Pretty,  as others have stated here, the permitting process through the City of Cape Coral has been hindered by their ability to scale up their staff to handle the massive demands for all permitting including new construction but also anything else that requires a permit, home improvements, sea walls, alternative sea walls, pools and more.From your post, I can see that you are frustrated, and I believe some of that is due to not understanding the steps and processes of new construction, including what must be done prior to submitting permits.

I've begun cold calling and looking to alternate methods of finding deals, but if anyone has any advice for overcoming this I'd love to connect.

Thanks,GeneOne can move old IRAs into a self-directed IRA (Equity Trust, Inspira/Quest, Etc.) and then use the funds to invest in or buy and hold real estate (also other alternative investments). 

Myself I thought about 2017 was going to be kind of the end of the 10 year cycle and I actually put a presentation together called the Pivot looking at alternative ways to invest in RE. 

Alternatively, I could explore hard money lenders.

And while a 1031 exchange isn’t an option, some people explore alternatives like installment sales to spread out taxes or even tweaking the investment structure so your returns are treated as interest instead of equity.There are definitely some creative strategies out there. 

Alternatively, you could consider seller financing, which could provide you with a steady income stream while selling the property.As a real estate investor, realtor, and owner of a construction company near Texas A&M (College Station/Bryan,) I'm happy to help in any way I can.

Numerous times I have been able to think through an issues that arose on a construction site and saved the Owner by proposing an alternate route to resolve it. 

I'm also interested in alternatives that have banking, rent collection, bookkeeping, etc.

We estimate the project will take less than 3 months to complete.I’m exploring alternative short-term financing solutions and would appreciate any advice or recommendations on options that might work well for this type of project.Thank you in advance for your insights and assistance!