City of Palms Park has rounded first base for the final time

The faint cheers of a full stadium have now been drowned out by machinery as the walls of a historic ballpark are being torn down. All that remains is the dirt of a field once played on by baseball legends.

For decades, the City of Palms Park has been a staple of Fort Myers, as it has brought one of America’s oldest pastimes to the heart of its downtown district. Yet aging infrastructure and extensive renovation costs have left the stadium dormant for years, forcing the City of Fort Myers to demolish the facility to make way for future expansion.

With the City of Palms Park having turned its final run, it marks the end of professional baseball games in the downtown Fort Myers stadium. For many residents, it has marked the continued dismantling of historic structures in the area.

“I'm actually down here shooting photos of the historic buildings of Fort Myers, and as soon as I get the newer stuff, it just makes me want to turn around,” resident Michael Rosario said.

The Fort Myers City Council moved forward with the demolition at City of Palms Park in a 4-2 vote on April 20. They awarded Honc Destruction Inc., a local waste management company, the contract for $988,441 to demolish and stabilize the site. Per the City of Fort Myers, Honc has six months to level the site.

Honc began its demolition of City of Palms Park on June 1, and as of Sept. 2, Honc is on pace to complete the demolition on time.

While residents won’t see the historic ballpark on their commute to and from downtown, the City of Fort Myers is still giving them a way to hold onto history. Fans interested in purchasing stadium seats can call Fort Myers City Hall at (239) 321-7022.

A mired history

The City of Palms Park has had a turbulent history, with professional sports organizations coming and going, leaving it dormant for the last few years. The issue wasn’t the market or the fans for professional baseball organizations.

A poorly designed stadium, combined with the high cost of upkeep, meant that newer venues were not only more convenient but also easier to build than renovating the aging downtown Fort Myers sports complex.

“The stadium is 30 years old,” Fort Myers Mayor Kevin B. Anderson said. “The reason the Red Sox moved out. One of the reasons this place really wasn't being maintained, and then it sat vacant for a long time.”

The Boston Red Sox moved to Fort Myers in 1993 after their former spring training facility in Winter Haven became outdated. Former Fort Myers Mayor Wilbur Smith pitched the idea of building a brand-new stadium in downtown Fort Myers, and the Red Sox played there for 19 years.

The practice facility and stadium layout, along with the aging ballpark, led the Red Sox organization to cut a deal with the City of Fort Myers to build a new stadium, JetBlue Park, along Daniels Parkway.

“I spent a lot of time in the stadium over a period of, I think, 10 years. So, I know the history of Wilbur Smith and all the efforts to bring it. However, its time has come,” Anderson said. “We're not making money off it. It's costing us money just to own it, and now we have an opportunity to redevelop into something newer, bigger and better.”

For City of Palms Park, it was déjà vu, as Florida Southwestern State College exited its 10-year lease, signed in 2016, with Lee County and the City of Palms Park early to make way for its new on-campus ballpark, Buccaneers Park, on its Lee Campus.

Ultimately, that was the nail in the coffin for baseball in downtown Fort Myers.

However, a change in leadership among the City of Fort Myers council members created an opportunity for one last-ditch effort in 2021 to forgo the planned demolition.

“To your point, the council did change," Anderson said. “The mayor and council changed in 2020. We had voted to demolish the stadium back in 2019, I think it was, or in 2021, the council said no. Let's see; we can find some way to use it. So that delayed things about six years.”

The City of Fort Myers negotiated with the United Soccer League (USL) to bring a professional soccer organization to downtown Fort Myers to rival Naples’ USL League One FC Naples, but the demanding renovation costs proved too high to justify the investment.

“We did look at U.S. Soccer or United Soccer League,” Anderson said. “They wanted us to invest close to $40 million into renovating the stadium, and that was just not an investment we were willing to make.”

Once talks fell through, it became clear that a renovation was crucial for any professional sports team to move into the stadium, and the Fort Myers City Council later decided to proceed with the planned demolition.

A part of a bigger future

While the demolition of the City of Palms Park marked the end of a cultivated sports history in downtown Fort Myers, sports are still planned to remain a staple in the community as part of the Midtown Streetscape and Utilities Replacement Project, planned as an attachment to downtown Fort Myers.

Its goal is to enhance the city’s commercial and entertainment options and expand the accessibility of downtown Fort Myers to its surrounding area, spanning from Edison Avenue to U.S. 41 to Fowler Street.

This project is currently drawn up as three phases to be constructed over the next few decades.

Phase one is slated for substantial completion in the fall of 2027. Phase two is undergoing planning and design, with a final design delivery date of the fall of 2027. Phase two, where the City of Palms Park is located, has a tentative construction date of early 2028.

“I think that it's long overdue to come in and have somebody come and do a big project all at once,” Fort Myers resident Karen Steuber. “I think downtown Fort Myers needs to be bigger, and it needs to be, I think, more accessible for sure.

While everything is still in the preliminary stages of approval and finalization, the hope is to bring more youth sports to the area.

“We're looking at trying to have a facility that will attract tournaments, so that we will bring people in from other parts of the state and even other parts of the country to come here and participate in youth tournaments,” Anderson said.

Anderson envisions a youth facility with several basketball, pickleball and outdoor & indoor volleyball courts, to name a few.

This also includes a possible expansion of the Fort Myers Skatium down the street.

“What I envision there is a multiplex sports complex with residential units close by, hotel, entertainment, restaurants, bars, retail stores, a very nice complex with, you know, work done to the streetscape,” Anderson said. “We've also been in contact with three different universities. Each of them is expressing an interest in varying levels.”

The City of Fort Myers had Cards & Associates create a feasibility study on the benefits a youth sports facility would provide if built in downtown Fort Myers.

Not only could the facility bring in $62.7 million in economic output but, $4.8 million in tax revenue as well as earn up to $21.2 million to the city once fully operational. It’s also slated to open hundreds of jobs and appeal to the around 300 thousand people that travel to Fort Myers for sporting events a year.

“You have a place to stay close by, you have places to eat, things to do, because you know how tournaments are… your kid plays, and maybe a couple hours before they play again. You don't really have time to go too far.”

For some residents, the departure of the historic facility is disappointing, with many feeling like professional sports have a place downtown.

“I think there's room for [sports in downtown], there's such an amalgamation of sports fans that do migrate here, be it seasonally or for the rest of their lives when they retire,” Rosario said. “I think it could be done in an interesting and inclusive way.”

Others voiced that they are ready for the change.

“I think it's a good thing that they are thinking about future renovation,” Cape Coral resident Jose Ramos said. “That old stadium wasn’t holding up as much profit, as putting a business in and creating more infrastructure … I truly believe they are moving in the right direction."