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NAPLES — An expansion of the Moorings Park retirement community through a second campus is running into objections from residents who want the project dropped from consideration.

Letters from Moorings Park residents have been sent to directors, asking them to halt further deliberations and a petition was circulated among residents who stay in Naples for the summer.

“I’m told a majority of residents signed the petition,” said Moorings Park resident Bill MacIlvaine, a former member of the Naples City Council. “It just says people of Moorings Park do not agree to the idea of a second campus and want administration to stop its effort.”

Despite the sentiment of residents, Moorings Park directors have instructed management to continue exploring the viability of a second campus, according to a June 13 correspondence from the chairman of the Moorings Park Institute board of directors to the residents council.

Guenther Gosch, president and chief executive officer of Moorings Park, said he was aware a petition had circulated but it was not presented to him. He acknowledges residents have sent letters and have raised a lot of questions at meetings.

“A lot of the concern is because we weren’t sharing a whole lot of information because we didn’t have any,” Gosch said. “We haven’t made any commitment. We are still doing due diligence. Our position is, do the due diligence. It is a normal and acceptable business practice.”

Moorings Park, a nonprofit, has a contract to purchase 10.5 acres along the Gordon River from developer Phil McCabe, who dropped plans to build a mid-rise waterfront luxury condominium community on the site. The purchase price is confidential.

The land is at the southeast corner of Goodlette-Frank Road and Central Avenue, four miles south of the present Moorings Park 83-acre campus off Goodlette-Frank. The retirement community has 700 residents in apartments, assisted-living units and the 106-bed Chateau nursing facility.

MacIlvaine and others say reasons given by management for an off-site expansion don’t make sense. Additionally, there is considerable financial risk with a second campus without any benefit to the current residents, who paid their entrance fee with the expectation it is for their needs and the needs of the on-site facilities.

“Outside directors have allocated $500,000 for due diligence of a second campus,” he said. “That is the cause of a lot of angst, a lot of heartburn.”

A majority of the board of directors for both Moorings Park Inc., the operating entity, and for the parent Moorings Park Institute, are not residents. The decision about a second campus will be made by the Moorings Park Inc. board of directors and presented to the institute board.

Residents are being told reasons for a second campus include trying to stay ahead of competition, the potential to generate income by having the current management run the second campus, and the possibility of having a doctor on staff, MacIlvaine said.

“My position is a second campus would be competition,” he said.

Moreover, there is land available for adding another 44 apartments to the existing campus, MacIlvaine said.

The retirement community’s success in attracting future residents could be jeopardized by diluting the marketability and success of Moorings Park by a second campus, which would also be competing with the existing campus for new residents, Calvin Cobb, a current resident, wrote in letters to the board.

“Since (Moorings Park) is not a business venture, expansion for expansion’s sake is not appropriate,” Cobb wrote, offering numerous reasons why the board should abandon the project.

“The thing that bothers me the most is management has not addressed in dollars and cents, what advantages there would be to us,” said resident Fred Yarrington. “We don’t know what the financial goal is. I don’t like blank checks. That is what it really boils down to.”

Gosch said sharing fixed overhead costs with a second campus would be one of the benefits.

“It is clearly a business practice you would pursue if you can,” Gosch said.

With respect to competition, there are several entities that are proposing continuing care retirement communities similar to Moorings Park, Gosch said. One potential competitor is the Bridges at Gordon River on the south side of Golden Gate Parkway and north of the Naples Zoo. The developer of the project wants the 22-acre site annexed into the City of Naples.

“Competition is there and it is part of reality,” Gosch said. “You do not just sit back and let the competition do what it wants to do. We need to try and control that to our own benefit.”

The board does not believe expanding on the current campus is the way to go, he added.

Yarrington said the discussion about being competitive has been vague and there is nothing of value to the residents of Moorings Park by a second campus.

“If they were to do something in Sarasota, I wouldn’t have a problem but I don’t understand the idea of competing against yourself,” he said.