Midtown at Bonita Openings: What to Expect This Winter

"We've got about 11,000 full-time residents in this area looking for year-round options without having to drive to U.S. 41," council member Jim Fitzpatrick told Gulfshore Business at the Midtown at Bonita construction celebration last November. His District 6 covers the Bonita Beach Road corridor east of Interstate 75. Midtown is the project meant to answer that drive.

Almost a year later, Midtown has its residents, a tenant list more than twenty names long, and exactly one restaurant with a public opening target. As of October 10, 2026, the homes came first and the storefronts are still catching up. If you drive past the site at Bonita Beach Road and Bonita Grande Drive, here is where each piece actually stands.

The apartments opened before the shops

The 68-acre development at 13000 Bonita Beach Road SE comes from The Zuckerman Group, a family-owned Southwest Florida developer. The company bought the property in 2019, and Bonita Springs City Council approved the project in 2020. The plan calls for 400 apartments, 200,000 square feet of commercial space, a 165-room hotel and offices.

The residential part is the piece that's done. A June 25, 2026 Midtown announcement said the 400-unit Paradiso Bonita Springs apartment community had started leasing and expected its first residents that summer. A later Gulfshore Business item called Paradiso "recently opened." The developer's own release described the apartments as "an immediate customer base to support the growing tenant mix."

That order makes business sense. The renters are already living there, and the shops they will use most are still being built out.

The hotel is the furthest behind. Last November, commercial broker Justin Thibaut of LSI Companies said he was still looking for an upscale hotel partner. The most recent coverage still describes it only as a planned boutique hotel, with no operator named.

The opening date has been "the end of the year" all along

Midtown's opening forecast has stayed close to the same window all year. It has just never named a day.

1. November 2025: Zuckerman Group President Andrew Zuckerman said some shops could open by the end of 2026, then added, "Don't hold me to that."
2. February 2026: WBBH reported that construction was moving along, with hopes that tenants would be operating by the start of the new year.
3. June 2026: Midtown said tenants would take possession of their spaces for build-outs "in the coming weeks" and that "openings are projected to begin by the end of the year."
4. After the Starbucks and Alea signings: Gulfshore Business reported Midtown was "expected to begin opening in the fourth quarter."

The fourth quarter started October 1. So far, one tenant has turned that forecast into a target date.

LowBrow is the one tenant with a date

Antonio Longobardo told the Naples Daily News on October 8 that his second LowBrow Pizza & Beer is close. "We're targeting the first couple of weeks in December," he said. "In the past couple of weeks, we've really turned the corner. We spent so many months waiting, and within two or three weeks, it's been a complete change."

That quote is the clearest picture yet of what building out at Midtown has looked like from inside a lease. Longobardo also owns Pezzo Pizza in Estero and Luigi's Pizza e Pasta at Miromar Outlets.

Here's what to expect when it opens:

• The space: nearly 5,000 square feet, with an indoor/outdoor garage-door bar, patio seating and a glass façade.
• The décor: a 10-foot rock-hand sculpture on the patio and themed booths, including a Super Nintendo booth.
• The menu: "98 percent identical" to the original on Tamiami Trail East in Naples, with one or two items unique to each location. That means wood-fired signature pies like the Cortez the Killer, smoked and wood-charred wings, and craft beer that includes an exclusive with Riptide Brewing.
• Hiring: applications for front- and back-of-house jobs can be dropped off at the Midtown site from noon to 3 p.m. on November 1 and 2.

A hiring weekend at the site in early November is the most concrete sign so far that Midtown's retail is close to opening.

The rest of the list is signed, with no dates yet

Everything else at Midtown has been announced but has no public opening date. Here is the roster as reported through the Starbucks and Alea announcement, grouped by what each business does:

Starbucks and Alea were the latest additions, reported by the Business Observer on August 31. Alea is a new family-owned Mediterranean restaurant with Greek influences, shareable dishes and an outdoor bar. With those two signed, Midtown's retail space reached about 75% leased according to Gulfshore Business.

The table explains Fitzpatrick's "year-round options" comment better than any single restaurant does. Many of these tenants offer things you need in any month. The UPS Store, a vet, a tutoring center, a dentist, a Pilates studio and a liquor store don't depend on season. Several tenants cited exactly that in the June announcement.

Dana Klein, founder of Dana Tyler Boutique, said she liked that Midtown is "creating a city center away from the hustle and bustle of downtown, a place to meet up with friends for dinner, drinks, and a little shopping." Ralph Choffy of Airport Donuts said he expects "far more walk-up traffic than we see at our current Airport-Pulling Road location."

Walk-up traffic is the whole design idea here. The developers say residents will be able to "live, work and play" on site, and they argue that will ease traffic. Whether it does depends on how many of these signed spaces open, and how soon.

What you see from Bonita Beach Road in the meantime

Some of the most visible changes for now aren't storefronts. In February, the City of Bonita Springs approved a public art lease for two sculptures. "Blue Water" will stand at the commercial area's roundabout and "Love of Bonita" at the development's entrance. Both stay in the city's permanent art collection.

Much of the land is set aside on purpose. Midtown drains into the Kehl Canal and the Imperial River watershed. The Zuckerman Group says its design includes 30 acres of open space, with lakes and a 6.5-acre preserve, to manage drainage, reduce flooding and give residents and visitors space for recreation. That reporting also noted ongoing local concerns about traffic and flooding as Midtown and nearby projects move forward.

Another project is lined up just to the east. In October 2025, City Council approved Seagate Development Group's Revana Lakes on a 4-3 vote. If it clears state review, Seagate could begin designing 299 homes and 100,000 square feet of retail and office space. Midtown's opening is likely the first of several changes to this stretch of Bonita Beach Road.

The rest of Bonita Beach Road has kept changing too

Farther west on Bonita Beach Road, closer to the water, the restaurant lineup has already turned over this year. Doug's Seafood at 3411 Bonita Beach Road, a New England-style seafood restaurant and market that opened in 2013, closed for good after operators Darrel and Tamika Peters announced it on August 31, according to the News-Press. This summer, Philly's Famous Cheesesteaks & Hoagies opened in Beach Road Plaza. It's a family business started by Bonita Springs residents Chris and Anita Gallagher, at 3401 Bonita Beach Road.

Those changes happened during a tough summer for restaurants. Gulfshore Business columnist Tim Aten reported that most dining spots in the region had a slower-than-usual off-season in the third quarter of 2026. Midtown's first tenants are aiming to open as season begins, with the Paradiso apartments next door already lived in.

If you live east of I-75, Midtown changes what's within a short drive of your front door, and that kind of change tends to show up when you sell. Joe Janisch at Beach to Bunker Properties follows these openings as they happen and can show you how they fit into what your home is worth today. Get Your Instant Property Valuation and see where your number stands before LowBrow's December opening.