Everglades City
by Reverend Dr Bob N. Wallace | Everglades Community Church
Driving south along Collier Boulevard (SR-951), leaving US 41, you will notice airport signs along the way. An airport out here in the middle of the Everglades? Yes, that’s right! According to a Collier County Transportation Management Services brochure, “The Marco Island Executive Airport is conveniently located near Naples, Marco Island, Goodland, and Isles of Capri at 2005 Mainsail Drive. It features a 5,000-foot runway and provides services such as flight training, aircraft rentals, and maintenance. It also has facilities for car rentals and other travel-related services. The Florida Department of Transportation estimates that the airport has a local total annual economic impact of $258 million and provides affordable, convenient, safe, hassle-free air travel.”
Situated in a natural environment, the airport is congestion- and traffic-free, yet only minutes away from the area’s amenities and attractions. Airport staff provide professional, friendly, and personal service to all customers and arrange ground transportation and local reservations upon request.
The Transportation Management Services brochure also mentions, “The Marco Island Airport was initially designed to complement plans for creating a resort area south of Naples. Immediately following its completion in 1976, the airport was primarily used as a marketing tool to help sell Marco Island lots. Developers would fly prospective Marco Island homeowners and investors over from Miami. Eventually, the developers turned the airport over to the state, and in the 1980s, the state, in turn, leased it directly to Collier County.”
In 1993, the county recognized the airport as a community asset and created the Airport Authority to develop and manage the Marco Island Executive Airport. Today, as envisioned by the county, the airport serves travelers from all over the world, providing a friendly and efficient gateway just north of Marco Island.
According to the City of Marco Island website, “An extensive advertising campaign, particularly in Chicago, New York, Cleveland, and Boston, as well as in Western Europe, Latin America, and East Asia, caused people to flock to the island. Thirty days following the official opening, 50,000 inquiries flooded the tiny administration office on San Marco Road, where the island police and fire department stand today. By the end of 1973, the population had jumped to an estimated 5,000 full- and part-time residents. More than seven hundred single-family homes and 1,500 condominium units had been completed. By the mid-1970s, the second bridge connecting the island with the mainland at Goodland was completed.”
Serious problems developed for Deltona’s Mackle Brothers in 1976. Previously approved dredge and fill permits to develop Barfield Bay and Big Key, the final two phases of development, were denied by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Environmentalists and conservationists soon took center stage through years of litigation, compromise, and public meetings. Deltona fought the denial all the way to the Supreme Court while teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.
To raise funds for their court battles, the company sold many undeveloped properties at bargain prices and began selling assets, including its prized possession, the Marco Beach Hotel and Villas, which was sold to the Marriott Corporation in 1979 for $35 million. On March 22, 1982, the Supreme Court refused Deltona’s petition to overturn the court decision. The Mackles virtually turned their undeveloped holdings into nature preserves. More than 7,000 people had contracts for homesites on property that now could not be developed. Deltona had used much of the down payment cash flow to develop other parts of the island. The company immediately offered cash refunds, alternative island property, and exchanges for property in other Deltona communities.
The airport remains a key community asset, with pilot-controlled runway lighting and no Stage 2 restrictions.
