On the evening of February 26, people were still crossing the new connector between Bayshore Drive and Sugden Regional Park hours after the ribbon cutting. Walkers, cyclists and runners kept coming. Naples Press reported that residents had claimed the grassy front lot as a park by that first day, with dog owners in the field and a grandfather playing tag with his son in the twilight.
That field was always meant to be the next phase. The boardwalk was the first half of a plan, and the county waited until it was finished before putting the land around it up for offers. Today the main candidate for that land is an amphitheater and opera house. The proposal would also add the one thing the Bayshore end has been missing since opening day, which is a place to park.
A connector built in a deliberate order
You may know the walk from your feet more than from the plans. It starts with a 400-foot brick promenade off Bayshore Drive, set with a leaf mosaic. That leads to 1,350 feet of boardwalk over wetlands and a lake, 15 feet wide so pedestrians and cyclists can share it. It ends at Sugden Park's Lake Avalon path, about two-tenths of a mile from the main Sugden loop. Along the way there are metal benches with cutout designs, an observation deck over the lake, and downward-facing lights designed to be friendly to birds. Naples Botanical Garden supplied some of the beach daisies, tropical sage and ornamental grasses on the Bayshore side and helped plant them.
Bayshore-Gateway Triangle Municipal Services Taxing Unit fees, collected over the years, paid for all of it. The idea goes back further than most people assume. At the ribbon cutting, Trinity Scott, who heads Collier County Transportation Management Services, said the Bayshore-Gateway master plan called for a pedestrian link to Sugden Park "since its inception in 2000."
From that point the sequence moved faster:
- November 2023. Opera Naples' Theater in the Garden concept was already taking shape, according to Marco News.
- January 2025. Opera Naples announced a seven-figure gift from an anonymous donor to buy land for the project.
- December 2025. With the boardwalk nearly finished, the Bayshore-Gateway redevelopment board recommended, per a later Naples Press report, making the adjoining parcels available by sale or lease.
- February 26, 2026. The connector opened. Former CRA director John Dunnock had said no bid requests would be recommended until the bridge was complete.
- April 8, 2026. Mike McNees, Collier County's director of facilities and redevelopment, told an April 8 meeting that the land would become available "within the next 90 days," Naples Press reported. He told the room the county wanted specific development proposals, not just buyers.
- September 21, 2026. The Bayshore Gateway Triangle Local Redevelopment Advisory Board voted to support starting negotiations with Opera Naples. It was the only organization to respond to the county's invitation to negotiate.
The missing parking explains the plan
Anyone who has tried to start this walk from the Bayshore side knows the catch. That frontage has no parking. Naples Press noted that the closest large lots are at the Gulfgate and South Gulfgate shopping plazas, about 10 blocks away. Even the county's ribbon-cutting notice told guests to walk, bike or park at Sugden Regional Park and come onto the boardwalk from there.
For now, that's still how to do it. Sugden Regional Park is at 4284 Avalon Drive and Collier County Parks lists its hours as 8 a.m. to sunset, seven days a week. If you park there and walk out along Lake Avalon, the brick promenade puts you on Bayshore Drive.
The advisory board backed the Opera Naples proposal largely for its public benefits. The first one Marco News listed was public parking and restrooms that would connect directly to the boardwalk. If the deal goes through, the Bayshore end stops being the side you can only reach on foot. Parking and security were also among the issues the board told CRA staff to settle during negotiations.
What Theater in the Garden would put on the grass
Opera Naples is working with two other nonprofits, Theater in the Garden Inc. and the Luciano Pavarotti Foundation. Nicoletta Pavarotti is involved, and the plan would make the site the foundation's American headquarters.
| Phase | What it is | Why it's in that order |
|---|---|---|
| First | 600-seat outdoor pavilion and amphitheater, surrounded by gardens | Opera Naples hopes to hold Festival Under the Stars there in 2028 |
| Second | 700-seat, four-tier opera house and multipurpose theater | Follows the amphitheater, according to executive director Melanie Kalnins |
| Later | A Pavarotti museum and possibly an upscale restaurant | Listed as a future phase |
The money looks lopsided at first glance. The offer is $1 million in cash for the land. Advisory board chair Maurice Gutierrez said that figure "may not seem like a lot," and set it against the $50 million to $60 million that Opera Naples and its partners would invest in the venue. This year Opera Naples also received a $1.1 million special appropriation from the state toward construction. Opera Naples co-founder Livio Ferrari pointed to a 2019 United Arts Council survey and said, "We don't have enough seats in Collier County."
You'll see the land described a few different ways. Marco News places it at 4265 Bayshore Drive as three parcels totaling about 6.39 acres. In April, Naples Press described three parcels of roughly 4, 1.9 and 0.6 acres, which comes to about the same total. Coastal Breeze News described a county map showing parcels of nearly five acres, two acres and seven-tenths of an acre within a larger 17-acre property. Those three add up to closer to 7.7 acres, so the reports are working from different estimates or boundaries, and the final contract would set the actual lines. The address the county used for the boardwalk ribbon cutting was 4825 Bayshore Drive.
What still has to happen before anything is built
The September vote only started negotiations. According to Marco News, Collier County commissioners, sitting as the Community Redevelopment Agency, make the final decision. The advisory board told staff to consider performance guarantees, deed restrictions and construction milestones in any contract, so the land gets developed the way the county intends and stays that way after it changes hands. Marco News reported that two earlier arts and culture proposals for this land failed. This one stands apart because of its financial backing.
"Luckily, we are patient. And they were patient and kept their eye on the ball, so that it wouldn't pass them by without the opportunity to bid."
That's Gutierrez, as quoted by Marco News. The timeline after that is a hope, not a schedule. Opera Naples is aiming for county consideration by December and a land purchase by January 2027, "if not sooner." A commission agenda item on the Bayshore parcels is the next public step to watch for.
This season, the walk and the festival in its old home
Until then the lawn is still a lawn, and the boardwalk is a good way to reach several Bayshore Drive stops without moving your car from Sugden. In its coverage of the corridor, Naples Press names Celebration Park, Rebecca's, The Maddox, The Real Macaw, Taqueria San Julian, Seventh South Waterfront in the former Three60 Market space, Bayshore Bodega, Bean To Cup and Twisted Gallery/Art Space. Check hours before you head out.
Naples Botanical Garden, at 4820 Bayshore Drive, has two dates coming up:
- Día de los Muertos Celebration, October 31 and November 1, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with performances, family activities and community altars, per the Garden.
- Johnsonville Night Lights in the Garden, November 27, 2026 through January 3, 2027, listed by Paradise Coast. Night Lights runs into the evening, and Sugden's park hours end at sunset, so plan your parking with that in mind.
Then comes the festival the amphitheater is meant to house. Opera Naples' 2026/27 season runs January 30 to March 25, and the outdoor productions are still at Baker Park. The Barber of Seville plays March 18 and 20. The Barber and Menotti one-act triple bill, Love, Lies & Libations, plays March 19 and 21. I Pagliacci closes the season March 24 and 25, all at 7:30 p.m. A free Baker Park Family & Community Day is on the schedule with its date still to be announced. Marco News reported that Opera Naples expects 2027 to be the festival's last year at Baker Park, with the 2028 edition planned for an amphitheater beside the Bayshore boardwalk if it's finished in time.
At MJ Team, we're watching for the Bayshore parcels to reach the county commission. If you'd like to talk about how the Bayshore boardwalk, Sugden Park and a possible amphitheater could change daily life on this side of Naples, Michael and Jenipher are glad to walk it with you, and to share what we hear as the vote gets closer.
