Developer pays nearly $60 million for St. Pete hotel

Naples/Fort Myers

Affordable build: Construction has started on a long-awaited affordable and attainable housing project in Cape Coral. Developers behind Civitas of Cape Coral broke ground on the 96-unit workforce apartments April 3. That’s a little more than three years after the purchase of the 4.6-acres just off Pine Hill Road. Developers paid $950,000 for the land. The complex is being developed by ReVital Development Group of Tampa, the Lee County Housing Authority and Birdsong Housing Partners from Maitland. Developers say units will be reserved for families that earn 80% or less of the area median income and rent will average $950 per month. The first building is expected to be complete in a year and then 30 days each for the next two buildings. 

Meet the new boss: Meg Stepanian, a veteran marketing and communications professional, has been named executive director of Naples’ Fifth Avenue South Business Improvement District. She is replacing Bruce Barone Jr. who announced his departure in September. Stepanian, according to a statement, most recently worked for the Estero Country Club as the director of marketing and membership. Before that she was head of marketing for The Venice Golf and Country Club and owned her own communications company. The district, according to the statement, was created in 2010 to represent “the interests of both property owners and businesses” of the city’s high-end commercial district.