Q: We live in New Jersey but also have a winter home in Naples and go back and forth throughout the season. I love reading your releases all year long keeping me updated on our beloved Naples. I don’t know how true it is, but I heard that Williams-Sonoma will be moving to the Barnes & Noble location. They are planning on selling appliances and some of their home goods brands. Maybe you can find out if it is true. I also read your article stating that something might be going into the old Nordstrom, which I truly miss. Excited to hear. — Lisa Bergstrom 

A: Plans in the works for Waterside Shops constitute the most significant redevelopment at the open-air retail center since it opened in November 1992. Nearly every corner of the luxury mall in North Naples will be affected by construction projects through at least 2025. 

The Forbes Company, the Michigan-based owner and manager of Waterside Shops, will not prematurely tip its hand, but the word is out about redevelopment projects set to begin this year at the local shopping and dining destination. For starters, the two-story building that hosted Nordstrom for 12 years will be completely demolished while interior demolition is destined for the two-story building that has been home to Barnes & Noble for more than 30 years, according to plans filed with Collier County Growth Management. 

California-based Restoration Hardware, a trendy home furnishings store now known simply as RH, is conceptualizing plans to build one of its stylish galleries with a rooftop restaurant on the former site of Nordstrom. Williams-Sonoma and Pottery Barn are expected to relocate their longtime home furnishing stores within Waterside Shops to the freestanding Barnes & Noble building by the end of next year, associates say. 

Meanwhile, a site development plan amendment proposes the conversion of a former bank building into a large restaurant on the southwest corner of Waterside Shops. Orlando-based Darden Restaurants reportedly plans a full-service dining spot in that former Bank of America/U.S. Trust office at Seagate Drive and Myra Janco Daniels Boulevard. 

Barnes & Noble 

The majority of merchandise in the Barnes & Noble store is discounted 25% to 30% ahead of its July 23 closing at Waterside Shops. The bookstore must vacate its space by the end of this month, but it’s new, larger ground-level store is not expected to open until September in the Burlington-anchored Park Shore Plaza, about a mile south on U.S. 41. Work is underway for the bookstore in the former Big Lots’ more than 35,000-square-foot inline space between Saks Off Fifth and HomeGoods. 

At Waterside, the permit is ready for issuance for “interior non-structural demolition work of the existing building, including the removal of partitions, finishes, ceiling, lighting, plumbing fixtures, for the purpose of preparing the space for a new tenant,” according to county plans filed in early June. 

Plans to build out the 24,000-square-foot space at Waterside Shops for Pottery Barn and Williams-Sonoma have yet to be recorded. It makes sense synergistically, though, that the brands will each have a floor in the highly visible, two-story building on the northwest corner of U.S. 41 and Seagate Drive. Founded in 1948, Pottery Barn was acquired by Williams-Sonoma in 1986. 

Nordstrom site 

Before the city of Naples recently settled a lawsuit with M Development over a Fifth Avenue project that initially included Restoration Hardware and Whole Foods Market, RH already was working on alternate plans for a gallery in the Naples area. Until RH’s plans are submitted and approved, expect the nearly 80,000-square-foot former Nordstrom store to be demolished by Sachse Construction, which also is handling the Barnes & Noble building renovation. After the Nordstrom demo, the more than 1-acre site on the northwest corner of Waterside Shops will be hydroseeded or sodded for interim site stabilization, demolition plans show. 

Undoubtedly, the Naples market is a perfect fit for RH’s expansion plans. “We believe there is an opportunity to address new markets locally by opening design studios in neighborhoods, towns and small cities where the wealthy and affluent live, visit and vacation,” RH CEO and Chairman Gary Friedman reported this year in his fourth-quarter 2023 financial results and shareholder letter. 

Detroit-based Sachse is building Michigan’s first RH gallery, a four-story building with a rooftop restaurant that is targeted to open in 2025. Sachse also has completed 10 projects for Williams-Sonoma Inc. that include complete buildouts of new stores. 

New restaurant 

Darden has enjoyed longtime success with its restaurant concepts in the Naples area. After operating Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, The Capital Grille, Seasons 52 and Yard House here for many years, the company recently introduced Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen and Bahama Breeze Island Grille to the Naples market. 

Eddie V’s Prime Seafood, the only Darden concept not already in Southwest Florida, is planned for the former office building of Bank of America Private Bank at 765 Seagate Drive, sources say, although Darden is not confirming the news yet.  

“We are always looking at new locations, including in the Naples area. However, I don’t have further details to share at this time,” said Carly Maddock, Darden’s communications manager for Eddie V’s, an American seafood and steak restaurant and bar chain. Darden operates 30 locations of Eddie V’s, including four in Florida in Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and Tampa. 

While the bank branch was somewhat disconnected from the rest of Waterside Shops, the restaurant site is expected to be incorporated into Waterside’s overall plan for improved walkability, connecting its parking spaces, courtyard waterscape and interior shops with its new outparcels. 

Waterside history 

The Forbes Co., which operates other upscale malls in Florida and Michigan, has owned Waterside Shops since 2003, but the Naples retail destination launched in late 1992 on nearly 29 acres at 5415 Tamiami Trail N. The mall was developed through a limited partnership of Miami-based Courtelis Co. and the Westinghouse Communities of Naples in the Pelican Bay master-planned community just north of the Naples city limits.  

Saks Fifth Avenue and Barnes & Noble have always been anchor tenants at Waterside, but Jacobson’s also initially was an anchor there until the Michigan-based department store chain filed bankruptcy in 2002. A renovation in the mid-2000s added a two-story Nordstrom department store and expanded Saks’ footprint. Nordstrom opened in 2008 and closed in 2020. 

Most recently, True Food Kitchen was built on Waterside’s last vacant parcel and other redevelopment projects created new stores for Apple and Hermès. Expect additional new retailers to be announced soon. 

The “Tim Aten Knows” weekly column answers local questions from readers. Email Tim at tim.aten@naplespress.com.