If you live on Banyan, Yucca, Rum Row, or one of the quiet blocks between Gulf Shore and US 41, your street has not changed much in the last year. The canopy is the same. The mid-century condos on the beach are the same. What has changed sits entirely at the borders, and for the second half of 2026 the sequencing of those changes matters more than any single one of them.
The short version: the resort next door reopened, the beach park is getting rebuilt, the shopping center inland is being re-tenanted at the top of the market, and the pier that used to anchor the southern beach walk is a construction site until 2027. For a resident, the practical question is not whether any of that is good or bad. It is what to do about it between now and when high season lands.
The Southern Edge: The Four Seasons Is Now A Neighbor, Not A Rumor
The site that was the Naples Beach Hotel for three generations of the Watkins family opened on November 17, 2025 as Naples Beach Club, A Four Seasons Resort, a $1 billion-plus project with a 220-room resort and 153 private residences, the first Four Seasons in Southwest Florida. The scale is worth pausing on. The property preserves Old Naples elements and restores public access to Gulf shoreline, and two rooms locals actually cared about came back.
Sunset Bar has been revived as a long-loved gathering spot for live music and golden hour drinks, now reimagined with neon accents, Latin-leaning small plates, and tropical cocktails, while keeping its easy, open-air spirit. HB's, named for Watkins family patriarch Henry B. Watkins Sr., was rebuilt in its original footprint and pairs its familiar Gulf views with modern comforts, including a new private dining room. The flagship dining room is new territory: The Merchant Room, led by two-time James Beard Award-winning chef Gavin Kaysen from Minneapolis, promises a French spin on Gulf flavors.
The parts that are not open yet are the ones that will most reshape the walk-up experience through late 2026. Market Square anchors the property with retail, a cinema, a bowling alley, a game room, and grab-and-go at Naples Trading Company, with future amenities slated to debut in 2026 including the Wager gastropub, the 22-seat Picture House theater, an immersive kids' club, and the 18-hole Tom Fazio-designed golf course. The Tom Fazio–designed course is scheduled to debut in fall 2026, which means the block between Coquina Sands and the beach will still be a working construction site through the summer.
For a resident, that has already shown up in the sales comps. A newly constructed waterfront estate in Coquina Sands sold for a record $17.06 million, topping the previous mark set on Yucca Road. The margin is not small. The transaction closed on April 13, surpassing the previous record of $13,350,000 at 376 Yucca Road by more than $3.7 million, and ranks as the 11th most expensive single-family home sale on the MLS in Naples in 2026. The reason offered by the agents on both sides was not architecture. The sale highlights continued demand for newly constructed homes in Coquina Sands, particularly those positioned near the Naples Beach Club redevelopment, where proximity to golf, beach access and new resort amenities continues to attract buyers.
The three highest-value shifts inside the resort still land this year: the Sabal Suite, the Fazio golf course, and the Market Square rollout. Every one of them lifts foot traffic on 21st Avenue North before the first snowbird flight lands.
The Western Edge: Lowdermilk Is About To Be A Construction Zone
For anyone whose morning walk ends at 1301 Gulf Shore Boulevard North, the next several months are the transition window. The Naples City Council is set to vote on a $699,787 agreement with Playmore West Inc. for the purchase and installation of a new playground and covered gazebo at Lowdermilk Park, replacing the north-side playground that was destroyed by Hurricane Ian in 2022. Funding combines two previously approved park enhancement projects with a $250,000 donation from the Nommensen family, and the plan also updates the city's 2025-26 budget to provide an additional $250,000 from the Beach Fund; the gazebo, originally planned in 2025, was postponed after bids exceeded budget.
What has already changed at the park is the access point itself. The City of Naples has activated newly installed gate arms at the entrance and exit of Lowdermilk Park; when the park is open, the gate arms remain raised and display a green status. That single detail rearranges the rhythm of the park more than most residents expect. Guests need the parking permit or pay-by-space in hand before they roll up, and drop-offs behave differently at a gated exit than at a curb.
Here is what to plan around through the fall:
- Park hours remain the same, so early morning and post-dinner walks are unaffected.
- Construction staging for the playground and gazebo will pull equipment into the north end. Expect the south turf and the concession to absorb more of the family traffic.
- The Nommensen-funded gazebo, once installed, is the covered gathering piece the park has been missing since Ian.
The Inland Edge: Waterside And The Design District Are Repositioning At Once
The block-by-block picture around US 41 has more movement than it has had in a decade. RH Naples is set to open in 2026 at Waterside Shops, with an upscale furniture store and restaurant featuring separate galleries, outdoor seating, and a wine bar, and final site development plans have been approved. Interior construction plans show a speakeasy room, a large bar lounge area with a stage, a wine room, and two private dining rooms, with a patio for outdoor dining serving a 361-seat restaurant.
The rest of the outparcel and inline changes are worth reading as a set:
| Address | Change | Timing |
|---|---|---|
| Waterside Shops, former Nordstrom site | RH Naples gallery and restaurant | Near end of 2026 |
| Waterside Shops outparcel | Eddie V's Prime Seafood | Targeted summer 2026 |
| Waterside Shops | Buck & Rider from Arizona | Targeted late 2026 |
| Waterside Shops, former Williams Sonoma | Dior and Brunello Cucinelli boutiques | Under construction |
| Waterside Shops | Brio Italian Grille | Permanently closed April 2026 |
Brio Italian Grille permanently closed in April at Waterside Shops, and the redevelopment cleared the site for larger, more destination-oriented tenants; Waterside is being repositioned, not merely re-tenanted, and the summer months are the last stretch before that shows up on Friday-night wait times.
Between the resort and Waterside sits the working restaurant tier that stayed open for residents. Claypot Turkish Restaurant opened in late May at 4910 Tamiami Trail N., Unit 310, a fast-casual concept where everything is made from scratch in actual clay pots, open Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. A few blocks north, Heyday Cookshop is at 4691 Tamiami Trail N. at Neapolitan Way, where Kayla Pfeiffer, a James Beard Emerging Chef semifinalist and Food Network Chopped Champion, opened her second Naples concept following Bicyclette Cookshop. The bar carries a dedicated vermouth program and doubles as a hi-fi listening room, which is not a phrase Naples has had reason to use before.
Downtown, closer to the Design District walk, Annie's Bistro sits inside the new Olde Naples Hotel on the block where Naples was founded in 1889, and on Park Street, Tiny Kitchen opened in late May or early June at 524 Park St., owned by Alejandro Veiga with his wife Samantha Skarl and his mother Chef Marta Veiga, serving Argentinian street food from a 680-square-foot space near Fifth Avenue South.
The practical read: independents lock in their reservation rhythm before high season, and the summer is the window where a resident can build a relationship with the room before a January visitor decides it is the hot table.
The Gap: The Pier Is Not Coming Back This Year
For anyone whose default beach walk ends at the pier, the routine has to shift. As of 2026 the Naples Pier is closed and in the middle of a full rebuild, with crews on site and a reopening targeted for roughly mid-2027; the beach beneath it, the sunset, and most of what makes this stretch of coast special are still open. The City held groundbreaking for the rebuild in early January 2026, demolition of the old structure followed quickly, and the roughly $26 million project is being built by Shoreline Foundation with construction expected to run about 18 months.
Which is why the west edge of Coquina Sands matters more this year than it will next year. Lowdermilk becomes the full-amenity beach day by default for the whole city, not only for the neighborhood, until the pier walk reopens.
Sequencing The Rest Of The Year
If you live in Coquina Sands and you want to use the neighborhood the way it is right now, before the seasonal residents return, the order that works:
- Sunset Bar and HB's before Thanksgiving. Both are open now, and the wait discipline of a resort dining room tightens the moment holiday bookings land.
- Heyday and Claypot before October. Independents are still calibrating menus, prices, and reservation cadence in the off-season.
- Chops City Grill and downtown deep-summer specials. Chops City Grill has been running 25% off entrees and steaks through summer.
- Lowdermilk mornings through the playground and gazebo build. The park stays open through construction, but the north-end footprint will be reduced while Playmore West is on site.
- Watch Waterside in Q4. Eddie V's, RH, and Buck & Rider will each reset traffic patterns on the US 41 corridor, and Dior and Brunello Cucinelli will do the same for the inline mall.
None of this changes the reason people live on these streets. The four beachfront highrise condo buildings in Coquina Sands — Via Delfino, Embassy Club, Laurentians, and Whitehall still frame the beach the way they did in the 1980s, and the interior lots still trade on canopy, lot size, and quiet. What is changing is the perimeter, and the perimeter is what a resident actually uses on a Tuesday night.
If you are thinking about what any of this means for the value of the home you already own on Rum Row or Banyan, or you are watching the Coquina Sands market from an address inland and want a read on how the Beach Club effect is pricing through the comps, The Resop Team is available for a direct conversation. Book an appointment when you are ready to talk.
