Ft. Myers:Cypress Club construction beginsTwo-thirds of condominiums have been sold.

Cypress Club construction beginsTwo-thirds of condominiums have been sold.

The Cypress Club on Friday became the latest of the downtown Fort Myers high-rise condominiums to officially kick off its construction.With two-thirds of the project’s two 32-story towers sold, “We’re getting plenty of buyers; we feel very blessed,” said Willy Bermello, president of Miami-based BAP Development, which is developing Cypress Club with Newleaf LLC of Fort Myers on First Street along the Caloosahatchee River.Brad Cozza, a real estate agent with Keller Williams World Class Realtors, owns a commercial loft unit in the project and said he’s optimistic about the downtown condominiums being built although prices are getting a little high these days.Bermello said Cypress Club condos now sell for about $550 a square foot — that would be $550,000 for a 1,000-square-foot unit.“Those are east coast prices” and not a good deal for an investor who expects to sell for a profit quickly, Cozza said. “The heyday was a year ago when I was putting people in Cypress Club and other downtown condos at $350 to $400 a square foot.”But even at today’s higher prices, Cozza said, the units will still have appeal for people buying to live there.Bermello said prices are being driven up by the builder’s increasing costs. “It’s not a lack of buyers willing to move to Florida and invest. When you have to go to New York or Chicago prices to make a project work, that’s when you have an issue.
Like any other developer our profits have been squeezed but we’re still confident.”Fort Myers Redevelopment Agency Director Don Paight said the Cypress Club construction will be a visible sign of the downtown revival that was started three years ago by Miami architect Andres Duany’s downtown redevelopment plan.“It’ll end any speculation as to whether these projects will be happening,” he said. “You see the cranes on the horizon and the buildings going up. It’s pretty dramatic.”Already, he said, five cranes are visible all over the city: two at the High Point development under construction on West First Street; one each at the St. Tropez and Riviera towers on Palm Beach Boulevard near Billy Creek; and one at the Lee County Justice Center addition being built.Preliminary work is already being done on two other riverfront developments, he said: The Oasis and Monaco Resort & Spa.Bermello said work will start immediately on both Cypress Club towers. “We’re shooting for 32 months but it could be 36 months” to finish the job.That’s assuming Mother Nature cooperates, he said. “Any time we have a hurricane, we have to add 45 days. And we’ve had three hurricanes that have hit our projects in the last two years.”