Redevelopment Planned for Old Marco Waterfront Trailer Park 

Waves lap on the Marco River, visible through the bent spokes of a mangled bicycle, flaps of metal roofing clang in the wind, mingling with live music from the Snook Inn restaurant next door. It’s as if life paused at the Port Marco manufactured home community of Marco Island. 

That is all about to change as all that remains of Port Marco — that which was not already ravaged by abandonment and hurricanes— is about to be demolished as new owners, Tailwind Group, propose a five-story redevelopment. In the small community’s place, current property owners told their neighbors of their plans for a mixed-use development with condominiums, two restaurants, a hotel, and a marina shop to replace the remaining manufactured homes. The developers’ presentation came during a neighborhood information meeting at Mackle Park on Monday, March 10. 

Many residents in attendance said they didn’t like the idea, saying it was too large of a project for the dead-end street of Bald Eagle Drive, leading to traffic congestion, parking shortages, and safety concerns for emergency vehicle access while significantly altering the character of the Old Marco neighborhood. 

First responders won’t be able to easily access the area due to traffic congestion, warned Walter Kamme, echoing concerns of many public speakers. 

"If someone has a heart attack and dies, that’s on you,” said Kamme, a resident of Riverside Club condominium on Bald Eagle Drive. 

Don Knottnerus, a resident of Pier 81 condominiums and also a neighbor along Bald Eagle Drive, was particularly concerned with the plan's effects on the area. 

“It would change the character of Old Marco,” said Knottnerus. 

The quaint, old Florida feel of the neighborhood would be replaced by a modern, large-scale multi-use development to the detriment of the longtime residents, Knottnerus and other residents critiqued. 

Currently, a Vespa is still parked in a driveway in front of a vacant white home with aluminum siding. The coordinating helmet is seemingly at the ready on the lanai. A hula-hoop leans against a patio wall. Glassware is still lining shelves of one of the single-story homes with missing windows. A Jesus Christ Superstar record sets on a dirty, cream-colored leather sofa seat as if ready to be next on play. A cactus tree just about to bloom pink flowers sprawls five feet tall, leaning and bent in front of a porch with a white door marked with a big, orange spray-painted X, illustrating it’s up for demolition.

What was once an old clam factory that closed in 1947 turned into a trailer park that was first owned by the Doxsee family, many of whom are still fishing and stone-crabbing in the area. The property became not only one of the most expensive trailer parks in Southwest Florida but also the highest-cost property purchase on Marco Island in history when the 16 manufactured home sites and 16 private docks sold for $16 million in 2023. Their ownership at the time was a co-op of the 16 property owners, created years before condominium association laws were established and after the Doxsee family sold the park when it was severely damaged by Hurricane Donna in 1960, according to Marco Island Historical Society records and historian Craig Woodward.

The sale required all 16 property owners to agree to the sale and garnered each of them $1 million — which seemingly was enough for several of the owners to vacate the premises without gathering all their belongings, Woodward said.

According to the land development code of the time, which is found online on the municipal code website, this portion of the Doxsee property became Port Macro with 16 mobile home sites and 16 boat docks to be operated as a nonprofit with building heights not to exceed 25 feet. 

At least 150 Marco Island residents packed the room with a line formed at the microphone to ask questions of the developers. Mark McLean, national director of MHK Architecture, fielded most of the questions and listened to the comments, concerns and complaints about the project plans— parking and traffic congestion paramount among them.

“We hear what you’re saying,” said McLean, adding that he is a Collier County resident of 25 years. “Marco Island, tip to tip, coast to coast, has a parking issue,” said McLean. 

He acknowledged traffic flow concerns specific to the new project as well. 

“We are willing to work with the Snook Inn to declutter the area,” McLean said. 

Attorney Zach Lombardo attended the meeting to represent Old Marco Village LLC and current owners of the Snook Inn, saying that he just received the development plans. Lombardo, like Daniel Smith, the city’s director of community affairs, is still in the process of reviewing plan details just received days prior to the meeting, they said. The chief complaint, Lombardo said, is that an easement provided by the Snook Inn goes away with the redevelopment plans. 

“The offer still stands. We will work with the Snook Inn to improve this area,” McLean replied. 

The neighborhood meeting is one of several public meetings in the approval process, with planning board and City Council meetings to be scheduled after city staff reviews the plans. Smith, Planning Board Chairman Jason Bailey, and City Councilman Stephen Gray were among the city officials in attendance. 

Project plans presented Monday include:

* Five-story mixed-use development height. 

* A roundabout with valet parking.

* Two restaurants with an estimated 150 seats each, including one on the first level with the board walk and marina ship store also on the ground floor.

* A marina to include 40 boat slips, about half of them public.

Retail shops.

* A second level predominantly consisting of parking.

* 252 total parking spaces for the project.

* City code requirement of a minimum of 206 parking spaces.

* Hotel with 17 rooms and 44 parking spaces on the third level.

* Condominiums with garages providing 15 residences, including three-bedroom and two-bedroom unit options, on the fourth level. 

* Rooftop with seven additional units. Pool, cabanas, bar, fitness center, and restaurant on the fifth story.

* Current property includes a C-4 zoned area nearest the Snook Inn and the adjacent C-5 zoned area at 1219 Bald Eagle Drive, where the Port Marco trailer park is being demolished, totaling fewer than two acres.

* Request for a conditional use permit of the C-4 Commercial Zone District to allow redevelopment.

* A variance request of the city to exceed the maximum building height limit of 40 feet to allow for the 56-foot-tall mixed-use facilities.

* A new restaurant to be constructed on land near the Snook Inn is separate and in addition to this development plan.

* Future public planning board and City Council meetings held to redevelop Port Marco.