The Comeback: FMB's Rebuild, Documented

Hurricane Ian made landfall on September 28, 2022 and destroyed most of what stood on Fort Myers Beach. That part of the story everyone knows. What's less known — because nobody publishes it in one place — is how the rebuild is actually going. That's what this page is for. No adjectives, no brochure language: dated facts, each one checkable.

The daily evidence: permits

Construction on the island runs through the town's permit office, and the town publishes every permit. We collect that feed daily — as of this writing the pace is roughly 200 permits a month: roofs, elevations, docks, pools, new homes, commercial fit-outs. The mix matters as much as the count: demolition and new-construction permits mean parcels moving from “damaged” to “rebuilt to modern code.” Watch it move on the permit tracker — it updates every day.

The anchors already open

• Margaritaville Beach Resort — the 254-room resort opened in December 2023, the first large-scale hospitality anchor of the recovery, and has operated through three seasons since.
• The beach itself — renourishment placed major new sand volume and rebuilt the berm; by 2026 reporting describes the beach as in arguably better shape than before the storm, with dune stabilization continuing.

What's under construction now

• Times Square— the town approved the district's first private rebuild in January 2026; further redevelopment plans were filed through 2026, with the first projects targeting completion around early 2028. The commercial heart is returning at modern elevation, in phases.
• A new $13M resort project broke ground on the island in July 2026, per Business Observer reporting.
• The pier — the replacement will be about 1,000 feet long and 12 feet wide (roughly 70% longer and 50% wider than the old pier), with completion expected in August 2027.

What's honestly not back yet

Lodging inventory remains below pre-Ian totals. Some parcels are still empty, some owners are still deciding, and the pier is a 2027 story. We include this because the case for the island doesn't need exaggeration: a rebuild at this documented pace, on a barrier island with permanently fixed land supply, where everything new is built to post-Ian code — that is the story, and it's true as stated.

Why the new island is structurally different

Everything built now goes up under the 2022 flood maps, the town's BFE+1 freeboard rule, and current Florida wind code (see flood zones and rebuild economics). The practical meaning: the island being rebuilt is more storm-resistant than the one Ian hit — not as a slogan, but as a matter of building code arithmetic.

This page is a living document. As projects complete or new ones are approved, we update it — with dates and sources, the same as everything else here.