If you walk Fifth Avenue South this season and a familiar storefront looks different, the shop you're looking for most likely still exists. It probably hasn't gone far. Most of this fall's changes are moves to a side entrance, a few doors down the avenue, or a short drive north. The one gap that will last is at 651 Fifth Ave. S., where a building permit has kept the space empty.
The rest of this guide covers each move, roughly in order of distance from the old address, so the next errand or gallery stop takes you straight to the right door.
Why so many addresses changed at once
Fifth Avenue South has been remade before. As Naples Press reported in its October 16 look at the avenue, the first makeover came in 1994. The city hired urban planners Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and that effort produced the Sugden Community Theatre, what is now the Naples Art Institute, and several parking garages. Hoffmann Commercial Real Estate started buying buildings in 2015. In 2023 the company sold about 27 of its Naples addresses, more than a dozen of them downtown, to Aspen, Colorado-based M Development.
Most of the moves follow from that sale. Derek Nagy, M Development's Naples property manager, explained the plan to Naples Press:
"The big push is soft retail, as opposed to office. We're trying to put a lot of retail on the first floor now."
According to the same report, the company has focused on its larger spaces, splitting some and bringing in apparel brands. When a big corner space gets a new tenant, the shop that used to be there has to go somewhere. On Fifth Avenue South, that has usually meant somewhere close by.
The quick reference
| Business | Where it was | Where to find it now |
|---|---|---|
| Wind in the Willows | Corner storefront, 675 Fifth Ave. S. | Side-street entrance, same building |
| Aldo Castillo Gallery | 634 Fifth Ave. S. | 472 Fifth Ave. S., next to Bar Tulia, from Nov. 1 |
| East-West Sports Cards & Collectibles | 785 Fifth Ave. S. | Moving into the former Castillo space at 634 |
| Regatta | 760 Fifth Ave. S. | 8799 U.S. 41 N., The Marketplace at Pelican Bay |
| GLDN Hour Coffee Co. | 900 Sixth Ave. S. | Fourth Avenue South, reopened in September |
| L'Olivo and Roma | 649-663 Fifth Ave. S. | Building under redevelopment; new restaurants planned for 2027 |
Same building, different door
Wind in the Willows moved the shortest distance. Its porcelain, script-lettered facade made it one of the most recognizable fronts on the avenue. The clothier is still in its building at 675 Fifth Ave. S., but you now enter from the side street. Naples Press reports that Faherty, an upscale clothing brand, will take the corner storefront. No opening date for Faherty has been announced. If the corner is still papered over when you pass, walk around to the side. Wind in the Willows is open.
A few doors down the avenue
The 634 Fifth Ave. S. building has the most going on. Aldo Castillo spent the last seven years building up a 1,750-square-foot gallery there. He is moving to 472 Fifth Ave. S., beside Bar Tulia, and Naples Press reported that the new space opens Nov. 1. The gallery shows narrative, process-driven work, including lean stone sculptures, lightbox paintings and Ancizar Marin's fiberglass "Pollock Climbers" scaling their ropes. Those pieces are moving down the street with it.
East-West Sports Cards & Collectibles is taking over the old gallery space, moving from its current home at 785 Fifth. The move puts it in the same building as Tiny Kitchen Empanadas, which owner Alejandro Vega opened at 634 Fifth Ave. S. this summer. One block now covers a card-collecting stop and a quick lunch.
Two more additions round out that end of the avenue. Johnnie-O, the casual menswear brand Naples Press lists among M Development's new tenants, shows its Naples store as open at 375 Fifth Ave. S. Down at 601 Fifth Ave. S., The Augusta Clothing Co. is still open. It's the boutique tied to the Hoffmann family's time on the avenue.
The one that went north, and what replaced it
Regatta moved the farthest. The gift shop known for one-of-a-kind finds had been downtown since 1985. Its new home is 8799 U.S. 41 N., in The Marketplace at Pelican Bay near Vanderbilt Beach Road. If you buy hostess gifts there when guests come for season, the trip now means heading up 41 instead of a walk after dinner downtown.
Two shops share the old Regatta space. The Fifth Avenue South Business Improvement District's June newsletter reported that Spartina 449 and the footwear brand OluKai opened there this spring, in storefronts at 760 and 762 Fifth Avenue South. Spartina 449's own store page lists 760 Fifth Avenue South.
The storefront that stays dark until 2027
At 651 Fifth Ave. S., nothing is open, and nothing will open there this season. The building runs from 649 to 663 Fifth Ave. S. Restaurateur Feibi Gouda and her family closed their L'Olivo restaurant at 651 last year so the interior could be demolished. They plan to replace it with Riva Mediterranean Restaurant & Lounge, with Zanu Sushi Bar next door in the former Roma pizzeria. Gulfshore Business reported that Gouda's husband, Raafat Bishai, and her brothers, Gerges Eskandr and George Salama, are part of the project. In the Naples Press story, M Development's Nagy described L'Olivo as returning to 651 along with other concepts. The restaurant names the family has given Gulfshore Business are Riva and Zanu.
Gulfshore Business reports that the City of Naples treated the renovation of the 60-year-old building as new construction, so the whole structure has to meet current building code. That decision brought it into a stormwater management review under a city ordinance. The city returned the permit application several times with comments, and the gutted space has been on hold for more than a year. Gouda told the publication that the restaurant permits themselves had all been approved. What held things up was the building.
The timeline looks like this:
- The family first planned to open in early 2026.
- Gouda said she hoped to have the construction permit by the end of October.
- She expects six to eight months of work once the permit is issued.
- That puts the opening after the 2027 season.
"We're losing the second season," Gouda told Gulfshore Business. If you used to plan dinner around L'Olivo, that won't be possible until after this winter.
Off the avenue, two familiar names in new hands or new spots
The morning-coffee and breakfast moves happened off Fifth, but they come from the same year of downtown change. GLDN Hour Coffee Co. closed its Sixth Avenue South shop in July and reopened on Fourth Avenue South in September. The Naples Daily News covered the reopening on September 16 and noted that the old address was 900 Sixth Avenue South.
EJ's Bayfront Cafe at 469 Bayfront Place hasn't moved, but it has new owners. As Naples Press reported, founder Eric J. Becker sold EJ's Bayfront Cafe and EJ's Meridian Cafe at 3375 Pine Ridge Road. John Ponte and Danielle Desrosiers, husband and wife, took over on Sept. 27. The couple moved from Rhode Island to Marco Island a little over a year ago. Desrosiers said the name, menu and staff are staying the same. "Everybody's staying. We're not changing anything," she said. The eggs Benedict and Huevos Rancheros are still on the menu.
We keep track of downtown Naples for clients who divide their year between Southwest Florida and the Chicago suburbs and want to know what changed while they were away. If you're arriving for season and want a local's read on downtown Naples, or you're thinking about a move between Illinois and Southwest Florida, Dillon Turgeon Luxury Collective would be glad to help. Contact Us.
