"Pretty much everything is new: new tables, new chairs, new decorations on each of the trucks to have us each look a little more alike." That is how Robin Forbes, general manager of Celebration Park, described the East Naples food-truck park in a Gulf Coast News Now report before it reopened on Thursday, October 1, after closing for all of September. She said she was hoping for about 800 people at the free reopening block party.
The new chairs are the smallest part of the story. Celebration Park has come back to a Bayshore Drive that spent 2026 adding open-air places to walk, sit and listen. The boardwalk to Sugden Regional Park, the Arts District's monthly gatherings, the Garden's Saturday concerts and even the opera house proposed down the road all follow that outdoor pattern. Celebration Park is the most finished piece of it, and it opened its season just as the rest of the corridor did.
What Changed Inside the Gates
The September closure was a refresh. The concept stayed the same. According to WBBH's October 1 report, the park has a refreshed look and a new drink menu, along with the same lively atmosphere. WINK described the park as known for its mix of food trucks, waterfront drinks, live music and sunset views. The visual change Forbes described is a matched look across the trucks, so the lineup reads as one venue.
The basics are unchanged. Celebration Park sits at 2880 Becca Avenue, which you reach by car from Bayshore Drive or by boat at Haldeman Creek, Marker 24. The park's posted hours are:
- Tuesday through Thursday: 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.
- Friday and Saturday: 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.
- Sunday: 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.
- Monday: closed
Happy hour runs Tuesday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m., and the park notes that holidays and special-event nights may change the schedule. Because the park is closed on Mondays and opens at 11:30 the other six days, a weekday lunch on the water is as easy as a sunset dinner.
The Half Mile That Did Not Exist Last Fall
A year ago, Bayshore Drive and Sugden Regional Park sat on opposite sides of wetlands and a lake with no direct path between them. That changed on February 26, when the connector opened. The Naples Daily News described it as a boardwalk that opened after 20 years of effort.
The route has two parts. It starts at Bayshore Drive with a 400-foot brick promenade laid in a leaf mosaic. That leads onto 1,350 feet of boardwalk over the wetlands and lake. The whole walkway is 15 feet wide and shared by walkers and cyclists. It ends at Sugden Park's Lake Avalon path, about two-tenths of a mile from the park's main loop.
The details along the way show the care that went into it:
- Metal benches with cutout designs
- Downward-facing lights chosen to be friendly to birds
- An observation deck over the lake
- Beach daisies, tropical sage, ornamental grasses and saplings on the Bayshore side, some supplied and planted by Naples Botanical Garden
Who paid for it matters for what comes next. The connector was funded entirely with Bayshore-Gateway Triangle money built up from its Municipal Services Taxing Unit fees over the years. The district put its own long-collected funds into a place to walk, and that choice now shapes the land on either side of it.
Bayshore in Street-Number Order
Celebration Park and the boardwalk are two anchors. Between and beyond them, Bayshore Drive has a run of addresses that make a full afternoon or evening without ever going indoors for long. Listed by street number:
- Celebration Park, 2880 Becca Avenue, just off Bayshore on Haldeman Creek.
- Rebecca's, 2955 Bayshore Drive. Its booking page lists 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and closed Monday.
- Bayshore Bodega, 3248 Bayshore Drive, a waterfront café. On an April visit, WBBH described coffee, chef-led bites, seating by the water and boat charters that leave from the café.
- TWiST Gallery & Art Space, 3570 Bayshore Drive #103, with working artist studios, classes and events. Posted hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
- 4265 Bayshore Drive, the Bayshore end of the connector and the county-owned land around it.
- Naples Botanical Garden, 4820 Bayshore Drive, open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with Fogg Café and the Berger Shop on site.
Monday is a common day off: Celebration Park and Rebecca's both list it as closed, and TWiST does not post Monday hours. The Garden opens every day, so it is the Monday choice on this stretch.
The October Calendar
Celebration Park reopened just as Bayshore's outdoor calendar filled up. Here is what is on the corridor's published October schedule:
| Date | Event | Location | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Friday, Oct. 2 | First Fridays: art, vendors, music, food and drinks | TWiST Gallery | 5 to 8 p.m. |
| Saturday, Oct. 10 | Second Saturdays | TWiST Gallery | 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. |
| Saturday, Oct. 10 | Music in the Garden: Havy Rodriguez & The Miami Splash | Naples Botanical Garden | Series generally runs 2 to 4 p.m. |
| Saturday, Oct. 17 | Family Planting Day | Naples Botanical Garden, Buehler Enabling Garden | 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. |
October 10 is the fullest day. Second Saturdays at TWiST runs in the morning and Music in the Garden runs in the afternoon. Celebration Park opens at 11:30 a.m. and stays open until 10 p.m. on Saturdays. The Arts District describes Second Saturdays as a monthly event, and the Garden's concert series continues on selected Saturdays from October through June. Family Planting Day is new for the Garden this year. It focuses on harvesting and fall and winter planting in the Buehler Enabling Garden.
The Land Beside the Boardwalk, and Why the Amphitheater Comes First
The open land around the connector at 4265 Bayshore Drive has been set aside for arts and culture for years. On September 21, the Bayshore Gateway Triangle Local Redevelopment Advisory Board voted to support opening land-sale negotiations with Opera Naples. Opera Naples was the only group to answer the invitation for a development proposal on the roughly 6.39 acres, which are three county-owned parcels held through the Community Redevelopment Agency.
The project is called Theater in the Garden. As proposed, it would have a 700-seat, four-tier opera house and multipurpose theater and a 600-seat outdoor pavilion and amphitheater, surrounded by gardens. The site plan would add public parking and restrooms and tie directly into the boardwalk to Sugden Park.
Two numbers explain why the advisory board backed it. The cash offer for the land is $1 million. The board's longtime chairman, Maurice Guitierrez, said that would lead to a $50 million to $60 million investment by Opera Naples and its partners. Two earlier arts proposals for the site failed. The Naples Daily News reported that this one is different because it has strong financial backing. That backing includes a seven-figure anonymous gift announced in January 2025 to buy the land and a $1.1 million special appropriation from the state this year.
The order of construction fits everything else on Bayshore. Opera Naples executive director Melanie Kalnins said the amphitheater would be built first so the company could hold its Festival Under the Stars there in 2028, if it can be finished in time. The company expects 2027 to be the festival's last year in the city-owned Baker Park. Board member Kristin Hood said the development would add indoor entertainment, which she called sorely lacking in the Bayshore District. Even so, the first stage planned is an outdoor one, next to a boardwalk.
All of this is still a proposal. Negotiations have only started, and the partners hope to secure the land by January, if not sooner. The advisory board asked CRA staff to consider performance guarantees, deed restrictions and construction milestones in the contract, and to address security and parking. Final decisions rest with the county commissioners, who govern the CRA.
The Work Under the Street
Less visible changes are coming to Bayshore too. The CRA's Bayshore Phase I project covers stormwater, water and wastewater. Its project page reports that 90% designs have been submitted and gives a preliminary schedule:
- Final plans: September 2026
- Bidding: October 2026 through March 2027
- Construction: April 2027 through April 2028
The CRA labels the schedule preliminary, and its page does not confirm whether the September milestone was met. For now, the fall 2026 season on Bayshore Drive is free of construction from this project. If the schedule holds, the 2027 and 2028 seasons will overlap with work along the corridor. Separately, the CRA says it is sharing plans with the City of Naples on the Master Pump Station 306 relocation so that work avoids damaging the existing streetscape, landscaping, lighting and sidewalks.
That sums up how the corridor is being run. The district paid for a boardwalk with its own fees, it is protecting the sidewalks and lighting already in place, and it is weighing a sale that would put an amphitheater next to the boardwalk. Celebration Park's new tables went into a street whose public money has gone mostly into outdoor space.
Questions about Bayshore Drive come up often, whether the subject is the boardwalk, the CRA parcels or what the next few seasons may bring to East Naples. The Metzger Group follows these projects closely across Collier County and is glad to talk them through whenever it is useful to you. Contact Us.
