Pittman Group buys Amtel building to create Campo Felice

BUYER: The MacFarlane Group LLC (managers: Metivier LLC and O&T Fort Myers LLC), Fort Myers
SELLER: Amtel Group of Florida Inc.
PROPERTY: 2500 Edwards Drive and 2401 Bay St., Fort Myers
PRICE: $12.58 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $6.7 million, April 1993 and $460,000, October 1994
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC, Fort Myers

PLANS, DESCRIPTION:
The Pittman Group purchased the real estate of the closed 417-room Amtel hotel building in downtown Fort Myers for $12.58 million.

The price equated to $30,156 per room.

With additional furniture, equipment and other business items, the total purchase price for the Amtel hotel was $13.5 million, equal to $32,374 per room.

The 24-story concrete building was constructed in 1986 to house condominiums, but was converted later to a limited services hotel. It featured a total of 537,390 square feet of living space on a 4.41-acre site.

The Pittman Group and its local partner, Bob MacFarlane of Fort Myers, plan to convert the former Sheraton Hotel into a 323-unit senior independent living facility called Campo Felice.

The new owner plans to completely gut the building and install new glass and electrical/mechanical systems. Units in the redeveloped building will range from studios up to two bedrooms. The renovated property will also feature a coffee shop, convenience store, restaurant, hobby rooms, workout centers, 200-seat lecture hall and a theater. Construction is scheduled to start this summer and take about 15 months. The project is expected to cost about $50 million.

Tom Woodyard of Woodyard & Associates LLC represented the buyer.

“Our first contract was signed on the property about two years ago,” Woodyard says. “There were a lot of moving parts. The timing had to be just right to make it a successful project.”

MacFarlane is best known locally for developing the high-rise Beau Rivage condominium.

Sheeley Architects is the design firm for the project.

“This is certainty a unique opportunity for both our firm and to help with the revitalization of downtown,” says Michael Sheeley, president of Sheeley Architects. “This has been a pink elephant for downtown, having such a larger structure empty for quite a while. It's very important to us and the city with the activity it is going to bring to downtown.”

The purchase entity, The MacFarlane Group LLC, mortgaged the property to Reliance Standard Life Insurance Co. for $11 million.