The city of Fort Myers is starting to shift its focus to sprucing up areas that have been in need of work over the last few years. One such area is midtown, which incorporates many homes, businesses and the City of Palms Park.
When you drive in the area, you notice rundown buildings, bad sidewalks and a lack of lighting.
"It’s a big project; it’s a number of blocks of work to be done. We’ve spent about a year doing what we call the master planning effort," said Nicole Setzer, an engineer for the Fort Myers Public Works Department.
Setzer says that includes repaving roads, fixing sidewalks and improving utilities.
"The infrastructure is kind of been neglected. There hasn’t been a lot of economic development going on; there's a lot of government-owned building down there, so we’re hoping that by putting in new infrastructure it will spur some of that development," Setzer said.
Development like that doesn't grow overnight. Mayor Kevin Anderson told ABC7 that it's a lot more than what you'd think.
"We have to do our part as a city, but we also have to be able to attract the right developers who will have the right projects in mind," said Anderson. "We don’t want people coming in and saying this is what I want to put up here; we want developers that will come in and say, 'Okay, what is it the city is looking for?'"
The plan is to make midtown another version of downtown Fort Myers. It will have a different feel. Residents like Gregory Brown want to see Midtown grow because they know what it can be.
"It’s not being treated right. We don’t have the stuff that we should have," Brown said.
"We have been promised so much in this area and nothing has been done yet," he said.
Hoping that all this planning to fix the midtown area will be worth it when it's all said and done.
"You will have activities, entertainment, restaurants, bars, you know, dry cleaners — anything you need. Hopefully, you have that within walking distance of where you live," Anderson said.
The city of Fort Myers hopes to start working on infrastructure in midtown next year.