The Collier County Contractor Licensing Board has taken disciplinary action against and publicly reprimanded a local contractor.
The board’s decision to take action came after a hearing on May 20 involving Troy McNabb, the owner of Apex Site and Demolition Corp. in Naples.
At the hearing, Michael Bogert, a licensing supervisor for Collier County, told the board that McNabb received multiple payments to construct a new “barndominium structure” without “proper licensure” to build it, then never applied for a permit, nor started it.
Further, McNabb was only licensed to do demolition and fence work, with his license in suspension status because he’d failed to renew it as required by the county after it expired in September 2025, Bogert said.
Renewal is required every year to continue doing business in the county.
The board found McNabb guilty of misconduct and voted unanimously to revoke his license, taking a tough stance. Such action isn’t common, but it came after Bogert said the contractor blew off the property owners for years.
“He had told the homeowners to get their wetlands determination. Then he would start doing some work, but they had that for a couple years now, and he’s just been ditching them,” Bogert said.
The determination helps identify and delineate wetlands so they can be protected from development.
The planned project, to be built on a more than 1.5-acre lot in the Rural Estates, off 22nd Avenue N.E., involved the construction of a hybrid building, known as a barndominium, or “barno,” designed to blend the rustic look of a barn with the comfort of a modern home.
Contractor admitted to not having the proper licenses
At a meeting with county staff in March, McNabb admitted to contracting for work outside the scope of his license and taking three deposits for $95,000 for the barndominium. County staff confirmed that he advertised to build barndominiums on Facebook, without having the proper licenses to construct them.
The contract for the project that led to the disciplinary hearing was signed on Dec. 31, 2023.
McNabb did not attend the hearing last week. Reached by phone this week, he declined to comment, saying, “I’m not willing to get into it.”
Patrick Neale, an attorney for the licensing board, said the hearing could proceed as McNabb had received proper notice of it, but chose not to attend, or send a legal representative in his place.
A notice for the hearing was sent in the mail, and a second one was delivered “in person,” Bogert said.
“So, I think he’s ditching,” he said of McNabb’s absence.
No work done after property owner wrote three checks
The county’s licensing department received a complaint from the property owner’s brother on March 5, 2025, about McNabb contracting to do work outside the scope of his licenses, Bogert said.
The contract amount was $285,000. The property owner made three payments toward that total, writing checks totaling $95,000, then seeing nothing done with the money.
In talking to McNabb about the complaint, Bogert said “his excuse was that he had a CGC (Certified General Contractor) lined up to do that work,” for which he wasn’t qualified or licensed to do himself. He said that McNabb didn’t have any of the state licenses required to do the construction, electrical or plumbing work for the project he was going to build.
Later, the property owner hired another contractor, who poured a slab, which is the subject of a separate code enforcement case, Bogert said.
Licensing board made a quick decision on punishment
The licensing board had little discussion about the case against McNabb before finding him guilty of misconduct, revoking his license, and ordering him to pay $95,000 in restitution, along with a $10,000 fine to the county, the maximum civil penalty allowed for his offenses.
As part of the punishment, the board decided to publicly reprimand McNabb, which resulted in the county issuing a press release about the revocation of his license.
The board ordered that all payments are due within 30 days of the hearing date and that any monies collected from McNabb should go to the property owner first, rather than to the county.
While county records show other complaints have been filed against McNabb, mostly for starting work without a permit or doing work under an expired permit, in Collier County, those cases were either determined to be unfounded, or he resolved them.
In one case, McNabb was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and put on a 12-month probation, requiring regular appearances before the licensing board to ensure compliance. The punishment came after he was found guilty of starting work without a permit for a third time in 2021.
Laura Layden is a senior business and government reporter. Reach her by email at laura.layden@naplesnews.com.
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This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Naples contractor loses license after taking $95k, never starting job
Reporting by Laura Layden, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News / Naples Daily News
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