Sheldon Zoldan/Special to WGCU

Republican candidates in the District 19 Congressional race are spending millions of dollars for television ads, mailers and online promotion, and most of that money is coming from their own pockets.

Once Seminole Gulf Railway finalizes the sale of 11.4 miles of right-of-way for the Bonita Estero Rail Trail, a new kind of negotiation begins. As many as 50 landowners will be eligible to sue the federal government for compensation once the right-of-way is sold to the Land for Public Trust. The $60 million sale is expected to be official later this summer or early fall.

The 16 Republicans seeking to represent two Southwest Florida districts in the U.S. Congress will be the most-watched local races of the August 18 primary.

For 23 years, Janice Blazek lived in a non-descript second-floor two-bedroom apartment in a rental community near the Bell Tower Shops where rents go as low as $1,500 a month. Her neighbors were dumbfounded when they learned that the 88-year-old recluse who died in January was a multi-millionaire.

The newest plans to revive historic McCollum Hall near downtown Fort Myers include a restaurant, music venue and business center. Community Redevelopment Agency commissioners approved the concept during its Wednesday meeting. Jeffrey Mudgett, one of the partners of Parker Mudgett Smith Architects, presented the plan to the mayor and City Council members acting as CRA commissioners.

A proposed apartment and retail development on one of the few remaining tracts of land near Florida Gulf Coast University won’t be marketing to students.

Now it’s up to the town council to make a final decision on whether to approve a 150-unit hotel and 46 multi-family condos at the site of the former Outrigger Beach Resort.

Amira Fox won her third term as state attorney without facing opposition. She was the only candidate who filed to run for the job. The filing deadline was noon Friday.

Developers who want to build a 32-story, two-tower condo development along the eastern outskirts of downtown Fort Myers received another setback this week. City council members, sitting as Community Redevelopment Agency commissioners, turned down the request by Doral-based Jaxi Builders to amend an agreement that would have given $15.1 million in tax incentives.

The vacant 61 acres that sits on the north and south sides of the intersection at Alico Road and U.S. 41 won’t sit empty much longer.