North Naples Heads Into Season With Its Malls Rearranging and Its New Owners in the Strip Centers

Most of this fall's U.S. 41 news in North Naples involves names that were already here. At Waterside Shops, most of the season's openings fill space another Waterside tenant left. At Mercato, the dark cinema may soon be run by the company already operating the theater across the highway. The newcomers who signed leases and put their own names on the door this fall opened a few miles away, in The Pavilion, Granada Shoppes and Meridian Marketplace.

So far, this season's new owners are on Vanderbilt Beach Road, Immokalee Road and Pine Ridge Road, more than in either open-air mall.

Waterside's openings fill space its own tenants left

Gulfshore Business called it a summer of six new stores, three new dining options and three renovated spaces at Waterside Shops, 5415 Tamiami Trail N. The unit-by-unit detail in that report shows a different picture. Nearly every opening depends on another tenant moving or leaving first.

One move set off the rest. When Williams Sonoma left its inline space for an outparcel and Pottery Barn followed, they freed the space that went to Dior, Vuori and Anthropologie. Dior's move took it out of the store-within-a-store inside Saks into a standalone boutique with more street presence for its fashion, fragrance and beauty lines.

The only additions that don't come from a reshuffle are on the edges. Eddie V's Prime Seafood, a Darden Restaurants concept, opened June 7. It's a freestanding 9,991-square-foot restaurant in a heavily renovated former bank office at Seagate Drive and Myra Janco Daniels Boulevard, with live jazz nightly in its V Lounge. RH Naples is going up on the footprint of the former Nordstrom, which closed in 2020. Naples-based DeAngelis Diamond is building it as a set of home-furnishings galleries joined by landscaped walkways to a restaurant in a glass atrium. The near-year-end target came from a summer report, and no confirmed opening date has been published since. Plan around RH as a project still underway.

Mercato's cinema could end up with the operator across the highway

Mercato has had little change of its own this season. Tim Aten's third-quarter restaurant roundup listed no Mercato dining openings or closures for the summer. The center's news was the cinema. Alamo Drafthouse closed its 11-screen North Naples theater on Sept. 9. The chain had opened it in April 2024, replacing the longtime Silverspot Cinema, and called the Naples location underperforming.

Paragon Theaters wants to reopen the space, Naples Press reported. Paragon already runs the 10-screen cinema across U.S. 41 at The Pavilion. If the deal closes, one company would run both theaters on either side of the highway, 21 screens in all.

The timing is specific. Co-CEO and co-owner Michael Whalen said Paragon hopes to open by mid-December, in time for the new Avengers and Dune sequels on Dec. 18. The plan would retrofit the second-floor space with Axis15 Extreme auditoriums and Lux Box dine-in recliners. Whalen called the Lux Box "a high-end pod recliner where you can order food to your seat," adding, "We think that's a winner in Naples."

Treat that date as a hope until it's confirmed. Lauren Ness, a spokesperson for Jamestown, the company that leases and manages Mercato, said a new movie theater tenant is "in process." Whalen said the deal isn't done. Until a lease is announced, the Pavilion theater is the confirmed option for a movie at Vanderbilt Beach Road and U.S. 41.

The new owners opened in strip centers

The mall changes involve national brands moving between units. Off the malls, the owners this fall are mostly local and family-run, and most of their openings landed within a few weeks of each other.

1. Sour & Dough Artisan Bakery opened in September at The Pavilion, 893 Vanderbilt Beach Road, Unit 58. It's in the same center as the Paragon cinema. Co-owner Marcel Itzcovich describes it as a family operation.
2. Empire Bagel Factory opened Sept. 1 at 3369 Pine Ridge Road, Suite 104, in Meridian Marketplace. Local owners Lucas and Rachel Oest run it as a family business.
3. The Brooklyn Trattoria opened in July as Papa Joe's Trattoria at 10823 Tamiami Trail N. in Naples Park and took its current name in early August. Giuseppe Maffei and Mike Cardascia are the co-owners.
4. Magic Lobster Rolls took over the former Mystic Lobster Rolls at the Shoppes at Vanderbilt under new ownership.

Granada Shoppes on Immokalee Road shows the same turnover in one center. Moe's Southwest Grill closed its Granada Shoppes location during a Florida franchisee's round of closures. Just Salad, a New York City-based chain, opened its first local restaurant there on Sept. 1 at 960 Immokalee Road, Suite 200. Vero Ristorante Italiano is targeted to open "this season" in the former Moe's space, run by a couple relocating from Italy. The landlord's site plan, updated Sept. 21, lists Vero in unit 200A, but no opening has been announced.

The summer also had a long-running closure. McAlister's Deli closed its North Naples location in July after more than a decade.

What's confirmed and what's still pending

Each of the remaining arrivals has a different level of certainty. Here they are by how firm the information is today.

• Open now, per the operator or a published report: Eddie V's, Dior, Vuori, Piranesi, Sour & Dough, Empire Bagel Factory, Just Salad, The Brooklyn Trattoria, Magic Lobster Rolls.
• Posted on Waterside's own listings: Love Shack Fancy for Holiday 2026 and Peter Millar for Late 2026.
• Reported forecasts without a fixed day: Anthropologie's move this fall, RH Naples near year-end, Omega's relocation in late 2026 or early 2027, and Buck & Rider in early 2027.
• Pending an agreement or announcement: Paragon at Mercato by mid-December and Vero Ristorante Italiano at Granada Shoppes.

The date to watch in North Naples this season is mid-December, when Paragon hopes to reopen Mercato's screens ahead of the Dec. 18 releases. If the lease closes in time, it will be the season's biggest change on U.S. 41. Until then, the confirmed new arrivals in North Naples are the bakery at The Pavilion, the bagel shop on Pine Ridge Road and the trattoria in Naples Park.

New openings and newly filled spaces can shape what buyers expect along U.S. 41 and Vanderbilt Beach Road. If you live near the corridor and want to know where your home stands as season starts, The Rafi Group can prepare a valuation based on current local sales. Request a complimentary home valuation, and we'll walk you through the numbers.