Trio high-rise condo-hotel planned for East Naples Triangle put 'on hold'
Laura Layden, laura.layden@naplesnews.com; 239-263-4818 Published 3:56 p.m. ET April 18, 2018 | Updated 12:06 p.m. ET April 19, 2018
A luxury high-rise condo-hotel planned for East Naples has been put on the back burner.
The website for the project, known as Trio, has been disabled. Its Facebook page is down and the listings for its planned tower residences have disappeared from the Southwest Florida MLS, or multiple listing service.
"The project is on hold at this time," said David Bartley Sr., the Bartley Realty owner, who has been acting as exclusive broker for the project.
Asked why the project no longer is being marketed, Bartley offered no other details, saying he couldn't comment further.
Collier County land records show the developers, Trio Southern Holdings LLC, defaulted on a loan agreement for the project. The company's sole manager is Anthony Fortino, owner of Fortino Construction and Development in Naples.
According to county records, the deed was conveyed to the lender in lieu of foreclosure to satisfy the loan.
On April 13, the title for the property transferred to a Massachusetts limited liability company called Trigate Enterprises, with the same address as the note holder, Endeavor Capital Finance, which describes itself as a "direct hard money lender" on its website.
County records show Customers Bank, a Pennsylvania-chartered bank, assigned the note, mortgage and loan documents to Endeavor on April 2. The principal amount for the note, last renewed in May 2017, was $4 million.
There were signs the planned residences at Trio were slow in selling.
Reacting to market forces, the developers of Trio changed their design in July to offer more floor plans with smaller units starting at $499,900.
With the design changes, 17 of the 24 residences were priced at less than $1 million. That was meant to bring them more in line with buyers' "sweet spot," Bartley said after the announcement.
More recently, the developers applied for a change to the site development plan to reduce the number of residences and increase the number of hotel rooms, which can be handled administratively by the county.
But the request still is pending, and county staff didn't take action on it because the developers owed more than $25,000 in road impact fees to the county for the project, said Mark Strain, chairman of the Collier County Planning Commission and the county's hearing examiner.
Impact fees, designed to help growth pay for growth, are one-time charges on new construction.
The sleek concrete-and-glass tower was proposed at U.S. 41 East and Davis Boulevard, just outside Naples in the Gateway Triangle, long targeted for redevelopment.
The name of the project comes from the pizza-slice shape of its land.
Since the project already is permitted, it can proceed as originally approved, unless the new owners or developers think modifications are needed, Strain said.
"The county is not mixed up in it," he said of the decision to put the project on hold.
Collier County Commissioner Donna Fiala, who represents East Naples, said she hadn't heard of any financial troubles with the project.
She said residents were looking forward to the new development and the improvements it would bring to the area.
"The zoning was in place," Fiala said. "Even though they didn't have to come before us, no one was objecting to us at all. I heard some kind words, but I never heard any objections."
One of two Triangle projects
A similar but larger hotel and condo tower known as Gateway Triangle still is moving forward for a 5-acre site nearby.
That project, planned by local developers Jerry Starkey and Fred Pezeshkan of Real Estate Partners International, would include a mix of restaurants, stores and offices, along with a high-end movie theater and a rooftop restaurant.
A final vote by Collier County commissioners is scheduled for May 8.
It would be interesting if the two projects became one to "make the place come alive," Fiala said.
"We have workforce sitting right behind them," she said. "It's all workforce housing back there, so they would have plenty of workforce to start working there right away."
A luxury high-rise condo-hotel planned for East Naples has been put on hold in 2018. This video shows how the project was more affordable in 2017. Vonna Keomanyvong/ Naples Daily News via Wochit