Downtown Naples’ Fourth Avenue South closed Monday and is projected to reopen by January 2024 to accommodate for demolition and construction of The Naples Players’ $20 million renovation project. The closure followed unanimous approval by Naples City Council upon discussion on the construction’s effects on the prime location.
Areas affected are Fourth Avenue South between Sixth and Eighth streets. The parking garage to the east of The Naples Players will still allow public entry, along with public access to the Inn on Fifth and Truluck’s Ocean’s Finest Seafood and Crab restaurant to the west. Meanwhile, the Fourth Avenue South and Seventh Street South intersection will be completely closed.
Considering The Naples Players’ location on Fourth Avenue, along with the need to keep alleyways open, the organization’s only option during construction is to keep the crane on the roadway of Fourth Avenue. The entire northwest section of the building along Fourth Avenue will be demolished and rebuilt.
“Obviously, we’re in a weird rock and a hard place with this, as this is the only frontage available to us and we have to use a crane,” The Naples Players CEO Bryce Alexander said. “We worked with the city to keep the alleyway open, which is not a valid place to put the crane, and the alleyway is a little more dangerous because the fence has to be there to protect people from seeing into the construction.” 
Vice Mayor Michael McCabe disagreed with the street’s closure as it will affect traffic on Fifth Avenue and surrounding businesses.
“[Fourth Avenue] is a major road that really takes the pressure off of Fifth and it’s a thoroughfare. I looked at this and said this is a hard no,” McCabe said. “There’s got to be some other way, and if there isn’t, this is an imposition on the businesses. They get the valet parking from the back end of it, so that’s taking away from their business there. This is an imposition on the residential neighborhoods because any of the traffic that would be on Fourth now is going to go further back into the residences.”
Alexander said having a continuous closure of the street will expedite the construction process. Since The Naples Players has limited open property space, all dumpsters are currently pushed against the building, which allows a limited amount of debris to be taken to the dumpsters daily. Having more space will allow the dumpsters to be filled more frequently. Reopening the intersection as quickly as possible is a priority with the surrounding businesses in mind, Alexander said.
“As much as they don’t love the imposition of the construction, they also can appreciate that a significant portion of their business comes from our patrons. So, our patrons being happy and having a shorter construction process benefit them,” he said.
He agreed to work with the county in determining holidays when the intersection must be temporarily reopened to offset traffic congestion, such as during the Fourth of July or the annual Christmas parade. It is yet to be determined how construction will affect major winter season events occurring in front of The Naples Players.
“We’ll work with the city on the special events. Ideally, you’re going to want the big Christmas tree still and do the tree lightings and those things, and, ideally, we’ll be able to get through construction to provide those spaces to the city,” Alexander said.
The new theater is scheduled to be open by March 2024. Project manager Norman Gentry with Naples-headquartered Build construction company ensured work will be completed as quickly as possible so Fourth Avenue can reopen to the public.
“Every day that we’re there longer costs us money, [due to] supervision and so forth. So, we’re going to be very aggressive to push it,” Gentry said. “As far as how much earlier could we be, realistically, I would think we could shave a month off if we’re fortunate, but I wouldn’t want to over-promise and say that we could deliver before season.”
