Nervous Nellie's owner buys building, surrounding marina

BUYER: Barrier Islands Management LLC (principal: Robert Degennaro), Fort Myers
SELLER: Kiric Investments Inc.
PROPERTY: 1131 First St. and 441, 445 and 645 Old San Carlos Blvd., Fort Myers Beach
PRICE: $4 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $1.7 million, January 1995 and $1 million, November 1991
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Leigh M. Fisher PA, Cape Coral

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Fort Myers restaurateur Rob DeGennaro has made a big real estate play for his restaurant Nervous Nellie's and much of the nearby Fort Myers Beach gulf frontage. DeGennaro purchased the 7,909-square-foot Nervous Nellie's building, the adjacent Snug Harbor Marina, the three commercial condominium units in the Marina Village at Snug Harbor and the parking lots behind it for $4 million.

“Our future is obviously to improve the marina and brighten up that old Fort Myers Beach seaport,” says DeGennaro. “We plan to bring in some tall ships from around the country. We'll be adding more dining and retail. The engineers are going to be laying it out for us, but what we think we can do is double the size of what's there now.”

DeGennaro says his vision at this point it to create a seaport walkway with restaurant and retail space and plenty of parking. He hopes to finalize his plans over the next three to five months. However, he doesn't expect the project to pop up over night; he says it took him nearly two years to put the transaction together.

The purchase entity Barrier Islands Management LLC mortgaged the property to Sanibel Captiva Community Bank for $3.3 million.