Hurricane Ian — One Year Later: Another Ian victim — Cape’s Yacht Club
After a long, tumultuous, and polarizing journey following Hurricane Ian, the historic Cape Coral Yacht Club will not return as it once was.
Despite public pleas to save the Ballroom building at the least, the site has been marked for demolition, with plans being drawn up on how the location will serve the community in its next iteration.
The city in mid-August earmarked $1 million for the teardown that will include the Ballroom, Rotino Center, Harbor Master building, ticket booth, electric building, pool area, and pump house.
The city has been favorable of the term “structural deconstruction” rather than demolition, and officials say they hope to reincorporate some of the old into the new.
In late August, a randomly selected group of residents dubbed the Cape Coral Yacht Club Stakeholder Group stepped foot into the Ballroom, seeing first-hand the condition of the building and getting an idea of what could be preserved, and how.
The group consists of 14 members of the public that will provide input to the hired architect firm Kimley Horn and the Cape Coral City Council on how some form of essence of the past can be represented in the Yacht Club’s future.
For many there, the Yacht Club is a vehicle back to their childhood.
“For me, it’s sad,” said Michael Przystawik, a Cape resident since 1964 and member of the stakeholder group. “I grew up in this pool. My dad was a fountain operator at night, so we had all day, every day to hang out in the pool.”
The Cape Coral Yacht Club was opened in June of ’62 by Gulf American Land Corporation and the Rosen Brothers, and is the remaining original public structure still standing in the Cape. It has been used as a community gathering spot for the past 60-plus years and is a location near and dear to many of Cape Coral’s residents.
In 1998, the Cape Coral City Council adopted a resolution declaring “the Yacht Club Community Park as an historic and/or cultural resource as provided in the city of Cape Coral historic and cultural preservation ordinance.” It was signed by then mayor Roger Butler on April 23.
Pioneer resident and former two-time city council member Gloria Tate worked to secure historical designation from the state when it came to the Yacht Club, and began the process to get national designation. Tate, who requested a hearing from Council in July, was told the ballroom and site were to be demolished due to the cost of repairs in the wake of Hurricane Ian and what the city called “deferred maintenance.” City officials said these things made repairing the facility and bring it to current standards too costly.
“I was very excited about that and I was very proud of the fact that this historical building qualified for all the right reasons,” she said. “(I am) very disheartened that it is not going to change the direction of the Council.”
While the pier was swept away and the riverfront beach area and structures took heavy damage as did many residences along the Cape’s Gold Coast, the Ballroom building itself incurred relatively little storm damage. A city of Cape Coral insurance claim puts hurricane-related damage to the city’s first community center at just under $25,000.
Damage to the building came from rainwater that entered through windows broken by wind from Hurricane Ian. There was also wind damage to metal roof facia and the roof edge of the club house; wind damage to the wood fence that surrounds the outside air-conditioning units; gutter damage on the attached locker room building caused by a fallen tree and wind damage to the portico at the front of the building.
The adjustment letter states that the main roof had incurred damage from an earlier storm and was already tarped over some portions and that support beams showed age-related stress cracks that may have been exacerbated by Ian but that damage was not determined to be permanent.
The redesign process for what the Yacht Club will evolve into has not been fully completed. Plans are to keep the open-floor concept and have a large space for multi-purpose use.
Points of discussion for stakeholders involved the ceiling beams, if they can be incorporated into the new building as an aesthetic look, or repurposed in other ways.
The stonework inside of the historic, mid-century style building, along the walls and fireplace, is in discussion to possibly be repurposed. Questions of how much and which parts individually are a focal point.
“I think the high beams in the main hall are such a stunning feature,” Przystawik said. “It’s what you always think of when you walk into this building. As we discuss (what we save), my suggestion was to try and replicate that feel as a decorative element so that we don’t have to worry about the engineering and stresses.”
Parts of the terrazzo floor, a popular design that is seldom seen anymore, could be saved and used for signage or a new site element.
The four chandeliers hanging inside the ballroom are not the original, and were reported to have wiring issues and slated to be replaced. Talks currently lean towards not reincorporating them into the new design. As for the fountain outside, project managers state there are early plans to have a new fountain, more resembling the original design, at the new Yacht Club, in a new location.
During a followup workshop held Sept. 13, Council took a consensus to save the glass doors and not much else.
Capital Improvement Director Paul Clinghan said as far as the total schedule, if the city “piggybacks” and uses an already-approved vendor they could shave 30 days off the demolition schedule.
“At the end of January 2024 could be the three-month duration to actually move everything forward. Documents are still ready at the end of September,” he said, adding at the end of October, the award would be executed with the piggyback option. “October notice to proceed and three months to actually do the work.”