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BIMINI EAST RFP

The **RFP for Bimini East is closed**. There is no open solicitation right now.The City of Cape Coral issued **RFP #RCR25176KMR** (“Redevelopment of Bimini East”) on October 2, 2025, with proposals due October 30, 2025. The city was seeking a developer for the ~22-acre cleared site in the South Cape CRA (bounded by Cape Coral Parkway, Coronado Parkway, and Tarpon Court).### What happened after the RFP- The city received **one proposal**.- Negotiations began (publicly confirmed in February 2026).- On **July 29, 2026**, Crown Development (Larry Nygard, with partners Alessio Companies and Superhost Hospitality) presented a $500 million mixed-use plan at a City Council Committee of the Whole meeting. Council directed staff to draft a **Developer’s Agreement**, which still needs future Council and CRA approval.As of early September 2026, that is the current status: the original RFP process produced one respondent, and the city is advancing that proposal toward a formal development agreement.### The proposal on the tableThe plan covers a larger assembled area of about **33–34 acres** next to Bimini Square and includes:- 700–900 multifamily units (apartments and townhomes)- 250 hotel rooms- ~130,000 sq ft ground-floor retail, dining, and entertainment- Office and medical space- Four parking garages- 45-slip marina with public access- Reimagined Four Freedoms Park (bandshell, promenade, event space)- A downtown police substationEstimated 8-year buildout, with completion targeted around 2035. The developer projects roughly $751 million in economic output.**Money side:** The city and CRA spent about **$45 million** buying and clearing dozens of parcels. Under the proposal, the developer would pay the city about **$26.3 million** for the land (phased). Proposed incentives include up to $45.75 million in CRA tax-increment financing rebates (95% through 2042) plus impact-fee credits and other performance-based items. Those terms are not yet finalized.Official city page (updated after the July presentation): [capecoral.gov Bimini Basin East](https://www.capecoral.gov/edo/bimini_basin_east.php)The original RFP documents were posted on the city’s procurement portal (CapeCoral.ionwave.net). For the latest on the draft agreement, watch City Council and CRA agendas or contact the Office of Economic & Business Development / CRA (Zachary Gogel has been the project lead).

An RFP is not required to stay open until multiple developers show up. Cape Coral’s own code allows the city to negotiate when only one proposal comes in — and that is what they did. Whether that was wise is a separate question.

The city was allowed to accept one proposal

Cape Coral’s procurement rules say that if only one proposal arrives, and “time or economic considerations warrant,” the Procurement Manager may negotiate rather than start over.

That is normal in Florida public procurement. An RFP has a published close date. After that date the city evaluates what it received. It can:

  • negotiate with the one responsive proposer,
  • reject everything and re-issue, or
  • walk away.

It is not required to keep the window open until two or three offers appear. State purchasing law uses the same idea: if fewer than two responsive proposals come in, an agency may negotiate and must document why that is better than re-soliciting. Municipal codes typically follow the same pattern.

So “only one offer” is legally valid. It is not automatically a failed process.

Why they didn’t leave it open

Officials have not published a detailed “here is why we didn’t re-RFP” memo. What is public is this sequence:

  • Developer open house: June 24, 2025
  • RFP issued: October 2, 2025
  • Due: October 30, 2025 (about four weeks)
  • One submission received
  • City Manager said in February 2026 that negotiations were underway
  • July 29, 2026: Crown Development presented the $500 million plan; Council directed staff to draft a developer agreement

Reasons cities usually refuse to “wait for more offers”:

  1. They already put a hard deadline in the solicitation. Extending after you see who bid can look like you are fishing for a preferred firm or changing the rules midstream.
  2. Carrying cost. The city/CRA had already spent about $45 million assembling and clearing the land. Every extra year is interest, holding cost, and a vacant site in the South Cape. Staff’s own materials say they always expected to eat part of that assemblage cost and recover it later through tax increment and rising nearby values.
  3. They believed they had a qualified proposal. The one responder was Crown Development (Larry Nygard) — the same team behind adjacent Bimini Square. From the city’s point of view, that is not a random stranger; it is the developer already operating next door.
  4. Re-issuing is not free. A new RFP means new advertising, a new cone of silence, another evaluation committee, and months of delay. If the market is thin, you can run the same process and get the same one firm.

None of that requires them to take the deal. Council can still reject the agreement and re-solicit.

Why there was probably only one offer

The city has not listed the firms that looked and walked. The surrounding facts explain why a $500 million mixed-use RFP can draw a crowd of one:

The ask is huge and messy. This is not a simple land sale. A proposer has to finance a hotel, hundreds of apartments, retail, garages, a marina, park redesign, and leftover privately owned buildings inside the footprint. That is a short list of firms.

The economics are awkward for anyone who is not already next door. The city wants roughly $26.3 million for land it assembled at about $45 million. The gap is supposed to be covered by TIF rebates, impact-fee credits, and future increment. A national developer looking at the packet sees: pay less than the city’s sunk cost, accept a long incentive package, and take political heat. Crown already has Bimini Square open next door, so they have site knowledge and a reason to control the block. That is a real competitive advantage.

The response window was short for a project this size. Four weeks from issue to due date is tight for a 22–34 acre mixed-use waterfront deal. Large shops often need 60–90 days just to underwrite.

The market around the city looked cold. In the same period the Yacht Club rebuild RFI got zero responses. Residents on the Breeze comment threads treated “one bidder for Bimini, one for Jaycee, none for Yacht Club” as a pattern, not a coincidence.

Holdouts and park politics. The July presentation still lists privately owned structures inside the project area and a fight over Four Freedoms Park playground relocation. That raises risk for anyone who is not already embedded locally.

So the honest read is: the city ran a competitive solicitation, the market produced one serious player, and that player is the neighbor who already built Bimini Square.

The real issue is leverage, not legality

Your instinct is right about bargaining power. One offer means:

  • no competing price for the land,
  • no competing incentive ask,
  • no second team the city can play against Crown,
  • a public appearance that the process was headed toward the adjacent developer all along.

That is why critics focus on the $45 million in vs. ~$26 million out, the 95% TIF rebate through 2042, and whether taxpayers are financing a deal that other developers would not touch on those terms. Those are policy questions Council still has to answer when the developer agreement comes back for a vote. The RFP being closed does not lock the city into the deal.

What the city could still do, if Council wants more competition: reject the draft agreement, re-issue the RFP with a longer window and clearer land-price / incentive rules, or split the site (park stays public; development parcels bid separately). That would take more time and would not guarantee a second bidder — the Yacht Club RFI already showed that “leave it open longer” does not magically create offers.

Bottom line: they accepted one proposal because the code allows it, the deadline had passed, they had a $45 million vacant site to move, and only one firm submitted. They were not required to wait for a second offer. Whether they should have re-solicited is the question Council and residents are still arguing about.