Woman's Club offers to rent parking lot to city

To lessen a parking shortage on trendy Fifth Avenue South and Park Street, the Naples Woman’s Club has opened up its parking lot for the summer and has offered to rent it to the city for $2,000 monthly from October to April.

The offer is about half what the club on Park Street wanted to charge last year, when it also blocked its use on many dates, prompting city officials to turn the club down. City officials had paid $1,000 monthly the year before.

“It’s a very nice gesture,” said Naples Community Redevelopment Agency Manager Chet Hunt, calling the price fair and reasonable.

Under terms of the offer, the lot can be used during evenings and weekends, except for four dates in January, February and March, when it’s needed for art and antique shows.

Although the club is within the city’s CRA district, the parking lot is not, so Tax Increment Financing funds can’t be used. When it returns from summer break in August, City Council will have to approve the $2,000 fee and money will come from city funds, not the CRA.

At its meeting Monday, the CRA Advisory Board called the offer a complete turnaround from last year’s rate. City officials have noted that under the city’s Park Street Civic-Cultural Center Redevelopment Project, the club will benefit because it will gain a larger new building by offering development rights to its property.

“They should appreciate what the city and von Liebig (Art Center) are trying to do for their street,” said CRAAB member Jacques Groenteman.

But CRAAB Chairman Lou Vlasho applauded the offer, calling it a 180-degree turnaround. “I think $2,000 a month is well worth it,” he said, noting that last year’s nearly doubled fee sought too much of a profit. “I think it’s a plus-plus. We want a fee that allows them to maintain their lot.”

In a telephone interview, Pat Trowbridge, the charitable club’s new president, said the club also has allowed the art center to use its lot without charge for the summer Kidscool program. Taylor Wells, the art center’s executive director, has said the art center couldn’t hold larger art shows or increase classes due to lack of parking.

The Naples Woman’s Club property is crucial to Park Street’s transformation into a cultural plaza and Hunt will meet with proposed developers for the club today. The project is expected to transform Park Street into a pedestrian cultural plaza with traffic lanes.