Pink Shell Resort Asks City Council to Provide Housing for Boat Workforce

FORT MYERS BEACH, Florida. The Pink Shell Resort in Fort Myers Beach offers another way to give employees a place to call home. Five months after Hurricane Ian, the resort asks the city of Fort Myers Beach for permission to live on board.

This means that someone can live or stay on the boat for more than five days.

The general manager of the resort says the idea could help the entire island of Estero.

“With limited housing available, this is vital,” said Bill Vaichulis. “Everyone is just focused on what’s available.”

He says boats would be another option besides apartments on the island. Vaichulis says that when he started working at the resort about 17 years ago, there were many employees living on the island. Today he can barely count one or two.

“A commute to work would be fantastic,” Vaichulis said.

They have 41 boat slips that can be used for guests or employees. Currently, the city only allows living on board for four days, so Vaichulis has already addressed the council members with his proposal.

“Obviously we will start hiring employees and some of them will probably need the opportunity to live on the boat,” he explained. “We could make it available to other businesses for their employees.”

Workforce housing is not a new idea for Waichulis. They had two workers’ cottages next to the resort. About 14 people lived there, but the cottages were destroyed by Hurricane Yang.

They want to restore them, but now they must do so in accordance with the FEMA flood code.

“We had foreign employees who lived there on a visa,” Vaichulis said.

The cottages can only accommodate 14 people, but Vaichulis eventually wants to go to the council members to ask for more, which will make the area denser.

The idea of ​​a safari is getting closer to reality. The proposed ruling will have another public hearing on March 6 at 9 am. On the same day, council members will hold a final vote on the ordinance.

“Some of them [employees] I think now we are studying what it means to buy a boat,” Vaichulis said.