Is Pitch Prime back in the Fort Myers picture?
If so, MLS Next Pro might be ready to swoop back in to southwest Florida
After multiple media reports indicated any deal between USL and the City of Fort Myers fell apart last week, I am reliably told that Pitch Prime that was originally first choice for redevelopment of the City of Palms Park is once again interested in redeveloping the property.
For a detailed breakdown of how USL replaced Pitch Prime as the top choice using the legal system, our Alex Ashton had this story for League One updater last March. Ultimately USL’s suit was successful and they were able to negotiate with the city, but as we reported last week, they have walked away for multiple reasons.
I am told that Pitch Prime is still interested and likely has the ability to re-engage its funding sources - also MLS Next Pro would be the logical option for the professional soccer portion of the project.
Additionally, Pitch Prime was committed to building training fields for an academy project as well pickleball courts and a team store. The complex would be more of a sports-centric one than the envisioned retail/soccer hybrid USL was looking at.
We will keep an ear out on this multi-year evolving story.
Below: City of Fort Myers zoning plan for the area prior to USL lawsuit.
If the only available land for the Ft. Myers soccer specific stadium (SSS) is restricted to that in the picture of the zoning plan, we can understand why this effort is doomed for Pro Soccer. The soccer stadium would need to take up the entirety of the purple zone, which means all parking would then be shifted to the red zone, which is woefully small for parking AND separated from the SSS by the baseball fields (so less favorable to be designated as VIP/premium parking for soccer games, when the celebrities and politicians want to walk only a few steps to enter the stadium). There are also no clear vacant adjacent land to be converted to luxury apartments/condos adjacent to the stadium to drive interest and money for the entire development.