FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:            Jim Lavender, Lee County Public Works
                         (941) 479-8301

COUNTY LOOKING INTO BUYING SUNTRUST PLAZA

FORT MYERS, Fla. (January 14, 2002) – The Board of Lee County Commissioners today gave the go-ahead for county staff to begin negotiating to purchase the SunTrust Plaza in downtown Fort Myers.

For several years, the county has been looking for ways to provide more space for the growing courts system, constitutional offices and some county government offices.

The county has been pursuing building a 60,000-square-foot facility upon county-owned land.  However, cost, time and inconvenience makes this an option of last resort.

The nine-story, 121,000-square-foot SunTrust Plaza is located in downtown Fort Myers on Heitman Street next to the Caloosahatchee Bridge.  More importantly, it comes with a 400-space parking garage and enclosed and elevated walkway from the garage to the building.

Because finding and building space for parking is so difficult and costly, the county estimates the purchase of the building would provide a cost savings compared to constructing a new facility.

In addition, if the county owned the SunTrust Building, it eventually could seek to have Heitman between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Main Street vacated for future growth of the Justice Center if needed.

Preliminarily, the county expects the owner of the building – Fountain Square Associates – to want about $15 million for it.  However, the county has not yet had the building appraised.  The building and land is assessed at $9.8 million on the property tax rolls.

Finding new space for the courts system is critical.  New judges with corresponding support staff are expected to arrive in the next two years.  In addition, the Clerk of Courts, State Attorney and Court Administration have all grown tremendously in recent years and have expanded into satellite offices in leased space.

The county has a policy of trying to located offices in owned space instead of leased to eliminate ongoing rent payments.

The move also would further solidify the county government’s downtown campus approach to locating offices and employees and providing services.