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Coconut Plantation and Ian - updates

LMD

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We arrived on Saturday, and have been really surprised, and happy, with the restoration progress. The road into the resort - along the golf course - has been all cleaned up, as have areas around the clubhouse, and in front and back of the units. Work still remains of course, but I guess we expected devastation, and that is not the case. You do see broken trees, especially along the road at the back, and some loss of fronds on the palm trees. But some flowers survived, and others have been planted.

As others have pointed out, the Veranda pool is open, and has been busy. The other pools, as well as all the electrical in the lower pool area, including 27 pumps, were under water for 6-12 hours, so major work has been underway. The pool closest to the fire pit was filled, and the new pump has been running, but they found they were losing water, so 2 steps forward, and one backward. Turned out it was a pressure valve (I think), so theoretically easier to fix. Rey (general manager) hopes he will be able to open that pool by the end of next week, pending Dept of Health approval. For the other lower pool, they initially received the wrong pump, but now the correct pump has arrived, so he is hopeful that that pool will soon be open (No water in that pool yet). Just in case only one of the lower pools can be opened initially , they have ordered fencing so they can block off closed areas temporarily while opening part of the lower deck. Nice move!

Lazy river will be 3-6 months.

WiFi is good, as is the TV, although there was a brief glitch Sunday just before the football game. ”Signal lost, check your cable connection”. Signal came back pretty quickly and no problems with TV since.

The new grills behind buildings 3&4 were under water, so temporarily out of order, but they put two portable propane grills there, so you can still grill if you want.

Elevators in buildings 3&4 are working perfectly.

Buildings 1&2 are still closed to guests (some contractors staying in at least one of the buildings), but elevators not working. Soon they will allow owners to stay in buildings 1 or 2 (not sure which one, maybe both), but will have to sign a waiver if no elevator service. Apparently the surge water went up into the elevator shaft. Not good! I don’t know whether that was the case in all buildings - I think 1,2,3, but 4 OK. Waiting for parts for elevators not yet in service.

This week 35% occupancy; next week 50%.

Sales building will be closed some time in future and given back to developer. New building for sales will be at back somewhere.

Hickory Island had 14-20 feet of water, but they (not sure who they is) say best case scenario is to open that beach by end of January 2023. (probably would have to drive there). All Lee County beaches officially closed now, but can sit on the sand on some. Too dangerous to go in water because of debris and bacteria.

When arriving, we were surprised to see the new road which will lead to the Ritz Carlton residences. That road (short so far) goes straight where we turn right to enter the drive along the golf course into HRC.

Nearby Hyatt hotel opened this week. We walked there, but you can park free since their parking “machines” were damaged. Several new palm trees have been planted along the hotel driveway, and they look good. Still have rope around the fronds on top. About 7 new palm trees are lying on the sidewalk in front of the hotel, waiting to be planted. Behind the hotel, most of the landscaping was devastated. The beautiful elegant tall palms are still standing, albeit with some loss of fronds. However, as you look to the back and to the right, many new and fairly tall palms have been planted. All the landscaping along the back steps leading to the pool was lost, but the area has been completely replanted, and looks good. Needs to grow a bit more, but that will happen quickly in Florida climate. Lots of new flowers, so looks great.

One sad thing: When turning onto Coconut Rd from Tamiami, there is a huge debris pile - furniture, mattresses, pieces of homes.

Most of information above is from owner update meeting today. We will be here for 3 weeks, so I will report any more news.
Thank your for the detailed report. This is one of our favorite “staycation” resorts.
 

Larainerenee

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I was also at the owners meeting on 11/14. Rey said that definitely there will be no more buildings added - A new pool would have been needed to accommodate more guests, and that's not in the plans. He is not sure why the sales team is telling prospective buyers that more buildings are planned. The developer of the new Ritz property owns all that land and is very limited as to what they can do there. There will be a new 9 hole Executive golf course adjacent to the existing Raptor Bay course. Rey told us that the Penthouses in the new Ritz community have already been sold.

We were very pleased by how good the property looks, considering all the devastation in the surrounding areas. They are really working hard to get everything up and running as quickly as possible.
Sadly, the nearby beaches will not be open for swimming by the upcoming holiday and winter season. There is still debris the beach and the water is toxic from the storm and increasing red tide. Walking is allowed on Naples Beach, but no one in the water...
We drove to Bonita Beach - Coconut Jacks and Docs were severely damaged, but we saw lots of work going on at both places.

We have relatives who live at Pelican Landing. They are quite sure that beach access to Hickory will be done as soon as possible, as that is an amenity that those owners expect. The pavilion is standing, but decking and stairs were destroyed, as were both marinas.

The saddest thing, other than the homes that were lost, was the destruction of the mangroves along the Bonita canals. News reports on TV said it will take 2-4 years to clean and restore those; a real blow to the environment of the Bay.

Finally, there was a 5' alligator in the middle of the lagoon. Presumably he wandered there from the golf course and a trapper was going to come and relocate him.
 

BillsFan

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Did they open any additional buildings yet or are there still only 2 in operation?
I think only two buildings are opened to guests. Buildings 1 and 2 are very quiet, with no or only 1 or 2 cars (workers?). Buildings 3 and 4 have many cars and guests. Much busier than last week.
 

Sugarcubesea

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Thank your for the detailed report. This is one of our favorite “staycation” resorts.

@LMD , I hope your home in Naples did not sustain any water damage or destruction from Ian... I also love this resort and can not wait till my trip this coming March...The TS we stay at in Naples had a lot of damage and currently they are stating that the resort will be closed until at least December 10th and possibly beyond, so we rented a 1 bedroom condo for two weeks on Marco Island. It will be a squeeze but we will make it work to fit all 4 of us in there...
 

LMD

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@LMD , I hope your home in Naples did not sustain any water damage or destruction from Ian... I also love this resort and can not wait till my trip this coming March...The TS we stay at in Naples had a lot of damage and currently they are stating that the resort will be closed until at least December 10th and possibly beyond, so we rented a 1 bedroom condo for two weeks on Marco Island. It will be a squeeze but we will make it work to fit all 4 of us in there...
Thank you! We were very lucky. 4 miles from the beach and no damage…in fact we did not even lose power. Counting our blessings because so many others not as fortunate. Good news- I just heard on the news that the Gulf water off of Marco tested negative for fecal bacteria for the first time since Ian. Hopefully it will be safe for you to enter the water when you get here.
 

Sugarcubesea

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Thank you! We were very lucky. 4 miles from the beach and no damage…in fact we did not even lose power. Counting our blessings because so many others not as fortunate. Good news- I just heard on the news that the Gulf water off of Marco tested negative for fecal bacteria for the first time since Ian. Hopefully it will be safe for you to enter the water when you get here.

@LMD , thank you for that good news, on this trip down and the one in March we will be looking to purchase a condo in Naples, I'm now going to go with 4+ miles from the beach (so happy you had no damage) to ensure we have no damage and our realtor suggested that we look at condos built after 2001 have stricter building codes and he told us to stay away from high rises built in the 70"s, 80's and 90"s as we might sustain a large assessment...

We were ready to buy in early 2020 and then hubby had some health issues that we needed to determine if that would prevent us from buying a small condo in North Naples, so now we are ready and will look to see what we can find...
 

rapmarks

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LMD. Are you in north Naples?
 

LMD

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@LMD , thank you for that good news, on this trip down and the one in March we will be looking to purchase a condo in Naples, I'm now going to go with 4+ miles from the beach (so happy you had no damage) to ensure we have no damage and our realtor suggested that we look at condos built after 2001 have stricter building codes and he told us to stay away from high rises built in the 70"s, 80's and 90"s as we might sustain a large assessment...

We were ready to buy in early 2020 and then hubby had some health issues that we needed to determine if that would prevent us from buying a small condo in North Naples, so now we are ready and will look to see what we can find...
Thank you :) It definitely makes you rethink location for sure! Good luck with your search. Here is a handy link
 

rapmarks

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Unintended consequences. They are rebuilding the raptor bay golf course. The subdivision near it is now overrun with wild boars. They are tearing up the yards the golf course has encroached on their natural area so moving into this older community
 

GTLINZ

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Unintended consequences. They are rebuilding the raptor bay golf course. The subdivision near it is now overrun with wild boars. They are tearing up the yards the golf course has encroached on their natural area so moving into this older community

We have seen them before when walking or driving thru. I believe that they can be dangerous. A bit scary.
 

Forddriver

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Has there been any new updates on the resort buildings and pools?
Are there still only 2 of the 4 buildings being used for guests and the river pool still closed with an open date of a couple months?
 

GTLINZ

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Hopefully some tuggers will update this month. We go back in January and I am hoping the pool waterfalls will be working (hopefully they will get fixed before the lazy river is able to be). Glad that the main lagoon pools are back in service.
 
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ArizonaSun4Fun

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Hopefully some tuggers will update this month. We go back in January and I am hoping the pool waterfalls will be working (hopefully they will get fixed before the lazy river is able to be). Glad that the main lagoon pools are back in service.
I was at an owners' meeting with Rey on December 6th. The manufacturer of the elevator motors in Bldgs. #1 and #2 originally committed to having new motors to Coconut Plantation by end of 2022. They have since extended their delivery date twice due to supply chain issues, as they are custom built motors. Due to the questionable reliability of the vendor, and the fact that the delivery date was pushed into late 2023, they are looking at other options to replace the elevators. A timeline for replacement had not been determined, but meetings with an another elevator company were scheduled that week. The property is expecting to or already has the okay to use the first two floors in those buildings without elevator service and will work with owners and guests to determine building locations for their stays.

Report on the lazy river was somewhat similar. Rey gave a timeline of still 3 to 6 months. Original plan to bring it back into service ran into some delays (no additional information) but now they are considering putting the main pumps above ground with sound mitigatioin and landscaping instead on in the underground pits. The implied benefit is being in better shape in the event of future flooding.

Other than that, the property looks pretty good all things considered.
 

Lingber

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rapmarks

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Not sure if this has been shared before, but here is an article about the golf course rennovations and the proposed Ritz Carlton Residences on the land that was sold at Coconut Plantation. Now rebranded Saltleaf on Estero. https://www.gulfshorebusiness.com/saltleaf-development-underway-on-estero-bay/ and one more

All that being built in an area that was hit so hard by the last hurricane. Everything around the bay was hit hard, so now build some new homes there.
 

amycurl

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Because doing the same thing and expecting a different result is the definition of something, but it's not smart.
 

andre10056

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Because doing the same thing and expecting a different result is the definition of something, but it's not smart.
If you're the developer and can sell all your units for top dollar, it's very smart. But I'm not sure about the purchasers.

It's just like all the high rises being built in oceanfront Miami Beach and oceanfront Miami. Already, those areas are experiencing sunny day flooding. And yet, despite unit costs being almost unbelievably high, they're selling.
 

PerryKing

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HYATT: Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Bonita Springs, and 2X Dorado Puerto Rico.
-##-
MEXICO: Crown Paradise, Royal Holiday Club, Vidanta Mayan Palace, and Vidanta "Kingdom of the Sun-Nuevo Vallarta at Vidanta World.
I just spent Christmass week at Coconut Plantation. All was fine, except the elevators were not working, the club house was untouched inside by the storm. The River pool pumping system was wipped out. But most of other pools and the main hot tub were all up and working, Resturant working. Could hardly tell by the condition of the grounds that the hurricane had hit just a few months earlier. And that's all thanks to , Ray, the Resort Manger and his detemination to get back up and running as fast as possible, same with the all the staff, contractors, and Insurance company's hard work to get as much of property up and running as soon as they can.

They are keeping the occupancy low, by not opening up the top floors in buildings were the elevators are not wotking, however, if your assigned to floor two or three they will carry your bags up the stairs to your unit if you want help.

I personaly hardly experienced any inconvencies, and had a very pleasent , quite 2022 Christmas week there. ... and the NEW Barbeque Grills were great !


P.S.
The undeveloped land behind the resort has been sold, no more HRC buildings will be built, and a new low rise hotel will be built on that land past the lake. There will be two new Ocean Front luxuary towers, named Ritz Carlton Residences, and connected together by about a 8 story or so building between the two, built next to the Hyatt Coconut Point Hotel on the old WEEKS FISH CAMP PROPERTY. Already 80% sold out , with penthouse condos selling for $13 million dollars plus. Developed by London Properties, who now also control the golf course (Raptor Bay). The name will be changed. And they are already reconstructing the golf course into a 18 hole championship type course, and a 9 hole walking course.
 
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