Green Tee complex going condoNext to Fort Myers Country Club.

Green Tee complex going condoNext to Fort Myers Country Club, units have been rental since 1968.
By Dick Hogan Originally posted on June 29, 2006

Mike Andre, 13, tees off in front of the Green Tee Apartments Monday while playing a round of golf with some friends at the Fort Myers Country Club. The Green Tee Apartments were recently sold and are being converted into condominums.

The Green Tee Apartments — a rental community since it was built in 1968 — is being converted to condominiums.Green Tee Group LLC, based in Fort Lauderdale, recently purchased the 123-unit complex on Maravilla Avenue in Fort Myers for $12.5 million from Green Tee Apartments LLC.At least one current resident said he may take the new owners up on their plans to sell the apartments, next to the Fort Myers Country Club.
"I'm seriously thinking about it," said Martin Kennelly, a retiree from Chicago who's lived at Green Tee nine years in his one-bedroom apartment. "It's convenient, and I have a view of the golf course. It's quiet."Julian Telias of Green Tee Group said he plans to remodel the entire complex and start selling them soon. "We hope to open the sales center in the next three months. We are going to make a lot of improvements in the landscaping, in the swimming pool area and in the units."
Prices will run between $100,000 and $200,000 for the one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, he said.Bob Pekol, a real-estate agent with VIP Commercial-TCN Worldwide, was a part owner of the company that sold the complex.The idea was always to do a conversion, he said, so a lot of work has already been done on the roof, the pool and the air-conditioning system.
It's a unique location because of its proximity to the downtown business district as well as the golf course, Pekol said. "You're not going to find an apartment where you're looking over a golf course. There's demand for good quality condominiums near the downtown offices."Condo conversions are rare in downtown or nearby, but about a dozen high-rise condominiums on the Caloosahatchee River are in various stages of development. Furthest along, and closest to Green Tee, is Cameratta Properties' 32-story High Point — under construction on West First Street.
Don Paight, executive director of the Fort Myers Redevelopment Agency, said Green Tee's condo conversion will have both positive and negative effects on the city.On the one hand, he said, the conversion will provide a supply of relatively inexpensive dwellings for people who want to buy in that area.But, Paight said, losing those rental units will also hurt the city's housing market. "It's difficult for people who are renting and can't buy, and a lot of those are working people."
He noted that a few smaller developments in downtown have gone condo recently: the apartments in Patio de Leon and the Earnhardt Building, both originally intended as rentals.Gloria Berger, a retiree from Brooklyn in New York City who lived at Green Tee for 13 years before leaving April 30 because of disruptions from remodeling, said she liked it the way it was and that it's too bad the complex is being sold as condos.
"I had no intentions of moving," she said. "You had the scenery, it was nice. I really didn't want to go. But I can't afford to go condo."