt@naplespress.com
CMON IN!
Future pre-school adding spark to early childhood education
Imagine, if you were a child … and you visited the Golisano Children’s Museum of Naples for the first time.
Wow! Sensory overload. Joy and fun—and learning—around every corner.
An arts classroom where you could make a paint-smeared mess that you would never be allowed to make at home; an enormous indoor tree/clubhouse; a wind tunnel, etc. You couldn’t wait to come back. Within the next year or so, up to 90 lucky youngsters will come back every weekday, when the museum with the inviting nickname CMON adds a pre-school.
The project will build on education staff already in place. Existing second-floor space will be retooled, and administrative staff will move to offices on Goodlette-Frank Road.
All marquee programs such as public- and private-school field trips will carry on, CMON promised. So will the Mega and Mini Wonders program that affords students partday previews of kindergarten, with and without parents, starting at age 3. That also will be the starting age for pre-school, which will be full-day to accommodate two-working-parent households, CMON CEO Jonathan Foerster explained.
After several years of bad news— from COVID to a hurricane and steep inflation—the CMON endeavor joins a recent wave of good news and growth in early education in Collier and southern Lee counties, including plans by major employer Arthrex to launch full-day pre-schooling from the ground up at its North Naples and Ave Maria sites.
North Naples will welcome up to 216 children ages 6 months to 6 years, with one-third of the class space shared with Naples Comprehensive Health, whose Bear’s Den pre-school is giving way to a new surgical center. Ave Maria will nurture up to 66 students of the same ages.
Before a North Naples couple debuted the first of their four regional Ivybrook Academy franchises in Estero in August, headlines were generated by Fun Time Early Childhood Academy, a pioneer in Naples, for expanding to two Collier County Public Schools sites and rescuing a pre-school that failed in Golden Gate. Immokalee-based Guadalupe Center and Pathways Early Education Center completed or planned expansions.
Meanwhile, two major institutions—Florida Gulf Coast University and the Naples Children & Education Foundation, driven by the Naples Winter Wine Festival—joined forces to rejuvenate a pre-school on the East Naples campus of Florida SouthWestern College, to tutor the youngsters of today and the educators of tomorrow.
At CMON, Foerster’s long-range goal is becoming the area’s most in-demand pre-school within 10 years.
Arthrex aims high, as well, with the goal of education quality to match what the medical science company delivers to its customers and employees. The schools will be run by Bright Horizons, based in Newton, Massachusetts—it’s America’s largest provider of employer-sponsored childcare, with approximately 1,000
early education and childcare centers around the world.
The groundwork
The museum, in its 12th year, welcomes more than 160,000 kids and adults annually. Boosted by a $1.5 million state grant, Foerster expects matching fundraising to be low-key, chatting up donors who already support CMON and early childhood education. He said naming rights are available for the school, classrooms, lobby and more.
Memberships—ranging from $175 to $1,000 a year, and $30 for families who qualify for federal food assistance—will give families priority for enrollment once construction starts.
Fees have not yet been set, Foerster said, promising tiers for all income levels. “We won’t be the most expensive, nor will we be the least,” he said. “Our aim is to set a fair price for the services we will offer.”
He hopes for state tax breaks for CMON and other non-profits on par with new incentives for pre-schools at businesses.
Students will have access to classrooms in addition to the entire museum, including a backyard playground, and North Collier Regional Park next door—making the brain-building powerhouse “the most unique early learning space in Southwest Florida,” Foerster said.
Learning can be subtle, he said, pointing to a museum display that blows soft, bouncy balls through translucent, flexible tubing. As children follow the action, they develop left-to-right eye motion that will be helpful as they learn to read.
“While we aren’t going to solve the problem of too few early learning spaces available in the community by ourselves, we are excited to do our part,” Foerster said. “It’s a fairly natural extension of the work we do already.”
Simone Lutgert, one of the founders of CMON, offered perspective.
“Our mission was to create an inspiring environment where children and their families could play, learn
and dream together,” she recalled.
“While we may not have initially anticipated the museum evolving to the level of opening a pre-school, I see it as a natural progression and a testament to the success and impact that CMON has had in the community.”
Timing and context
To CMON Board Chair Laura Alexander, the timing is ideal.
“With Southwest Florida’s continuing population surge and increased birth rate, there’s a clear recognition from our state leaders of the importance of investing in our youngest learners … The enthusiasm and backing we’ve received for this initiative reflects a collective commitment to fostering an environment where early education can flourish.”
A less obvious benefit to building now, Foerster said, is undoing damage from COVID, which he said “had a tremendous impact on the ability of kids to interact positively with each other.
“Just as it delayed educational attainment for many kids who didn’t spend that time in classrooms, it impaired the social and emotional skills of those same kids, as they didn’t spend time interacting with people outside their family. We still see kids who are playing ‘harder’ (with less regard for others around them, unsure or unable on how to share, negotiate boundaries, etc.).”
Melanie Stefanowicz, CEO of the Early Learning Coalition of Southwest Florida, sized up the CMON and Arthrex/NCH projects as different.
“Arthrex/NCH is special because it represents employers taking significant steps to support employees and their families with high quality early learning and care that aligns employers’ needs and those of their employees,” she said.
“The Golisano project is special because it represents an extension of CMON’s mission to inspire lifelong learning and exploration through play-based learning, which is the
Q&A WITH MUSEUM'S CHIEF EDUCATION OFFICER
Bonnie Thayer will be at the helm of the CMON pre-school, as the organization’s chief operations and education officer, after teaching music and arts to small children and their families at Collier County Public Schools and Artis—Naples.
TNP: Has an early education project been on your radar?
Thayer: I have always dreamed of being more intentionally connected to early childhood education, but I didn’t know what size, shape or form it would come in. Joining the team at CMON already feels like that dream come true, and the reality of the early learning center here in our building will be icing on my dream cake.
TNP: What should a CMON school offer young families?
museum’s wheelhouse. It’s a natural fit and exciting because the leadership is exploring a combination of private-pay and subsidized pay as its business model.” She added a hopeful note: “As the state irons out the rules around the recently adopted Child Care Tax Credit, I think we will see more initiatives like these.”
The challenge ahead
Jessica Campbell, executive director at Naples’ Fun Time Early Childhood Academy, which is expanding to other sites to meet needs, welcomes the CMON and Arthrex/NCH projects.
Still, as a passionate veteran in the field, she offered context to the big picture.
“The closure of 25 centers in the past year due to rent increases, staff retirements, lack of funding and damages from Hurricane Ian highlights the fragility of the childcare industry,” she told The Naples Press
“Fees alone cannot cover the costs of providing high-quality care and fair compensation for teachers,” she explained. “This is why initiatives like state tax credits and the support from the Naples Children & Education Foundation and other philanthropy in our community are so crucial to ensure non-profit centers such as Fun Time Early Childhood Academy and Guadalupe Center can continue to operate and serve low-income working families.” Campbell also singled out elevating early learning as a professional career. “Supporting early learning teachers in obtaining degrees and advancing their careers is vital for teacher retention and the overall stability of child-care centers,” she said, while doubling down on “a long-term investment in quality early learning programs.”
Still, with so much at stake, she is optimistic.
“Together, we can build a more stable and accessible child-care system that benefits our children, families and the broader community.”
Thayer: It’s an opportunity that no other school in Southwest Florida has, because we will be a school inside a children’s museum. We are working to select a curriculum that is robust educationally, that will be taught by highly qualified schoolteachers. We will bolster the curriculum with creative and artistic lessons developed by our museum education team that correlate to our permanent and transitional exhibits. The curriculum and learning environment will be active, hands-on and play-based, because that’s the way children learn best. Our goal is to prepare our school students to be successful when they transition to kindergarten.
TNP: Do you agree the community is understanding and supporting early childhood programs more than ever?
Thayer: I believe our community understands and supports the importance of education, in general. I also believe it’s our responsibility to advocate for early childhood education, so that people understand that from birth to about age 6, we as humans experience more brain growth and development than at any other time. Early childhood experiences and education lay the foundation for who and what we are to become in life. As educational leaders in this community, we at CMON take this opportunity seriously—and we look forward to the day that our school will open for children to come play, learn and dream with us.
The colorful Golisano Children's Museum of Naples beckons children to come and have fun. Contributed photo
That’s so Naples Jeff Lytle
A rendering of CMON's early childhood learning center. Contributed
Jonathan Foerster
OUT & ABOUT
Great Wolf Lodge South Florida launched its massive resort and indoor water park Sept. 18 in Collier County's City Gate commerce park. The new lodge's grand opening celebration will be in October.
Photography by Liz Gorman
The Grand Lobby is a gathering place at Great Wolf Lodge South Florida in Collier County.
MagiQuest guides Emily D., Luis B. and Essence Johnson at the Great Wolf Lodge.
Wishes the Otter greets the Lawrence and Boylan families at the Great Wolf Lodge.
Great Wolf Lodge employee Carla Barone places wolf ears on Sarah Zilban and daughter Eden.
ANIMAL SHELTER TAKES CATS AGAIN
The Naples Press staff
Collier County Domestic Animal Services
will resume cat intake after a temporary suspension due to a rise in feline panleukopenia, or FPV, better known as feline distemper.
It ends a period of roughly a month when good Samaritans who found cats, and people who were obliged to surrender their cats, lost a major resource for housing them and returning them to the community as wanted adoptees.
“During our brief closure, we asked the public to help by holding onto any healthy stray cats they found, and we are so grateful for the community’s cooperation,” DAS Director Meredith McLean said in a statement last week announcing the end of sanctions.
“Now that we are resuming feline intake, we anticipate a large number of cats and kittens being brought to the shelter. We are hopeful that community adoptions and fosters will rise to meet the need. Currently, we have many wonderful, healthy animals patiently waiting for someone to adopt or foster them.”
To encourage adoption, DAS will continue waiving all adoption fees for cats through the end of September. It is also offering foster care options to people who love cats but are better as short-term cat parents; DAS provides all necessary supplies and veterinary care for fostered cats and kittens.
“Fostering makes a significant impact by relieving shelter space and ensuring our population continues to stay healthy,” said McLean in the news release.
DAS continues to ask residents to avoid bringing in newborn kittens unnecessarily, asking concerned citizens to monitor their situation and give the mother cat a chance to return. In most cases, the mother returns to care for them, ensuring the kittens’ well-being. Removing neonatal kittens from their mother too soon can jeopardize their health, the news release said.
For more information on DAS, visit collierpets.com.
TAMIAMI ANGEL FUND HELPS SHAPE FLORIDA’S INVESTMENT LANDSCAPE
By Melanie Pagan
EVQLV had everything Tamiami Angel Funds investors were seeking: a foothold in the life sciences industry to diversify its portfolio, a tech-based company capable of rapid scaling and a trendy AI engine.
Another bonus: The business is based in Miami, which aligns with the preferences of Naples-based Tamiami Angel Funds—the largest and most active angel fund in Florida, with five funds and nearly $33 million in investments over the past decade. Ideally, these investors want to support ventures within the state.
If the business were closer to home, it would be even better.
“We prefer to invest in Southwest Florida over anywhere else in the state of Florida,” said Tamiami Angel Funds Chairman Timothy J. Cartwright. However, “we find that Southwest Florida still lacks some important components to really be an entrepreneurial or innovation hotspot.”
One such component that’s missing is a research university or institute, such as Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville or Kennedy Space Center in Melbourne, Cartwright noted. The closest comparison he made is The Water School at Florida Gulf Coast University.
“As it starts to get more recognized and generates grants and research, maybe there will be some pretty cool water technologies, conservation or purification [efforts] that come out of it, but that’s one thing this region lacks compared to other regions,” Cartwright said.
Cartwright also pointed out that the region lacks a strong technology development environment similar to Silicon Valley. Despite this, tech companies do emerge from the area. Recently, Tamiami Angel investors entered an agreement with Bonita Springs-based financial technology business ConnexPay.
And, Cartwright said, “I see great promise in the region.”
This promise is partly due to the FGCU Daveler & Kauanui School of Entrepreneurship, where students can acquire startup skills. Participants in the school’s Runway Program can even secure seed funding in a Shark Tank-style setting, with Tamiami Angels participating in the judging process.
The link between what Cartwright referred to as the “incredible entrepreneurial energy in Southwest Florida” and “business knowledge of semi-retired people that move down here” can also be advantageous for aspiring executives.
“If you could team a very motivated and persistent young entrepreneur with the right kind of technology and [teach them] how to solve big business problems, market internationally and build an executive team and combine that with capital from the Tamiami Angel Funds, you start to think about how special this place could be, which could attract more entrepreneurs,” Cartwright said.
The Small Business Development Center at FGCU and local SCORE chapters are two places young innovators can connect with seasoned executives. Other informal mentor-type relationships can be built via chamber meetings and more. Professionals can even match on the pickleball court, Cartwright mused, as Florida ranked second of the top 10 states with the most places to play the sport, according to the online pickleball community Pickleheads.
These relationships may help entrepreneurs learn to become more adaptable in their endeavors. A coachable CEO is something Tamiami Angel Funds also considers.
That’s what ultimately led the group to invest $500,000 in EVQLV after initially turning the company down due to its original business model. Cartwright said angel investors advised EVQLV CEO Andrew Satz to make some changes. When they learned that Satz implemented the advice and secured more customers as a result, EVQLV became the right fit.
“Partnering with Tamiami Angel Fund has provided EVQLV with far more than just capital. Their strategic insights and mentorship have been invaluable, helping us accelerate our growth even before they officially became an investor,” Satz said. Tamiami Angel Funds invests in an average of six to 10 businesses per year, about half of which are in Florida, Cartwright said. Tamiami Angel Funds is a double-bottom-line investor, meaning the first bottom line is return of investment; the second is some additional feel-good benefit. So, a start-up in question has to meet both criteria, which sometimes leads to investments outside the area.
“Since we’re ROI-focused as our first bottom line, if the company is in Ohio versus Florida and the Ohio company has a better, more coachable CEO, has more revenue and a patent, we’re going to invest in that company and not the Florida-based company,” Cartwright said.
BUILDING
and eliminate the Horseshoe Drive building.
The forensic-evidence facility will feature a two-story main building that will house the Crime Scene Investigation lab, office space, the Evidence Bureau and garage bays. The Criminal Investigation Department offices and administrative support will be on the second floor. A separate one-story, pre-engineered, controlled temperature metal building will store evidence vehicles. Other buildings include a generator enclosure.
our community.”
County voters approved the 1-cent sales tax referendum in 2018 to pay for authorized infrastructure projects, including the sheriff’s building. The surtax applies to the first $5,000 of the purchase price of an item of taxable personal property, such as a home purchase or a car. No one pays more than $50 yearly on a large purchase and visitors also pay. The tax is divided among the county and the cities of Naples, Marco Island and Everglades City, with the county receiving 91.2% and the cities dividing the remainder equally.
Construction is expected to cost $58 million, according to four bids received in July, Facilities Project Manager Olivier Sureau told the committee.
“We are grateful for this facility, which was approved by voters using funds collected through a surtax,” Sheriff Kevin Rambosk said before the meeting. “It will enable us to increase efficiency, consolidate evidence and accommodate the growth of our agency and
It was to be collected over seven years, or until it hit $490 million. Collections began January 2019, and the cap was met two years early, in May 2023. County commissioners have considered asking for another referendum. When tax collections ended in December 2023, funds totaled $520.9 million, in addition to $20.2 million in interest. Of that, $420 million has been spent so far. There is $124 million in funding and interest still not allocated, from which the additional $35,213,832 will come.
From page 3A
A one-story, controlled temperature metal building will store evidence vehicles. Courtesy Collier County
Timothy J. Cartwright
Send a cast circling the stage on a turntable, as has been done in Hamilton? Certainly. And she might consider both.
Gulfshore Playhouse has taken a diversity of genres as its mission, and the new theater makes that possible. Coury is also looking to bring pre-Broadway works.
“We want to be able to partner with Broadway producers. We’re already creating those pathways to getting to the right show that they’re looking to develop and put on Broadway that they would let us produce first,” she continued. “Which would be great. They could work on it while they’re here—work out the kinks, spend time, hear audience feedback.”
For Naples, it can bring a sense of helping shape the blockbuster. For the producer, it can bring some economy, she said: “It costs a million dollars a week to tech a show on Broadway.”
Along with the theater she’s excited about producing, Coury hopes her audiences appreciate the theater that was built to bring it to them in the best possible way. Inside its double-walled main hall you can hear a paper cup hit the floor on the stage, but not a cavalcade of jets passing overhead to land at nearby Naples Airport.
“We have three-foot walls, three-foot ceilings,” she said. “There’s like a channel of air and then a wall and then another channel of air.” She admitted she had already forgotten how soundproof the building is that morning, “until I opened the door to the terrace, and then whoosh! The sounds of the planes and the traffic, it all hit me.”
Visual tributes to Broadway
Inside the quiet of its Moran Mainstage hall, there’s a strong visual affinity for an actual Broadway theater.
“It’s definitely Old-World elegant meets— thoroughly meets—modernity,” Coury said of the Lisa Kahn Designs planning. “You can see, all the curves and the clean lines, that it’s very modern, yet we wanted to bring some of that historic theater-esque feeling.
“You can feel you’re almost in a Broadway theater. If there were three balconies above you, we’d be in a Broadway house, but we wanted to maintain the intimacy of this so people could still see and feel everything that’s happening onstage.”
Gulfshore Playhouse opted for a single balcony, and kept its seating to 368 seats.
“And that’s by design. If you’re sitting in row ZZ, you’re not engaged at all,” Coury declared.
That second story balcony opens out onto an atrium that surveys the rooftops and trees of central Naples, and the Founders Lounge on the south side of it takes in Naples to the Gordon River. Nearly every expanse of glass in this building designed by Arquitectonica/H3 opens up an eye-friendly vista.
Inside the main performance hall, the Lisa Kahn Design style takes a retro-contemporary dichotomy to the walls. Midnight blue wallpaper with compass points embedded in a ’30s architectural motif is velvety there but done in vinyl behind what’s expected to be a hard-working bar in the lobby. The blue fabric theater seats are shot through with gold threads to reflect the gold tone in the wood details. There’s terrazzo floor in the public areas, and planetary circle chandeliers of varying
dimensions over the lobby.
There are generous squares of wood paneling, along with wood wallpaper for the curved surfaces. It’s primarily in walnut-stained oak that tempers, but doesn’t swallow the abundant light that pours in. In the Struthers Studio, to the left of the mainstage theater, there is a floor-to-ceiling view of the neighborhood, but room-darkening curtains will allow performances, as well as rehearsals on its sprung maple floor.
It will hold a cabaret-style audience for the Lady Day performances, theaters in the round and even luncheons from the adjacent catering kitchen. The lack of community meeting space makes it a good addition to the city’s inventory, she pointed out.
“People thought I was crazy for wanting the rehearsal studio to be beside the main hall,” Coury recalled. And smiled.
GOING TO 'ANYTHING GOES'
What: Cole Porter musical, the inaugural play in the new Gulfshore Playhouse
When: Oct. 27-Nov. 24; invitation-only grand opening Nov. 1
Where: 100 Goodlette-Frank Road, Naples
Admission: $39-$79; $25 students
To buy: gulfshoreplayhouse.org; information at 239.261.7529
Space, and lots of it
Inside the main hall, the stage is mammoth to mouse on the scale of the organization’s Cambier Park performance venue. It’s 108 feet wide and 43 feet deep, and wings are 20 feet wide and 43 deep. Returning directors and actors will get a spatial shock.
“The Norris Center [stage] is exactly one half of one wing—we’re going from less than 700 feet to 3,000,” she said.
Anything Goes will take advantage of that: At any one time the ensemble piece can have 22 cast members onstage, without even taxing the space, and a 12-piece orchestra.
The largest musical Gulfshore did on the Norris Center had 12 onstage for its ensembles “and an orchestra of four pieces tucked into the piano room backstage at large cost. And I don’t mean moneywise. I mean the argument over whether we could add drums or not was a very lengthy one because we just didn’t have room backstage,” Coury recalled.
There is no orchestra pit in this theater, however. One sound-absorbing upstairs room, among the classrooms and conference rooms, will hold the musicians, who are observing the action from a wide-screen TV while they play;
the sound is wired to the hall. It’s a necessity with the sea-level location; digging deeper to install a pit was not an option. The land underneath the structure had already been built up by 3 feet just to site it above flood plain level. It has already been tested by Hurricane Ian, which gave Collier County a $2.2 billion lashing, much of it in storm surge. But the floods didn’t come within 5 feet of this front door. Coury is well aware operation costs will also be vastly larger for this theater; the board and administration created operating reserves for any unexpected situation. Advancement goals have been increased—and met, she said. There were plans for an endowment fund, she added in an email on the topic: “Our intention was to begin an endowment campaign as soon as we were done with the capital campaign (and we’re nearly there) but one of our patrons beat us to it. We recently announced that we received a $1.5M donation from Anthony and Beverly Petullo to kick off our endowment fund.”
A month of details
That leaves Coury a little breathing room to focus on the last month before the curtain rises for the first performance.
“I’m triple-tasking all the time. We’re at a meeting, people are texting me—hello!” she broke midsentence to greet staff members looking to help with the photo shoot. Five minutes later she was eyeing what appeared to be a paint splotch on the stained oak lobby wall.
“Can I get a roll of blue tape?” she asked facilities manager Joe Salemme. “I just want to mark things as I see them.”
There’s the parental eye of someone ready to send their only child to the prom: “Do the rails on that stairway look straight to you?” she asked the reporter. Assured they did, she sighed and offered a better analogy:
“I’m just so conscious of everything. I’m like a director with her first play.” And what a play it will be.
Construction workers put finishing touches on the spacious lobby of the new Gulfshore Playhouse in Naples. Photos by Liz Gorman
The new Gulfshore Playhouse's lobby bar will have a modern design, inspired by a ship's interior.
HOW WILL FED RATE CUT AFFECT SOUTHWEST FLORIDA REAL ESTATE?
By Therese McDevitt terry.mcdevitt@naplespress.com
The recent National Association of Realtors settlement isn’t the only thing that could have a big influence on the real estate market in SWFL and around the country.
Will the 0.5% rate cut by the Federal Reserve last week help push already falling mortgage rates even lower? On Sept. 19, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) said the standard fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.09%, the lowest since February 2023, falling from 6.20% the previous week and well below last fall’s highest rate in two decades of 7.79%.
The secondary market lender said on its website that the declining mortgage rates are “reviving purchase and refinance demand for many customers. While mortgage rates do not directly follow moves by the Federal Reserve, this first cut in more than four years will have an impact on the housing market. Declining mortgage rates over the last several weeks indicate this cut was mostly baked in, but rates will likely fall further, sparking more housing activity.”
Local experts had much the same response, with NABOR President PJ Smith saying local
“Last year at this time we were at 7.19% and now we are close to 6.0%. As we know, mortgage rates do not necessarily mirror the Federal Reserve's action, but we are hoping that this will have a positive impact on our [local] housing market...”
—NABOR President PJ Smith
Realtors are “excited” by the Fed’s movement, even though there may not be an immediate effect on mortgage rates.
“Last year at this time we were at 7.19% and now we are close to 6.0%,” Smith said. “As we know, mortgage rates do not necessarily mirror the Federal Reserve’s action, but we are hopeful that this will have a positive impact on our [local] housing market, as well as nationally. It may also increase refinancing and recasting of existing loans.”
Smith said she thinks many buyers that were priced out of the market because of insurance costs and mortgage rates could now come back in the market.
“Summer sales have been a little sluggish, but that may also indicate we are normalizing back
be compensated. “Another requirement is that Realtors—both as listing and buying broker and agent—must inform their customers that their compensation is not set by law and is fully negotiable.
“This always has been the case in Naples, but our updated forms further underscore that point.”
NABOR President PJ Smith said the settlement relates to choices for consumers regarding real estate transactions.
“After the rule, listing brokers and their sellers can continue to offer compensation for buyer broker services, but they just can’t communicate this via our MLS. That’s a big change,” Smith said. “The other big change is that MLS participants or buyer brokers or agents acting for buyers have to enter into a written agreement with their buyer before touring a home, and that means a virtual tour or in-person tour. The goal is that consumers understand exactly what the services are, the value to be provided and how much the compensation [will be]. They have to identify that ahead of time.”
For buyers and their agents, Smith said there needs to be an understanding that it can’t be just a general, “Let’s go look at a few houses.”
“It has to address what services you’re providing, what’s your compensation and how it’s going to be paid,” she said. “Are we going to look for seller compensation? Or are you (buyer) going to pay it out-of-pocket?”
Smith said that while she is “not a huge fan of the settlement,” she thinks good will come of it in terms of agents’ relationships with buyers.
“That’s just a reiteration that compensation is always negotiable,” she said. “Always has been, always will be; it’s just a reiteration. Has it always been there? Absolutely. I think the hope was that it’s clear for the consumer that they have choices.”
to a real season in our market versus the residual from the pandemic year-round high activity. First-time home buyers will most likely be the ones that benefit the most: We know the benefits of owning versus renting, so our agents need to communicate how important this is to consumers to start building equity.”
She said lower rates may push buyers to jump off the sidelines, which may create higher demand, which could mean higher competition.
On the lending side, Tom Lytton, executive vice president and chief credit officer at FineMark National Bank & Trust in Naples, said that while he does anticipate a further drop in mortgage rates, it will not be in lockstep with the Fed lowering the interest rate.
Lytton explained that the Fed only controls
Karen Coney-Coplin
Karen Coney-Coplin, Realtor at Downing-Frye Realty Inc., said buyers will see the biggest changes, and open houses may become more popular since buyers will not be required to sign anything prior to attending.
As to sellers, Coney-Coplin said, commissions have always been negotiable and not set by law. She said the listing agreement that was the basis for the NAR lawsuit had preprinted commission rates listed as “options” for St. Louis sellers.
“I have been involved in this industry in Naples since 2000, and we have never had a preprinted listing agreement stating commission rates, so for sellers this was a discussion then and remains one now,” she said. “Does it make sense for sellers to continue to offer compensation to buyer agents? Probably so in most cases. Since the settlement was put into effect, the vast majority of properties I have shown to buyers do offer broker compensation. It’s also a recommendation I have made in most instances with my seller clients, who are free to proceed in this fashion or to offer concessions to buyers as another option. Listing agents cannot publicize that information in MLS, but can reach out individually or in response to showing requests and inquiries from buyer agents.”
Sharon Zuccaro, a partner in the real estate practice at Henderson, Franklin, Starnes & Holt in Fort Myers, is urging caution for potential buyers who have not previously had to sign a contract prior to touring properties.
“What we have now is before a buyer can tour a home, the buyer’s agent is required to have the buyer sign a written contract— and it is a contract,” Zuccaro said. “I always want to say, ‘buyer beware,’ because they really need to pay attention to the terms of the contract and what they are signing up for, because this is definitely new in the industry.”
Zuccaro said if a buyer is going to an open house or inquiring about a Realtor’s services, they are not required to sign a Buyer
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22 SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23 SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 24
one thing: the discount rate that banks pay, which influences banks’ cost of funds. But he noted that mortgage rates also are influenced by other economic factors, including the 10-year bond market and mortgage-backed securities traded in the bond market.
“There’s a belief that when the Fed lowers rates, it lowers rates for every loan in the world,” Lytton said in an interview after the rate cut. “That’s the belief, there’s a concept, and that is simply not true.”
Lytton said he thinks there will be stabilization and that mortgage rates could end up between the 5.5% and 6% territory in the next 18 months, which would be what he calls “normal,” but he cautioned buyers—especially first-time buyers—not to think they will ever see the pandemic-level rates in the 3% range again.
For sellers with mortgages—many of whom have rates under 4%— they probably “aren’t going to sell unless they have to move for a job or a growing family,” Lytton said.
“You have a lot of people with low-cost, lowrate mortgages that don’t want to sell,” he said. “They’re not going to upsize, they’re not going to move unless prices come down to a point where they say, ‘OK, now I really want that house, and it makes sense for me to give up my 3.5% mortgage and go borrow money at 6%.’ So, rates dropping a little bit will help that, but that’s going to exist for a long time. There are going to be people with mortgages that are never going to see that rate again.”
Broker Representation Agreement, but will need to do so if a Realtor is taking them on a tour of a home—otherwise the broker can be fined.
“The buyer has to appreciate that they are responsible for the commission that is due to the agent if the buyer moves forward with a closing,” Zuccaro said. “So now the other part of this is, will the buyer be able to get compensation or reimbursement with respect to this commission that the buyer has now agreed to pay to his or her agent?”
She said she thinks many sellers are still going to be motivated to compensate buyers’ agents if they want to sell their properties. “If the compensation isn’t there, the property may stay on the market longer, and the longer it stays on the market, the less of a purchase price the seller is going to command,” Zuccaro said.
Who is eligible for part of the National Association of Realtors settlement?
When it comes to the $418 million settlement NAR is required to pay, the following criteria must be met to be part of the settlement class, according to Zuccaro:
• Must have sold a home during the “Eligible Date Range” (For the Naples area that period would be Oct. 31, 2019, to Aug. 17, 2024);
• Must have listed the home that was sold on a multiple listing service anywhere in the U.S.; and
• Must have paid a commission to a real estate brokerage in connection with the sale of such home.
Zuccaro said a settlement class member must file a Real Estate Broker Commission Claim Form to the Settlement Administrator by May 9, 2025.
The settlement class could have about 21 million members, meaning any potential payment after legal fees would be under $20.
Sharon Zuccaro
Tom Lytton
Shore Plaza, fixed the weather-related structural damage in late August and early September, city permits show. “Storms in June damaged the roof, which we repaired, but it impacted Barnes & Noble’s schedule,” said Kristen Moore, chief marketing officer for Brixmor.
Nothing else has changed in Barnes & Noble’s plans for the new store, Flanigan said.
“This will be a beautiful 35,000-square-foot store,” she said. “In the meantime, we do have our Coconut Point store not too far away and hope customers will visit us there as they await the Naples store opening.”
The move about a mile south to the former Big Lots store at 4149 Tamiami Trail N. in the Burlington-anchored retail center will increase the square footage for the national bookseller rather than downsize its space, as the chain recently did when relocating its store within Coconut Point in Estero. Of course, the larger ground-level store in Naples will replace the highly visible two-story bookstore Barnes & Noble has occupied for more than 30 years on the northwest corner of U.S. 41 and Seagate Drive in North Naples.
With e-commerce changing consumer habits, Barnes & Noble is the last national bookstore chain in Collier County. Borders closed its North Naples store in 2011 where Trader Joe’s is today. BooksA-Million closed its store in Naples Plaza in 2012 and was replaced by Nordstrom Rack at Mercato in 2013. Coastland Center mall in Naples used to have locations for both Waldenbooks and B. Dalton Bookseller before they became defunct in 2011 and 2013, respectively. Family Christian Stores closed all of its locations, including stores in Park Shore Plaza and Carillon Place, in 2017.
Detroit-based Sachse Construction is demolishing Barnes & Noble’s vacated interior space at 5377 Tamiami Trail N. in Waterside Shops to create a shell for home furnishing retailers Pottery Barn and Williams-Sonoma, which eventually will relocate from longtime units inside the upscale openair mall to the 24,000-square-foot, two-story building. Nearly every corner of the local shopping and dining destination will be affected by redevelopment projects through at least 2025.
Sachse also has Collier County permits for the demolition of the two-story commercial building of more than 40,000 square feet—that formerly was home to Nordstrom department store for 12 years before it permanently
closed in 2020—at 5489 Tamiami Trail N. in Waterside Shops. California-based Restoration Hardware, a trendy home furnishings store known simply as RH, is conceptualizing plans to build one of its stylish galleries with a rooftop restaurant on that site.
Meanwhile, plans approved this month show that Sachse also is the contractor for the interior demolition of a freestanding former bank office at 765 Seagate Drive to create space for Eddie V’s Prime Seafood, an American seafood and steak restaurant chain operated by Orlando-based Darden Restaurants.
The upscale, full-service restaurant is proposed for the former
Bank of America/U.S. Trust building on the southwest corner of Waterside Shops.
These projects are occurring on the edges of the mall, while interior changes with new retailers are happening as usual during the start of the season.
Alice + Olivia launched Sept. 14 at Waterside Shops in the former space of the St. John boutique. The contemporary New York-based fashion brand by Stacey Bendet offers women’s clothing where whimsy meets sophistication. St. John recently reopened after relocating to the former Trina Turk suite.
Alo Yoga is scheduled to launch
a shop for workout accessories this fall in a suite near the former Nordstrom store. Vince, a highend chain for stylish yet timeless clothing and accessories for men, women and children, reopened Sept. 6 after a remodeling project.
Panerai boutique and 120% Lino linen clothing store will be relocating to newly designed spaces, but guests can continue to shop at their existing stores in Waterside until then.
Burger file
Q: I went to the North Naples BurgerFi last week to find it closed.
I believe the closest location that is still open is near Whole Foods off
A: When BurgerFi International Inc. announced Sept. 11 that it filed voluntary petitions for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, the company reported that all 144 locations of the company’s two casual dining chains—BurgerFi and Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza & Wings —will continue normal, uninterrupted operations. But, in September, BurgerFi closed its corporate-owned location in North Naples.
That Creekside Corners endcap was the last of the company’s “better burger” dining concepts in Collier County. It opened in August 2016 on the corner of Goodlette-Frank and Immokalee roads. BurgerFi’s only other location in Collier County permanently closed in mid-June at the Shops at Eagle Creek in East Naples.
Both Collier locations were temporarily shuttered during the first quarter of 2019 while their ownership was transferred from a Naples-based franchisee to the Fort Lauderdale-based BurgerFi International. Both restaurants closed that January and reopened four months later as corporate stores.
The only remaining BurgerFi restaurant in Collier or Lee counties is at 6881 Daniels Parkway, Suite 110, in Daniels Marketplace, the retail center anchored by Whole Foods Market in south Fort Myers.
The “Tim Aten Knows” weekly column answers local questions from readers. Email Tim at tim. aten@naplespress.com.
of Daniels in Fort Myers. —Stephany Carr, Naples
Waterside Shops, the upscale open-air mall on the corner of U.S. 41 and Seagate Drive in North Naples. Photo by Tim Aten
After operating here for more than 30 years, Barnes & Noble closed with plans to relocate in Naples. Home furnishing retailers Pottery Barn and Williams-Sonoma will relocate from within Waterside Shops to this freestanding, two-story building. Photo by Tim Aten
aggregate 3.76 millage rate that covers various municipal service tax units (MSTU). That’s possible after property values increased 10.33% to more than $152.25 billion this year. It lowered the rate for Conservation Collier, which had already been reduced from .25 to .22 for this fiscal year, by .02 mills to make it .20.
One mill is equal to $1 for every $1,000 worth of a property’s taxable value after adjustments, including a homestead exemption. Unless their assessment rose, residents won’t see an increase. A homeowner with a $300,000 home would pay $1,131—or less with a homestead exemption.
The budget represents a 4% increase over this year’s $2.85 billion budget.
Unlike last year’s final budget hearing, which lasted well into the early morning hours as commissioners struggled to balance the budget before raiding Conservation Collier funds, the hearing this year took 50 minutes.
The budget includes $266.45 million for the Sheriff’s Office, a 6.48% increase, and several changes since the Sept. 5 budget hearing, including reducing the Haldeman Creek MSTU millage rate. Reimbursement grants for arts organizations, which have been a target of some commissioners, was not part of this decision; it was in a discussion on allocation of Tourism Development funds to be discussed in the county commissioners’ meeting Sept. 24.
“These budget changes total $25 million [and] that’s due to the reestablishment of those loans to our disaster fund to aid with the continuing recovery from Hurricane Ian,” said Christopher Johnson, county director of Corporate Financial and Management Services.
For county divisions, changes include a $173,971 decrease to the Public Services Division, giving it $46.47
million to cover libraries, parks, veterans’ services, museums, health services, Community & Human Services and Domestic Animal Services. Other division changes included a $125,902 increase to Corporate Business Operations and $97,569 more for management offices.
This year, the county’s priority-based budgeting consultant, ResourceX, asked division heads to consider ways to trim budgets. It found between $80 million and $120 million in new revenues and reallocation opportunities; most are still being reviewed, however, and weren’t reflected in this budget.
Among those ideas were to reallocate tourist development tax funds to beach parks, rather than using the general fund. Libraries may cut hours or days, as they did in 2008, and commissioners will discuss that, as well as other cuts and potentially charging patrons for digital books this fall.
On Sept. 10, commissioners approved $1 million to continue paying for cloudLibrary and Hoopla digital services through fiscal year 2025— helping vision- and hearing-impaired patrons and school summer reading programs, and saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in book purchases. Commissioners did ask the library administrators to seek Collier County Public Schools participation in funding some of the reading program.
Tourism development tax collections, which come from hotels and other overnight stays, totaled $44 million last year, but are expected to top $47.2 million this year and will fund the Tourism Division’s $41.33 million budget next fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1.
Noting that the Tourism Division’s promotion fund didn’t use $21 million budgeted this year, Commissioner Chris Hall, the chairman, has suggested taking TDT funds, joking that as long as they say something boosts tourism, commissioners could re-allocate funds.
To view the budget, go to: bit. ly/2024-25colliercountybudget From page 1A
COMMISSIONERS AT ODDS OVER CONSERVATION COLLIER MONEY
By Aisling Swift
At last year’s Collier County budget hearing, the Board of Collier County Commissioners eliminated a $60 million shortfall by voting to take up to $53.5 million in Conservation Collier funds.
The following month, commissioners adopted a resolution allowing them to take those funds whenever needed for any purpose. So far, they have used only $29.6 million of it.
Unlike Tourism Development Tax funds, which have restricted uses under state law, Conservation Collier funds aren’t protected. That has angered numerous residents.
Including the original in November 2002, voters have supported the program during three referendums, most recently extending it for a 10-year period in 2020 to keep lands in conservation in Collier County. More than 4,978 acres and 22 preserves were created to protect water quality, wildlife habitat and recreation areas, including Freedom Park, Pepper Ranch and Gordon River Greenway.
At the budget hearing, five speakers urged commissioners to reimburse Conservation Collier immediately or incrementally and asked them to support its $52.4 million budget, which includes maintenance, land acquisition and project funds. Commissioners have also reduced the millage rate for Conservation Collier to .20 mills from the maximum .25.
Brad Cornell, Audubon Florida and Western Audubon policy director, praised commissioners for streamlining the land acquisition process, noting that since 2022, Conservation Collier purchased 90 properties totaling 683 acres for about $15.5 million and some 25 properties totaling 2,337 acres valued at about $26.6 million are pending acquisition.
“We need more than that,” Cornell said of the budget. “The budget resources for Conservation Collier appear adequate for this coming year and for the maintenance in the short term. However, there is a recurring commitment needed, and Audubon is concerned resources are not sufficient for the long-term responsibilities in completing vital, complex, local ecosystem acquisitions.”
Gaylene Vasaturo, a retired U.S. Environmental Protection Agency attorney, asked commissioners to fully fund Conservation Collier at .25 mills, not .20 mills, which is even lower than its millage rate of .22 mills this year.
“As the cost of land is going up, Conservation Collier’s purchasing power is going down,” Vasaturo said. “… Having voted for this program three times, voters clearly place a high value on preserving land for these purposes. We recognize this is important for our quality of life.”
Although commissioners said the funds were accumulating and wasting away, Vasaturo said it’s important they grow to a sufficient level over the remaining seven years to manage preserves into perpetuity and purchase more land.
“Next time you ask us to vote for a sales tax increase … we will remember what you did with Conservation Collier money, and also what you do going forward, so please start paying back the $30 million,” she added.
Biologist Gordon Brumwell noted that increasing Conservation Collier’s millage from .20 mills back to .25 would bring in $6 million yearly, while costing taxpayers around $9.
“Please increase the rate just a tad today and please lock in returning the $30 million,” Brumwell said. “Leaving it to some random board down the road risks it never happening.”
Two speakers, however, said it’s more important to balance the budget and to keep taxes low.
Financial advisors John Meo Jr. and Kathi Meo, who are also chairman and secretary of the Collier County Republican Executive Committee, noted that most commissioners maintain they didn’t “borrow” the funds, so they don’t need to repay them. They also said Conservation Collier is well funded, earning $1 million in interest yearly.
“Not raising taxes is the best thing that we can do as we move forward,” John Meo said. “We have inflation that’s at an all-time rate. People go to Publix and they’re astounded by what a few groceries cost. … The priority right now is we have an extremely inflationary economy, and on the horizon we may have a great deal of emergency issues.”
Commissioner Burt Saunders noted that commissioners reduced the millage rate to the rollback rate again to help taxpayers, but must consider Conservation Collier, future taxpayers and residents after this board is gone.
“If at the end of the 10-year period, we have $50 million, $75 million still in the bank,” he said, “we’re looking at purchases into the longer, long-term future, as well as the maintenance.”
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could limit it to 90 or 180 days. City staff had recommended approval, but Council denied it after a lengthy discussion.
“While our members are saddened by this decision, we remain committed to providing our membership with alternate dining and community gathering opportunities during the construction of our new clubhouse scheduled to open in 2026,” the club said in a statement after the vote.
The denial came nearly a month after Council unanimously approved the club’s plans to rebuild a larger club at 2900 Gordon Drive. That conditional-use petition allows the club to build a clubhouse with two more levels offering indoor and outdoor dining, a new pool and deck, outdoor seating, a two-story garage and new landscaping and lighting in a public service district. The three-level club will be elevated and built to current standards. Council also approved outdoor dining and a waiver allowing an 11-foot wall between the club and a neighbor.
To move forward with construction, those plans require final Design Review Board approval, which was set for Sept. 25, after press time.
The club’s attorney, Clay Brooker of Cheffy Passidomo, told Council the tent and trailers would sit on two of the nine tennis courts and would extend the expiration date for temporary dining to June 1, 2027, or until the club reopens.
“Hurricane Ian stripped the club of its ability to offer its members a place to congregate and to talk to friends and neighbors over dinner,” Brooker said. “Mean -
while, the members continue to pay annual dues to keep the club financially solvent, so the request before you today is a lifeline—a request to help maintain the club’s fellowship and camaraderie during the reconstruction period.” Brooker said the tent location at 2755 Gordon Drive was selected by the club’s board because it’s the farthest west away from the homes to the east, and because the pro shop would provide a visual and acoustic buffer between the tent and homes. It would seat 130 people, and operate from 5-10 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays.
“[The board] elected to move forward with this concept supported by the majority of its members, while making every effort to address the concerns of those who oppose it,” he said.
But tennis court neighbors were worried about noise, smells, lights, rats, fire and safety risks, including hurricanes toppling the tent. They noted restaurants are working with the club to enable members to gather for lunch and dinner. Six residents spoke in opposition, while four, including club officials, urged approval.
Dan Lennon, who lives 120 feet away from the tennis courts, not -
ed it’s quiet at night but the longer hours could last three years and the tent and trailers would be visible from his home. After diners leave, he said, there would still be noise and traffic from staff departing after 10 p.m.
“With restaurants come rodents,” Lennon said. “I know this because after the club started its prior temporary dining facility on the site, we had a serious rat infestation in our house. Restaurants also present fire and other risks.”
He noted the city shut down the club’s past two temporary dining operations due to health and safety reasons. “We simply shouldn’t
have to live so close to those risks. These conditions would disrupt our lives, unfairly reduce our property values and create a legally impermissible nuisance,” he added.
Four others urged Council to allow the tent, noting that this is the only option for many elderly members who can’t drive or navigate to downtown.
John Allen, the closest neighbor, said the club would be able to control pests and respect neighbors’ concerns.
“They have been a beautiful neighbor to have and I suspect that they’ll be a good neighbor with this tent, as well,” Allen said, noting that it will boost property values. “People who are looking at Port Royal don’t have a reason to want to buy in Port Royal because the club is two or three years out. This is the transition … that will get us there.”
Council member Berne Barton asked whether the club had considered three days a week or weekends. They hadn’t, Brooker said, but were willing to mitigate concerns. Council member Linda Penniman asked about noise levels, which Brooker said would be well under 30-40 decibels for neighbors. Council was assured the tent is made to withstand heavy winds, but could be taken down before a hurricane.
Club officials said most diners are usually gone by 9 p.m., but in the end, Council’s concerns focused on a dining tent possibly operating up to three years, alcohol consumption and the intensity of activities.
“It’s a tragedy what happened,” Council member Ray Christman said, adding, however, “The impact on a number of people who are neighbors is undeniable.”
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Construction of the Port Royal Club, foreground, stands next to the home of Terry Mullen in Naples. The rebuilt club will have an additional two stories. Naples City Council denied the club’s plan to offer a spacious temporary dining tent to members while it awaited reconstruction, after opposition from neighbors who feared noise, odors, lights and increased traffic. Photo by Liz Gorman
A rts & LEISURE
Spices used in Simit’s chicken kebab dish include cumin (bottom) and Turkish paprika (top). Photo by Liz Gorman
Ongoing events
Shroud of Turin sculpture at Ave Maria
On exhibition indefinitely at Canizaro Exhibit Library, 5050 Ave Maria Blvd., Ave Maria. “The Shroud of Jesus: And the Sign John Ingeniously Concealed” is an exhibition following 40 years of study and research by Gilbert Lavoie, M.D., an author and medical doctor. It includes descriptive panels, a sculpture of the shroud commissioned by Lavoie and a 14-foot shroud replica for visitors to view. The exhibition also includes detailed photos of the shroud by photographer Vernon Miller. Free. 239.280.2500
'HOT! HOT! HOT!' exhibition on Marco
9 a.m.-4 p.m. MondaysFridays through Oct. 1 at Marco Island Center for the Arts, 1010 Winterberry Drive, Marco Island. Artist-submitted, curated works with a heat theme, whether physically or emotionally produced. In its La Petite Galerie: Jessica Wajoli’s African woven and beaded art. marcoislandart. org or 239.394.4221
‘Twenty-five Years of Our Collections’
10 a.m.-6 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays; 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays; 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sundays through Oct. 17 at Naples Art Institute, 5858 Park St., Naples. Naples has been home—or winter home— to amazing talent. Renowned contemporary artists including James Rosenquist; national and regional notables such as Elsie Dorey Upham; and self-taught artists and former students have contributed to the collection in Naples Art Institute over the years. Recent additions include photographs by Suzanne Camp Crosby and paintings by Reisha Perlmutter and Carmelo Blandino. A survey of just some of that collection is on display. $15, $10 members. Call for information on docent tours. naplesart.org or 239.262.6517
Ran Adler Art in the Garden Regular garden hours through Oct. 27 in Kapnick Hall and the Fogg Cafe at Naples Botanical Garden, 4820 Bayshore Drive, Naples. “Internalizing the External: A New Perspective on Nature” brings the art of Ran Adler to the Naples Botanical Garden. The exhibition offers a glimpse of the transformation of natural materials when handled with harmony and intention. Garden admission $25 adults, $10 ages 4-17; summer discount for Collier, Lee and Charlotte county residents, $10 adults, $5 ages 4-17. naplesgarden.org or 239.643.7275
New art at The Baker Museum
10 a.m.-4 p.m. TuesdaysSaturdays, noon-4 p.m. Sundays at The Baker Museum, 5833 Pelican Bay Blvd., Naples. “As
We Rise: Photography from the Black Atlantic” photography from the Wedge Collection, and through Jan. 5, “Becky Suss: The Dutch House,” new paintings inspired by American author Ann Patchett’s 2019 novel, The Dutch House, which chronicles two adult siblings recalling their childhoods and the subsequent dissolution of their family over
CALENDAR
GET TO REALLY KNOW THE EVERGLADES
9 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 2, at Audubon’s Blair Visitor Center, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, 375 Sanctuary Road W., Naples. Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary is home to the largest remaining old-growth bald cypress forest in the world, protected from logging since 1954. Get an in-depth education on it in this three-hour tour along the 2.25-mile boardwalk through the ancient forest. Learn its history, ecology and stories, and see its protected cypress trees. There are opportunities for rest along the way. Participants must be aged 16 or older. $30. corkscrew.audubon.org/events or 239.348.9151
several decades. $10; full-time student or active military (with I.D.), $5; SNAP benefits (with SNAP EBT card), $1; ages 17 and younger, free. artisnaples.org or 239.597.1900
Beginners macrame workshop
10 a.m.-1 p.m. Mondays at Naples Art Studios, North Line Plaza, 2172 J & C Blvd., Naples. Create your own plant hanger or wall hanging in just three hours with multimedia artist Tracy Magen Rosen. $75 per person, materials list provided. naplesart. studio or 239.821.1061
This weekend (Sept. 27, 28, 29)
Meet the artist at Norris Center Exhibition through Sept. 30,
reception 4-6 p.m. Sept. 27 at Norris Community Center, 755 Eighth Ave. S., Naples. Artist Dani Papa has brought a pop-up show of his recent live-performance art that is in the gallery, and he’ll be there to talk about it. Free.
Sugarhill Gang in Bonita
7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 27, at the Center for the Performing Arts Bonita Springs, 10150 Bonita Beach Road, Bonita Springs. Hip-hop pioneers the Sugarhill Gang bring their groundbreaking sound, including their breakthrough hit, “Rapper’s Delight.” $60-$66. artsbonita.org
Naples Jazzmasters Summer Concerts
1-3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28, at Norris Community Center, 755 Eighth Ave. S., Naples. Seven area jazz virtuosos play the classics
in the swamp on this Audubon Naturalist guided tour. Your guide will bring you into the areas where nocturnal animals are out and vocal, and the sky on a clear night sky is a huge blanket of stars. A night visit could bring the sounds of calling insects, owls and alligators, along with a surprise or two. $40, $20 ages 12-16. corkscrew.audubon.org/events or 239.348.9151
Simon’s ‘Rumors’ at Sugden 7:30 p.m. WednesdaysSaturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays Oct. 2-20 at Kizzie Hall, Sugden Theater, 701 Fifth Ave. S., Naples. Neil Simon wrote only one farce, Rumors, but he gave it every ounce of zaniness he had. The Naples Players production has fun with characters who pop up and disappear, get involved in elaborate lies and try to explain that pesky sound of gunfire to police. $50-$55. naplesplayers.org or 239.263.7990
27th annual Manhattan Short Film Festival
5:30-7 p.m. Oct. 3 and 2-3:30 p.m. Oct. 5 at Marco Island Center for the Arts, 1010 Winterberry Drive, Marco Island. More than 100,000 film lovers in 500+ cities across six continents view and vote on the finalists’ films in the 27th annual Manhattan Short Film Festival, and you can be among the voters. Festival attendees are handed a voting card and an official program and asked to vote for the one film and actor they feel should win. Votes are tallied by each host venue and emailed to the festival’s NYC headquarters. Finalists will become eligible to enter the Oscars 2025. $10-$15. marcoislandart.org
of Dixieland with a generous helping of Great American Songbook, as well. Freewill offering. 239.254.9674
‘Chicago’ with commentary
6:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 29, at Paragon Pavilion, 833 Vanderbilt Beach Road, Naples. As a tribute to musicals on national Broadway Musical Day, Naples Cinematheque is bringing Chicago , the 2003 blockbuster film version of the musical, to the pavilion in full moviescreen, and guest Kristen Coury, founder of Gulfshore Playhouse, to talk about the art of Broadway musicals before the screening and discuss viewers’ questions afterward. Tickets $21.20 ($19.08 seniors) to Lux Box seats $26.50 ($24.38 seniors). tickets. paragontheaters.com
World-class help for your barbecue
6:30-9:30 p.m. Sept. 28 at the Ritz-Carlton Naples, 280 Vanderbilt Beach Road, Naples. International barbeque host and instructor Jack Arnold, one of the instructors for the “BBQ Stars” videos, brings his grill talent for an evening of live-fire cooking. Attendees will enjoy his grilled house meats and chicken served alongside signature sides. A bar offers beer, wine, liquor and nonalcoholic beverages for purchase. $135.23. eventbrite.com
Next week (Sept. 30-Oct. 3)
Corkscrew Night Tour
7:30 p.m. Sept. 30 at Audubon’s Blair Visitor Center, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, 375 Sanctuary Road W., Naples. Enjoy a night
Plan ahead
‘Rest in Paradise’:
A cemetery photo tour
2-3 p.m. Oct. 8 at Collier Museum at Government Center, 3331 Tamiami Trail E., Naples. There are at least a dozen cemeteries in Collier County, from the formality of Palm Royale in Naples to small family plots hidden away in rural corners of the county. At one time the more welloff had their burials in Fort Myers, but many families had no money for that and family members were interred right on the homestead. Museum Director Amanda Townsend offers a photographic tour of our communities’ known final resting places and an update on what’s being done to recognize long-forgotten gravesites you may pass every day. Free. 239.252.8476
Car Show seeks classics
9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 16, at Florida SouthWestern State College, 7505 Grand Lely Drive, Naples. The 6th annual Rookery Bay Classic Car Show has more than 100 cars representing everything from pre-1930s antiques to icons from the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s, muscle cars from the ’60s and ’70s and exotic/high performance race cars from yesterday and today. The day will include food and specialty vendors, family-friendly activities and entertainment. Admission to the pet-friendly car show is $10 for adults, $5 for ages 3-12 and free for children 3 and younger. The organization is seeking cars for the show; car registration will be $35 per vehicle on event day or $25 per vehicle at rookerybay.org/ carshow
An in-depth tour of Corkscrew Swamp Oct. 2 will reveal a wealth of Everglades secrets. Photo by Lisette Morales McCabe
Dani Papa takes over the gallery of the Norris Community Center with his high-color expressionist art, and he’s there to talk about it Sept. 27. Courtesy Dani Papa
RESTAURANTS
SPECIAL SPICES FOUND IN NAPLES KITCHENS
By Jorge Gadala-Maria
Take a peek into restaurant kitchens in Naples, and you’ll discover some unconventional spices and seasonings adding new dimensions to dishes and redefining traditional flavors. The Naples Press talked to three chefs to learn more about their approaches to exciting, diverse and lesser-known spices that may be finding their way into your next bite.
Off Airport-Pulling Road at Simit Fresh Mediterranean, Macedonian-born restaurant partner Ivo Milanoski explained the restaurant’s heavy use of one of the most popular spices in Mediterranean and Turkish cuisine: Aleppo pepper, named after the northern Syrian city. It’s said Aleppo pepper is the third most popular spice behind salt and black pepper in Turkey. How much gets used at Simit? Milanoski said you’ll find it in “most of the dishes that are on the menu.” He describes it as “smokey, spicy—but not extremely spicy—and a peppery aroma.”
Another popular spice sprinkled throughout the kitchen at Simit is dried sumac, a spice made from dried sumac berries. “It’s used for medicine and used as a spice,” Milanoski said. At Simit, it’s found tossed in with tomato and onions as part of the shepherd salad that accompanies items such as the mixed grill. It’s “acidic, a little tart, a little flowery, tangy, smoky, earthy.” Milanoski credited his team for any education that his guests dining at Simit may need with any unfamiliar items on the menu. “Our staff does an amazing job explaining the history of the dishes and ingredients, and they can introduce a backstory.”
At Old Vines in Mercato, Chef Brooke
Kravetz takes cues from seasonal flavors to blend some unusual spices into her dishes. “I always see first what the seasonal produce is, and what seasonings go well with fall flavors, similar to that warm fall spice,” Kravetz said. She’s recently rotated a five-spiced salmon onto her menu, using a traditional Chinese blend of star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Sichuan pepper and fennel seeds and equating these flavor notes to what diners are looking for in those warm fall flavors. Kravetz and her team blend together the five-spice and olive oil, and then brush the infused olive oil onto the salmon during the cooking process. It’s accompanied with a parsnip puree that also has the dried five-spice seasoning sprinkled in.
In a dish with more summer tones, Kravetz pointed out the PEI mussels are prepared and served with bacon, leeks, potatoes and a saffron cream. Saffron is known to be one of the most, if not the most, expensive spices in the world; Kravetz said her bill for a 2-ounce tin of saffron is about $100. Mentally portioning out a batch of the saffron cream sauce in her head, she estimated each dish of mussels has about two threads of saffron. At Nat Nat, a natural wine bar and kitchen in Naples, you’ll find co-owner and chef Ming Yee’s rotating weekly menus. They’re updated every Wednesday, but expect to see regular staples including fresh catch from Dilly’s Fish Co.; homemade focaccias and desserts; and locally grown mushrooms from Care2Grow.
Yee keeps the menu exciting by using new spices and sauces, such as the Ethiopian spice blend berbere in a traditional Spanish tomato-based romesco sauce. “I was in Food & Thought looking
A red snapper crudo dish from Nat Nat in Naples, made with sesame, cilantro, a tomato juice infused olive oil romesco sauce and berbere seasoning. Photo by Liz Gorman
A dish from Simit of ground chicken kebab, ajvar pita bread and a salad of onion, red pepper and tomato. The dishes have been seasoned with yellow cumin, red Turkish paprika, maras pepper, oregano and sumac. Photo by Liz Gorman
FOOD & FLAVOR
DESSERTS
TASTE TEST: KEY LIME PIE HAS MANY APPROACHES IN NAPLES
By
You know you’re in Florida when key lime pie, that signature sweet of the tropics, appears on every menu.
But defining contemporary key lime pie is catching the tradewinds breeze. This dessert has more approaches than a palm has fronds, all wonderful to their fans. And as lime-loving staff from The Naples Press and Gulfshore Business learned, those differences become obvious quickly.
In an unscientific, but delightfully filling, taste test before Key Lime Pie Day on Thursday, Sept. 26, we brought in five pies that we had heard mentioned most as favorites in Naples. There were several actual yelps from our tasters over the tangy, heck-yes-I’m-key-lime tartness blended into the pie from the bakery of Wynn’s Market, which may be the one with the longest track record of turning out the dessert. Others voiced a little frustration with the crumbly character of the deep brown graham crust on the Swan River Seafood restaurant pie, although it still scored second highest in our taste test.
“I was surprised at the variety of fillings. I didn’t think there were that many ways to make it,” said taster Carin Keane, Gulfshore Life Media publisher.
On the other hand, Naples Press senior edi-
tor Terry McDevitt was surprised to find the crusts far from generic: “There were differences, which I didn’t expect,” she said.
We looked at a number of factors in crowning our queen of the pies: the cheesecake-form key lime pie from Tony’s Off Third. Several tasters noted its filling was fluffier, although not whipped, as many cream pies are, and its presentation heads above the rest. And the flavor?
When we pulled out the pies to share with our work colleagues after the test, that one had already disappeared.
Coming in behind it was the ultra-creamy offering from Swan River Seafood, and the third-highest rating went to the almond-trimmed pie from Publix, with its blend of crunchy and creamy textures.
Here are the characteristics our tasters were asked to score:
Appearance: To garnish or not to garnish— that was the question when trying to find a favorite among the five. The beauty contest laurels easily went to Tony’s Off Third, a good-size pie ($33.39), taller than the rest, with wedges of lime atop piped whipped cream dollops that allowed each slice its own fluffy mountain; its graham cracker crust was built up around a cheesecake-style presentation. It was followed closely by Publix, with a 9-inch pie (the value dessert at $9.99) that arrived encircled with whipped topping sprinkled with slivered almonds.
But there was something to be said for sim-
Naples International Film Festival
plicity: Swan River’s key lime pie ($17.99) was simply a rich, ultra-creamy-looking filling with a generous graham cracker crust peeking out around it.
Filling: Flavors and mouth feel were important here. One that elicited immediate comments was Wynn’s key lime pie ($18.99), which tasters either loved or fled. This was a golden filling with a pronounced tartness; no one would mistake it for anything other than key lime pie. Yet some of the tasters wanted it tempered a bit, which a good whipped cream spritz would do. (Note: This is the pie from the bakery; next to its Olde Naples Seafood counter is another with more sweetness to it, and yet another version is in the freezer case.)
The pie from Seed to Table ($15.99 undecorated; $19 from the bakery case, decorated) also had been recommended, but it brought the most complaints for the opposite issue: “Sweet!” and “Too sugary” were the tasters’ descriptions. There was even a bit of sugar grit in the texture. It did get applause for holding its shape while several others began to sag as soon as they were sliced.
Tony’s Off Third produced a filling that had both a tanginess and a slightly sweet creaminess to it; one taster didn’t care for the slight aeration, however.
(*Deceased)
Crust: Finding a crust that didn’t sacrifice flavor for strength was tricky; only one of them even got comments for its flavor. The Seed to Table graham crust was “almost soggy,” one complained, but it held up under slicing. So did Wynn’s, Tony’s Off Third and Publix. The Swan River pie crust was deemed the most crumbly, but got highest marks for flavor, perhaps with a bit of brown sugar in its mix. One taster felt the Publix crust, while sturdy, had a chemical taste that was off-putting.
All of these pies used a graham cracker crust.
We suspect a special order is necessary to get a key lime pie with standard pastry crust, and it’s not the kind of pie that would hold up well for several days, so eat it that day. For the rest of us: Not everyone can handle the richness of a whole key lime pie. Fortunately, most of the bakeries here also sell key lime tarts.
For those of us who can’t handle gluten, there are gluten-free key lime pies at Epiphany Gluten-Free Bakery and Angelic Desserts. It’s best to call in advance to make sure someone hasn’t gotten to the last one for the day. And for the enlightened among us: Organically Twisted sells vegan key lime pie by the slice. So there’s no reason not to celebrate Florida’s favorite pie any day of the year.
Presenting Sponsors Dr. Richard Lublin and Christine Lublin.
Harriet Howard Heithaus and Liz Gorman
Key lime pie from Tony’s Off Third, topped with a generous helping of whipped cream and fresh limes. Photos by Liz Gorman
A mini key lime pie from Tony’s Off Third.
FOOD & FLAVOR
STAR NAPLES CHEF BACK IN FRONT OF LOCAL AUDIENCE
By Jorge Gadala-Maria
Chef Kayla Pfeiffer is no stranger to cooking on a stage. During her stint on Fifth Avenue South, she recalled weekend events that would close the entire street, and she would take center stage going step by step through countless recipes as event-goers watched. More recently, on an episode of The Food Network’s “Chopped” that aired Jan. 9, Pfeiffer took on an even bigger stage. She impressed the judges with za’atar-crusted alligator hearts, roasted squab and her take on monkey bread, and ultimately took home the victory over her competitors.
At the beginning of the “Chopped” episode, Pfeiffer described her style of cooking as a “fusion of all different types of culinary concepts.” This philosophy accurately describes her current take on things in the kitchen at Bicyclette Cookshop in the Pavilion on Vanderbilt Beach Road, where she is the executive chef and a partner. The restaurant is celebrating its one-year anniversary in November.
Pfeiffer was back in front of a crowd last week, though this time the stage was set up in Bicyclette’s dining room, where she hosted one of Sizzle Dining’s interaction chef demonstrations. For the first time, the team behind Sizzle Dining—a 21-day-long annual initiative when restaurants agree to prepare unique menus and donate $1 to the Blessings in a Backpack charity from each Sizzle meal sold—organized lunchtime chef demonstrations, named Sizzle & Savor. Sizzle Dining founder Guy Clarke and Sizzle & Savor coordinator Ashley Martinez handpicked Pfeiffer as one of four chefs to show hungry diners how to make their meal before they were served it shortly thereafter.
“Guy reached out to me and, without hesitation, I said yes. To support Sizzle Dining itself and Blessings in a Backpack, it’s a no-brainer,” Pfeiffer said. When asked why he picked Pfeiffer and Bicyclette for one of the program’s chef’s demonstrations, Clarke described Pfeiffer as “the new ‘young blood’ that was needed to help drive Naples into the next phase of our foodie journey. Her winning ‘Chopped’ just proved what I felt, so I wanted to help highlight what she is doing, and getting her involved in the Sizzle & Savor event was the perfect way.”
Before Pfeiffer switched on the blender and butane burner in the dining room to start working on the chipotle hollandaise sauce and braised chicken tenderloins that would end up on the lunch plates, we took a peek at what goes through her head to prepare to be front-and-center. She explained, “How I would approach a live cooking demo or cooking on ‘Chopped’ is the same way. I don’t get nervous about it. Obviously, there’s more pressure with ‘Chopped,’ but if you have fun with it, make a few people laugh, obviously educate, you’ve done your job.”
The first of two courses on the menu was her chorizo potatoes, which Pfeiffer admitted were inspired by a fast-food favorite of hers: Taco Bell’s cheesy fiesta potatoes. Normally found on Bicyclette’s snacks menu, the dish is made up of diced potatoes roasted with chopped Spanish chorizo and then topped with a chipotle hollandaise foam.
After adding all the ingredients for the sauce into a blender, including chipotle peppers to give it a slightly spicy bite, Pfeiffer added the sauce to a whipped cream dispenser, pulled the trigger on the dispenser and topped a plate of potatoes, the final touch to make it match every other dish that was being served to the event’s attendees at the same time.
At the beginning of the "Chopped" episode, Pfeiffer described her style of cooking as a "fusion of all different types of culinary concepts." This philosophy accurately describes her current take on things in the kitchen at Bicyclette Cookshop.
Pfeiffer picked the chicken flautas off her lunch menu to showcase one of her purveyors at Bicyclette Cookshop—Circle C Farms. Flautas are a traditional Mexican dish made with rolled tortillas stuffed with a shredded protein, and then deep-fried to give them their traditional crunchy outside. Located in Hendry County just over an hour’s drive from Bicyclette Cookshop, Circle C Farms has a close relationship with Pfeiffer and Bicyclette, and harvests and processes the chickens to the chef’s liking. Pfeiffer also highlights Circle C Farms’ chicken on the show-stopping dinner entree, the Za’atar Chicken. The half chicken is presented to the diner with the claw still on, on a bed of olive and pita panzanella salad, topped with charred onion cups filled with dipping sauce. The demonstration for the flautas included Pfeiffer showing off the many veggies that made up the charred tomato salsa, rolling up the tortillas, skewering them and dropping them into a pot of hot oil to fry in front of all the guests. Pfeiffer said the fresh tortillas that are a staple in this dish are locally produced and “still hot when we get them.” When it was finally time to plate, Pfeiffer spooned a layer of charred tomato salsa on the bottom, carefully placed three flautas on it, then topped it all with fresh sliced avocado, a sprinkle of cotija cheese, shredded lettuce and a drizzle of Mexican crema.
Rob and Debbie Steingold of Bonita Springs were in attendance after finding out about the event from the restaurant’s Facebook page just the day before. Rob Steingold described the dishes as “authentic,” a testament to the flavors Pfeiffer and her kitchen staff have worked to put on the plate. Pfeiffer made it clear that this is exactly how these dishes are prepared and executed in the kitchen for diners who order it from the lunch menu on any given day.
Bicyclette Cookshop participated in Sizzle Dining this year by offering both a lunch and dinner menu, while many restaurants participating only offer one or the other. After the demonstration, the chef went back into the kitchen to help the back of the house prepare dishes for the guests who were there for a standard outing. Pfeiffer equated the September Sizzle crowd with what you’d normally find in the winter months. “It’s fun to have the in-season energy,” she said.
Chef Kayla Pfeiffer prepares chicken flautas before they are deep fried. The flautas are handrolled with avocado, lettuce, salsa and chicken.
Bicyclette Chef Kayla Pfeiffer leads a cooking demonstration, as part of Sizzle Dining in Naples. The $29 lunch special includes two courses, with chorizo potatoes as a first course and chicken flautas as a second course.
Photos by Liz Gorman
ENTREPRENEUR
RESTLESSNESS, CREATIVITY LEAD TO RESIN-BASED BUSINESS, ON THE ROCKS
By Justin Paprocki
Like many of us, Marcela Cavaglieri needed a hobby during the pandemic. She and her husband moved to Naples full time from her native Argentina in spring 2020.
“I just got really bored,” she says now with a laugh.
She was a psychologist by practice but enjoyed working with her hands in her off hours. She spent decades refurbishing furniture, and even wrote two books on the subject.
Always looking for a new adventure, she started experimenting with resin when she was in Naples. She had come across a YouTube video of an artist working with the material and it sparked her creativity. She started making coasters, just for fun. A friend and fellow crafter saw her work and told her she should start selling at farmers markets. “I looked at her and said, ‘Who is going to buy resin coasters?’” she says.
At that first farmers market, she brought six sets of coasters and sold them all.
It was the start of her business, On The Rocks. Cavaglieri handmakes resin-based trays, coasters, napkin holders and other glittery household items that resemble geodes at first glance. She’s built the business through selling at farmers markets locally and keeping up a robust social media and digital presence. After attending a trade show in Dallas, she started to get into the wholesale business, and now On The Rocks is featured in 100 stores across the country.
She’s found pleasure in working with the material itself. Unlike some of her other crafts, she has less control over the material and has had to take a different mindset to the work. “Resin is a very peculiar material; it does what it wants,” she says. “I had to have more patience working with it. I had to make myself let go. But I suppose that’s what we had to do during COVID; we all had to reinvent ourselves a bit.”
at the spices and I saw berbere. I looked at the ingredients and it has a bunch of really awesome seasonings and herbs that I like to use,” Yee said. “There was coriander, cumin,
fenugreek, ginger, cinnamon. I said, ‘This is going to be pretty, pretty interesting.’ I took it to the shop, I tasted it, and I was like, ‘This would be amazing with my romesco.’” Berbere typically also includes chili powder, garlic, cardamom, allspice, nutmeg and onion powder.
After some fine tuning, Yee said the ber-
bere brought his romesco sauce to the next level. “It was a home run; it was freaking delicious.” A few weeks ago, you’d have found the romesco sauce on his seafood dish, a pompano tataki. The fresh pompano from Everglades City was carefully sliced and artfully laid out, served raw, on a bed of the sauce—a harmonious blend of Ethiopian and Spanish
flavors that Yee described as earthy and complex. A diner that week was overheard asking for some focaccia to sop up the remaining sauce after he had consumed all the pompano. On future menus, Yee would like to incorporate more native spices and herbs, and infusions of different citrus plants, especially for ceviches and other seafood dishes.
Marcela Cavaglieri, upper right, pours resin into a mold to create coasters, above. Cavaglieri's business, On The Rocks, sprung from her desire for a new hobby during the pandemic. She creates resin-based trays, coasters, napkin holders (right) and other household items, and has built her business through selling the items at local farmers markets. Photos by Kevin Bires
OUT & ABOUT
Preferred Travel & Company celebrate its 40th anniversary with a dinner party at Hyatt Regency Coconut Point. More than 125 staff members, agents and friends attended the celebration.
Photography by Helen Werner
Jay and Lisa Spiller, Clay Cone and Sue Huff
Eddie Dziura, Olga Placeres and Jill Hanlon
Karen and Gretchen Berger Kody and Kristina Gear
Lisa Spiller, Tina Callahan and Palea Price Sarah Impellizzeri, Andrea White and Nayla Gomez
Susan Breckenridge and Connie Moody
Suzanne Dennis and Lillian Rudd
Marcella Kuchar, Michelle Fair and Josh Kuchar
Greg McKenney, Olga Placeres, Susan Gross and Jerry Nichols
COMICS & PUZZLES
1. U.S. STATES: Which state's nickname is The Hawkeye State?
2. MOVIES: What are the bad guys called in "Transformers"?
3. MYTHOLOGY: What happens to people when Medusa turns her gaze on them?
4. ANIMAL KINGDOM: What is a group of crocodiles in the water called?
5. FOOD & DRINK: What is the main ingredient in bouillabaisse (stew)?
6. ASTRONOMY: How old is our Sun?
7. TELEVISION: Where does Walter White live in "Breaking Bad"?
8. LITERATURE: The character named Ichabod Crane appears in which 19th-century story?
9. MEDICAL: What is a common name for onychocryptosis?
10. GEOGRAPHY: What is the capital of Nova Scotia?
2024
OLIVE
By Emi Burdge
DEFENSE SHINES FOR GOLDEN EAGLES
Speaking of Sports
David Wasson
Defense wins championships. It may not be flashy and get the highlight clips, but if you want trophies, you play defense.
And defense is what Naples High School does. Always has, probably always will.
Born out of Sam Dollar’s legendary defenses under coach Bill Kramer, the current iteration of Naples defense is helmed by the unlikely team of Cliff Greer and Mike Sawchuk. Two coaches with equal intensity and unmatched work ethic, they came to what can be regarded as the best defensive coaching staff in Southwest Florida from widely varying backgrounds.
Greer, 39, played in high school in Akron, Ohio, and graduated from Ohio State in 2007. He arrived in Naples fresh out of college and was coaching the Naples Gators youth teams in his spare time.
“I started going to Naples High games on Fridays because the locals told me if I was going to watch somebody, it needs to be them,” Greer said. “And two years later, in 2009, I came on as a freshman assistant coach.”
Sawchuk, whose father Terry was NHL royalty as a goaltender with the Detroit Red Wings, moved to Naples in 1971 when he was a
child. A 1985 Naples graduate and alumnus of Olivet College in Michigan, Sawchuk returned to coach with Dollar on the Golden Eagles staff from 1999-2001 before heading back to Michigan as a head coach at Plymouth High School in Canton for 17 years.
“I had some family stuff going on, and I always played golf with Kramer when I would come back in town,” the 57-year-old Sawchuk said. “I could tell he was getting near the end of the road, so I came back and just helped out for a bit.”
When Dollar retired from Naples in spring of 2018, Kramer initially thought of Sawchuk to run the Naples defense. But Sawchuk knew that Greer—who said he sat back his first two years with the Golden Eagles to “just listen and soak it all in”—would be a great fit for the job, as well. So when Greer instead pitched co-coordinators, it was an instant hit.
Which meant woe upon the rest of Southwest Florida’s offenses. Greer and Sawchuk immediately fell into sync like a rock ‘n’ roll supergroup—breaking down opposing offenses almost immediately after the previous Friday’s game and adapting Dollar’s base sets to meld seamlessly with the current era’s pass-happy offenses.
“We are blessed, for sure,” Greer said. “The only way you can do this as long as he and I have is to love the guys you coach with.”
The division of labor is seamless, too. They both break down film and text each other
constantly over weekends—a shorthand of thoughts on what might work and what might not. Flashing forward to game days, Greer handles the calls and headset chatter while watching plays from the line of scrimmage, and Sawchuk eyes the game from behind the offense to observe what they’re doing.
And on the exceedingly rare occasions a Naples opponent comes out doing something Greer and Sawchuk didn’t expect, there is no panic.
“We never freak out when we see something unexpected,” Greer said. “We calmly analyze the situation, discuss it among ourselves and then review our adjustments with the players. Running the same base scheme for 15 years has its benefits.”
“If you panic, the kids will panic,” Sawchuk said. “It is a game of adversity. I tell the linebackers after we warm up that if there is something we haven’t seen, don’t panic—we will fix it. The kids have never freaked out too bad because we are so calm.”
Where is Naples head coach Rick Martin in all of this? Unlike his predecessor Kramer, who also ran the Golden Eagles offense and was the undisputed boss of the program, Martin is often as far as 60 yards away from the Greer-Sawchuk team when the Naples defense is on the field.
“They’re the best defensive coaching staff in the state, if you ask me,” Martin said with a chuckle. “I would only screw them up if I get
in their way, so I leave them alone to do their jobs.”
Which is what Greer and Sawchuk do, season after season after season. Naples produces more than its fair share of Division-I talent, especially on defense, and even a bench-warmer from a decade ago could stand in a current Golden Eagles defensive huddle and know exactly what the calls were that were coming from the sideline.
Players past would also recognize the kind of tradition that Naples continues to foster. The defense gathers to eat dinner at the school each Monday night after practice to watch film of that week’s opponent together, and their coaches make sure the current Golden Eagles know that “pressure is a privilege.”
“We also tell them that winning isn’t for everyone,” Greer said. “It sounds like we’re being jerks on the surface, but it has nothing to do with the scoreboard on Fridays. It really means that doing everything it takes every day to win isn’t for everybody. But they do it, which is why we have been so successful consistently.” Defense wins championships. That’s the Naples Way, handed down from Dollar via Kramer, through to Greer and Sawchuk via Martin. And it definitely isn’t for everyone.
Gulfshore Sports with David Wasson airs weekdays from 3-5 p.m. on Southwest Florida’s Fox Sports Radio (105.9 FM in Collier County) and streaming on FoxSportsFM.com.
FGCU ALUM EARNS PGA TOUR CARD
By Shane Harvell
Former Florida Gulf Coast University men’s golfer Frankie Capan III earned his PGA Tour card Sept. 15 as part of the Korn Ferry Tour Finals.
“I was going to do everything I possibly could to be standing here now,” Capan said. He secured his tour card with two events remaining on the Korn Ferry Tour schedule. The former Eagle sits 14th overall in the points standings; the top 30 golfers earn PGA Tour status.
The Minnesota native played onto the Korn Ferry Tour through the PGA’s Q-School in 2023. At last year’s finals, he missed earning his PGA card his first year on the development tour. While practicing on the putting green last season at the finals, Capan saw the celebration take place for the new card holders, feeding motivation into a statement year in 2024.
He racked up five top-five and 10 top-25 finishes, including two runner-up performances. He finished second at the Magnit Championship (-15) and the Visit Knoxville Open (-19). He put the Korn Ferry Tour on notice with a 13-under 58 at the Veritex Bank Championship, tying the lowest round ever recorded on the tour.
The former Eagle made 18 cuts in his 24 events this year. Capan also qualified for his second U.S. Open this season, where he made the cut and played into the weekend at Pinehurst No. 2.
Capan is a two-time Atlantic Sun Conference Second Team selection and was a key contributor in leading the men’s golf team to become the first program in FGCU Athletics history to earn an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament in 2022.
Capan competed in 18 tournaments during his two seasons (2020-22) at FGCU, logging 54 rounds, one win and a 72.35 scoring average for the Green and Blue after transferring from Alabama. His career scoring average still ranks in the top five in program history, and he tied the program’s lowest 18-hole round twice with back-toback rounds of 64. He graduated in 2022 with a communication degree.
ABOVE: Former FGCU student Frankie Capan III lines up a shot while practicing putting. Capan, a Minnesota native,
his PGA Tour card recently as part of the Korn Ferry Tour Trials.
Photo courtesy FGCU LEFT: Capan,
Photo courtesy
Game on!
Catch the live action of
WEEK 1 - Aug. 23
WEEK 2 - Aug. 30
North Fort Myers at Cape Coral 7 | 0
Barron Collier at Naples 7 | 58
WEEK 3 - Sept. 8 Fort Myers at Cypress Lake 55 | 28
WEEK 4 - Sept. 13
WEEK 5 - Sept. 20
WEEK 6 - Sept. 27
WEEK 7 - Oct. 4
WEEK 8 - Oct. 11
Aubrey Rogers at Palmetto Ridge 21 | 20
Cypress Lake at Riverdale 27 | 43
Bishop Verot at First Baptist Academy 7:30 pm
Naples at Fort Myers 7:30 pm
Naples at South Fort Myers 7:30 pm
WEEK 9 - Oct. 18 Lely at Naples 7:30 pm
WEEK 10 - Oct. 25
WEEK 11 - Nov. 1
WEEK 12 - Nov. 8
Mariner at Cape Coral 7:30 pm
South Fort Myers at Lely 7:30 pm
Playoff game, TBA 7:30 pm
Standing Strong for Affordable Health Care
Florida Blue Advocates for You
Florida Blue is committed to advancing the well-being of all Floridians. Founded 80 years ago, we are a mission-driven company that strives every day to make high-quality health care accessible to everyone and as affordable as possible.
Working for You, Your Doctors, and a Solution
Florida Blue’s mission includes providing access to health care AND keeping health care affordable. We regularly collaborate and negotiate with hospitals and provider groups to help people and communities live healthier lives. We had hoped to do the same with Naples Comprehensive Health (NCH) during our current negotiation with them.
NCH is a long-time partner whose doctors, nurses, and staff provide critical care for the people of Collier County. Unfortunately, what NCH is demanding would burden our customers and the people of our community with skyrocketing costs. The Kaiser Family Foundation, an objective non-partisan source, says medical inflation, the normal increase in medical cost, is at 3.26%. NCH is currently seeking three times that inflation rate.
Protecting You from Unfair Rate Increases
We are committed to keeping NCH in our network, but cannot agree to their excessive demands for a 30% rate increase over several years, because those increases are paid by our members and customers. Many across the Naples area are already struggling to make ends meet, and it’s our duty to protect them.
Advocating for Affordable and High-Quality Care
We’re not just fighting for fair rates; we’re also pushing for NCH to do their part in addressing the rising cost of health care services and improving care delivery. Unfortunately, NCH leaders have refused to work with us on these issues.
Continuation of Care
If NCH chooses to leave our network, we will ensure members a seamless transition to other high-quality providers in the area. Some members who are currently receiving treatment or are pregnant can continue receiving services with the same benefits and cost sharing, even if Naples Comprehensive Health chooses to exit our network. Emergency services will still be covered at in-network rates, and you can always access care from the nearest hospital in case of a medical emergency.
Solving for Southwest Florida
Florida Blue takes fighting for you seriously and we hope the leadership at NCH will meet us at terms that work for all sides, and most of all for the people of this community.
To stay up to date, visit FloridaBlue.com/Negotiation/NCH
Sincerely,
Phil Lee West Florida Market President, Florida Blue