What happens next with property sale, animals, employees
The Shell Factory is just days away from shutting its doors forever. And owner Pam Cronin says she and her employees are still “reeling” from her difficult decision.
“It’s been 27 years,” Cronin says about her time owning the North Fort Myers attraction. “It is absolutely the most difficult decision I’ve ever made in my life. For all the reasons you can possibly imagine. First and foremost is our staff.”
Another reason: The Shell Factory was important to her late husband, Tom Cronin, who died in 2018.
“For my late husband, for Tommy, it was an absolute labor of love,” she says. “He decided that this was his last hurrah, and he put every dollar he had into it.”
Late Shell Factory & Nature Park owner Tom Cronin poses near the iconic sign in North Fort Myers in an undated photo. Cronin died in 2018.
The Shell Factory has been a fixture in Southwest Florida for 86 years. The 18-acre, Old Florida-style attraction is home to a restaurant, a zip line, a fudge shop, fossil displays and a sprawling, more than 50,000-square-foot gift shop packed with everything from miniature pirate ships to Christmas decorations to shells ― lots and lots of shells.
Then there’s the neighboring nature park with more than 350 exotic animals, including iguanas, porcupines, peacocks, alligators, lemurs, alpacas and goats.
Cronin says she loves the place, but she didn’t have much choice. The Shell Factory had never been profitable for the Cronins, and its buildings were in bad shape after the double whammy of Hurricanes Irma and Ian.
“It just needs so much,” she says. “It’s just an old place that has been added on and added on since 1954, and it just needs a lot of work.”
That’s why she announced on Monday, Sept. 16 – to both her employees and the media – that the 86-year-old tourist attraction would close its doors Sept. 29 and be put up for sale.
Since then, they’ve been busy running two weekend-long sales and figuring out what needs to be done in the coming weeks: Where the nature park’s animals will go, what they’re doing with all the remaining merchandise and lots more.
“We’re just all kind of reeling,” Cronin says. “I keep saying ‘We’re up to our eyeballs in alligators – literally – right now.”
Cronin talked with The News-Press recently about why she’s closing The Shell Factory, its employees and what happens to its animals, its carousel and other items. Here’s what she had to say.
What happens to the animals at the Shell Factory Nature Park?
The Shell Factory Nature Park’s new alpacas arrived in 2018: (From left): Irma, Tatiana and Halo.
Cronin says they’re still trying to find homes for the more than 350 animals in the nature park. That includes about 250 macaws, parrots and other birds; plus about 100 other animals: Gators, sloths, lemurs, a camel, alpacas and more.
The process was initially “daunting,” she says, but it’s working out “infinitely better than I had anticipated.”
“USDA and Fish & Wildlife have stepped up,” Cronin says. “They are recommending facilities and not-for-profits for us. We have so many of those organizations that are interested in the animals.”
Cronin didn’t have many details about those organizations, and animal park director Karen Schneider wasn’t made available for an interview with The News-Press. But Cronin says some of the snakes and turtles have already been placed, and Palmdale attraction Gatorama — which owns some of The Shell Factory’s alligators — will be taking back most of those gators.
Cronin promises that they’ll eventually release a thorough list of where the animals went.
“We’re really moving forward with finding great new homes for them,” she says. “And we are locating them in places where they’ll have forever homes.”
Meanwhile, all the animals will remain fed and cared for at the park, she says. “We have staff on, full time, every day, maintaining the habitats and making sure that they’re fed correctly. We’re still providing all the care.
“We just had the vet out the other day, checking on a couple of them. We’re 100 percent committed to making sure that, as long as they’re in our care, they’re well-cared for.”
Meanwhile, the nature park will remain open through Sunday.
“People can come and say goodbye to their favorites,” Cronin says. Which they really do. … It’s really heartfelt and lovely that so many people want to come see them and say goodbye.”
In a statement released Monday, The Shell Factory said it’s working closely with wildlife officials. “By law, we must work through the proper channels, including the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the United States Department of Agriculture, to transport and rehome our animals to approved facilities that have qualified caretakers.”
Putting The Shell Factory up for sale
Cronin says they haven’t listed the property yet on the real-estate market, but that will happen “shortly.”
“We’re working on that,” she says. “We’ve had lots of people contact us that are interested.”
She hopes to sell the place to someone who could continue running it as a tourist attraction, but says that’s not looking likely.
“We actually reached out and talked to — I’m gonna say — somewhere between six and 10 people that we thought might be prospective operators, who might want to come in and keep it an attraction,” she says. “Because, of course, that was our first goal. But we just haven’t been able to garner any interest in that.”
Part of the problem is The Shell Factory’s state of disrepair, including its leaky roof. That makes it less attractive to potential buyers.
“It needs so much renovation,” Cronin says. “That would be the first thing: You’d have to put so much money into it.”
On top of that, the place hasn’t exactly been a moneymaker over the last three decades. “It’s just not been a profitable business,” Cronin says. “We’ve been supplementing it every year for 27 years.”
Tom Cronin bought the property in 1997, when it was under foreclosure, and “lovingly transformed it from a roadside tourist spot to a sought-out destination for locals, seasonal residents and tourists,” according to a Shell Factory news release. Together, the Cronins made extensive investments and upgrades to the property, including the nature park.
Cronin says she wants to be choosy about who she sells the property to and what those buyers will do with it. “There are some limitations. … It’s just too important of a property to the North Fort Myers community.”
Still, she says she can’t discount something more extreme, such as the place being bulldozed and turned into condominiums. Time is running out for her.
“I may not have a choice,” she says. “Because I do have a mortgage on the property. Between the mortgage and maintaining the staff and the nature park and everything, I will be personally paying for everything. So we’ll just see how it rolls out.”
Finding new jobs for The Shell Factory’s employees
Cronin is especially worried about what happens to her employees. She says she’s doing everything she can to help them after The Shell Factory closes. The business had about 96 employees before announcing its closure, she says.
Two of those employees have worked at The Shell Factory the entire 27 years under Cronin’s ownership, she says. And one of those recently celebrated her 40th year there.
“We’re really trying to help them,” she says. “We have been extremely fortunate in having (payroll company) PEO and also CareerSource, which is just an amazing organization. I can’t even tout them enough — how much they’re doing and what they’re doing to help place our folks.”
The Soaring Eagle zip line attraction debuted in 2014 at the Shell Factory & Nature Park in North Fort Myers.
Cronin has been talking to other Southwest Florida companies, including Gator Mike’s Family Fun in Cape Coral, about hiring some of the Shell Factory’s employees, she says.
“Fortunately, we’re kinda moving toward season,” she says. “So a lot of the restaurant staff will probably have an easier time. And the same with retail. Retails gonna crank up a little bit. So we’re just hopeful that everybody finds a place they love.”
As for any severance for the employees, Cronin says she’s not sure. “We haven’t worked that all out yet.”
They still haven’t listed the property for sale yet, she says, and she’s not sure “where we’re going to land through all this.”
What else needs to be done at The Shell Factory
Alea Bryant, 5, left, and Jaelah Brown, 3, right, wave to their family as they ride a restored 1927 carousel at The Shell Factory and Nature Park on Saturday, Dec. 21, 2019, in North Fort Myers.
For the moment, Cronin and her staff are focused more on getting through The Shell Factory’s final weekend. That includes a 30-percent-off sale on everything in the store from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday through Sunday. The nature park and restaurant will also be open.
“We’re gonna get through next week, which will pretty much take us to the end of the month,” Cronin says. “And then we’re just gonna kind of regroup and figure out what we’re doing.”
After they close, they’ll likely hold an auction to sell off the restaurant’s equipment and furnishings, and another to sell “fun stuff” like the Santa Claus statue and the kiddie rides.
She’s also had inquires about the Shell Factory’s restored 1927 carousel, which had previously entertained kids and families at St. Augustine’s Davenport Park with its painted horses and cheerful calliope music. The carousel came to The Shell Factory in 2019.
Cronin admits everything has been kind of overwhelming, but they’re slowly working through everything that needs to be done at The Shell Factory.
“We’re doing one step at a time: The most urgent things first with the staff and the animals,” she says. “And then we’re gonna take each step at a time.”
For updates on The Shell Factory, visit shellfactory.com or facebook.com/shellfactoryfl.
— Charles Runnells is an arts and entertainment reporter for The News-Press and the Naples Daily News. To reach him, call 239-335-0368 (for tickets to shows, call the venue) or email him at [email protected].
Follow or message him on social media: Facebook (facebook.com/charles.runnells.7), X (formerly Twitter) (@charlesrunnells), Threads (@crunnells1) and Instagram (@crunnells1).
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: The Shell Factory’s final weekend: Property to be listed, what’s next
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