Golden Gate Parkway Is Splitting Into a Dinner End and a Morning End

Golden Gate Parkway has a busy commercial corner at each end of the stretch around Grey Oaks, and the two corners are being rebuilt for different parts of the day. At the US 41 end, the Coastland Center pads that held casual chains are going to three large dinner restaurants, two of them steakhouses. At Airport-Pulling Road, the new strip at Poinciana Plaza is leasing to a drive-thru coffee shop, strength and Pilates studios, a med spa and a protein-shake counter.

None of the new restaurants is open yet, and some of the other tenants' dates have slipped. Still, the leasing at both ends points the same way, and the reasons are specific enough to lay out address by address.

The US 41 End Is Getting Bigger Dinner Rooms

The western edge of Coastland Center has been a restaurant row for years. Columnist Tim Aten of the Naples Press counts the Cheesecake Factory as the first success there, followed by freestanding buildings for CMX CinéBistro, Uncle Julio's, Bahama Breeze and Twin Peaks. Two of those buildings went dark within about a year of each other. Bahama Breeze at 2088 Ninth St. N. closed in May 2025 when Darden shut 15 locations of the brand. Uncle Julio's closed in February after about three and a half years.

What's moving in is larger and built for dinner.

Atlantic Forge is the one that will change the look of the corner most. The big, colorful mural on the west wall of the old Uncle Julio's will be painted white, with the restaurant's name in gold letters. On August 26, the Naples Design Review Board gave final approval to plans that remove the patio ironwork and replace agave and umbrella plants with Italian cypress, bougainvillea and podocarpus. Jason B. Taylor of Taylor Studios Inc. told city staff the patio plans include "firepit tables, freestanding firepits, some planters and a built-in gas fireplace feature." Details on the menu and atmosphere haven't been released.

Rodizio Grill is a mall space being rebuilt, not a freestanding pad. It combines the former Aurelio's Pizza space with an empty unit next door, near the mall entrance by CMX CinéBistro. That expanded space was once home to Pate's House of Prime Rib and Ted's Montana Grill. The Naples restaurant will be much larger than the Rodizio Grill that has operated at Coconut Point in Estero since April 2016.

Oar & Iron is going on a newly cleared pad in the Macy's parking lot, with its patio at the corner of Fleischmann Boulevard and US 41. It will be the chain's fifth location. The first opened in late 2023 at Founders Square at Collier Boulevard and Immokalee Road. The concept is a Florida version of the Northeast's 110 Grill, with lighter, nautical colors and more seafood. The sign on the site first said "Coming late 2025." Rob Luzzi of RAVentures Hospitality Group has since said the company "would love to be open by the end of 2026, but otherwise early 2027, based on construction."

Add up the three projects and nearly 27,000 square feet of dinner space is being built or rebuilt within a few hundred yards. That is far more than a simple swap of one tenant for another.

Across US 41, One Steakhouse Is Leaving

Across US 41, on the northeast corner at Golden Gate Parkway, the change runs the other direction. Dorona, the Aielli Group's modern Italian steakhouse, closed in May 2025 after more than seven years at 2110 Tamiami Trail N. The 7,380-square-foot space, at the south end of the Centre Pointe retail center, had also been home to TGI Friday's and Midtown Kitchen & Bar. It's now being built out as a Northwestern Concierge Clinic.

That conversion hints at what the next section shows in full: daytime health and service uses are moving onto the parkway. Northwestern Medicine already runs Northwestern Medicine Concierge Medicine Naples on Fourth Avenue North in Old Naples. A Northwestern Medicine spokesperson explained the region's appeal by pointing to patients and families who "spend time in the greater Naples area and are seeking NM care closer to where they live, work and visit." No services or opening date have been announced for the Centre Pointe location.

So the dinner restaurants are gathering on the mall side of US 41, and the old dinner space on the other side is turning into a medical office.

The Airport-Pulling End Is Being Built for Mornings

The southwest corner of Golden Gate Parkway and Airport-Pulling Road is where the daytime pattern is clearest. In a release dated June 2, 2026, Halstatt, a family-owned Naples investment firm, announced it had finished a 10,000-square-foot retail center at Poinciana Plaza. That completes the final phase of what is now a 115,000-square-foot professional park. The release listed these tenants:

• Starbucks in a 2,500-square-foot freestanding drive-thru. The release said it would open "this summer." Its address is 2160 Airport-Pulling Road.
• Discover Strength, open, offering 30-minute personal strength sessions led by a trainer.
• LVL Fitness, a Pilates studio, expected before the end of the year.
• The Retreat Aesthetics, a med spa, expected before the end of the year.
• Fresh Monkee, a smoothie shop, expected before the end of the year.

As of early October, Discover Strength is the only one of these confirmed open. The research turned up no later confirmation for the Starbucks or the other three. Fresh Monkee's owner, Bonita Springs resident Brian Wasko, told the Naples Press in late spring that he expected to be set up "in August, maybe September." The chain sells made-to-order shakes with about 30 grams of protein, in flavors such as Antioxidant Berry, Ultimate Green and the peanut-butter-and-Nutella Chunkee Monkee. Wasko opened his first area store at Coconut Point in April.

Halstatt chief executive Katie Sproul said the goal was a mix that suits the office park around it:

"From the beginning, we were focused on bringing in a mix of uses that fits naturally with the existing professional park and serves the surrounding area. Securing Starbucks early on was an important step in setting the tone for the type of tenants we wanted to attract."

Coffee, a strength session, Pilates, a protein shake and a med-spa appointment all fit before lunch. Taken together, the Poinciana lineup is the morning version of what Coastland is becoming at night.

The Spaces Still Open Are Marked for Restaurants

The east end isn't finished. Halstatt says the remaining spaces, about 1,400 to 4,300 square feet each, are aimed at restaurant and food-and-beverage concepts, "including those with outdoor dining."

Outdoor seating also runs through the plans at the other end of the parkway. Oar & Iron's patio is nearly a third the size of its dining room and is built around a firepit. Atlantic Forge's approved plans center on firepits and a fireplace. Rodizio Grill is the one new Coastland concept with no outdoor seating. If Poinciana signs a restaurant, the stated target is the same kind of table that is being built two miles west.

A smaller option is also close. Only Doubles, a smashburger restaurant going into an industrial park at 3915 Arnold Ave. off Airport-Pulling Road, comes from owner Cravo, who describes the room as a 1970s or '80s neighborhood dive bar. In August he told Marco News he hoped to open in September or October, before the busy season. "Some days it feels like I can open tomorrow," he said. The research found no confirmed opening date.

Fall Plans While the Kitchens Get Built

None of the Coastland restaurants will be serving during the first weeks of the season. The fall calendar near the parkway is already set:

1. Naples Zoo went back to regular hours of 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on October 1. Boo at the Zoo runs the weekends of October 10 to 12, 17 to 19 and 24 to 26, and trick-or-treating is included with regular admission.
2. The Naples International Film Festival runs Thursday through Sunday, October 22 to 25, at Artis—Naples.
3. Naples Botanical Garden holds Family Planting Day on October 17 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and its Día de los Muertos celebration on October 31 and November 1 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
4. Johnsonville Night Lights in the Garden runs November 27, 2026, to January 3, 2027. Member tickets go on sale October 19, and nonmember tickets on November 2.

One road note for later in the season. Vanderbilt Beach Road is being widened east of US 41, a project Collier County expects to take two years. In spring 2027, traffic between Strada Place and Goodlette-Frank Road will drop to one lane in each direction for about two months. That's about when the newest Ninth Street restaurants are targeting their openings.

When the restaurants at both ends of the parkway open, The Grant Group will update residents on what has opened, which spaces have been leased and how the shift is changing the area around Grey Oaks. If you'd like to talk through what these changes mean for your own property, The Grant Group invites you to request a private consultation.