If you live on Banyan Boulevard or one of the numbered avenues north of Doctors Pass, the walk to the sand has looked like a construction site for the better part of four years. That is finally over. The block you cross to reach the Gulf is not returning to the version you remember from 2021. It is settling into something structurally different, and the details worth knowing are the ones that will change how you use your own neighborhood.
The short version: the 125-acre parcel at the north end of Coquina Sands has reopened as a resort, a residential community, and a public-facing gathering hub all at once. The two rooms most residents cared about are already serving. Several more are still to come. And the city work along Gulf Shore Boulevard North that made the last two seasons feel like an obstacle course is finally wrapping up.
The Two Rooms That Reopened First
For most of Coquina Sands, the meaningful news is not that a new luxury resort exists. It is that HB's on the Gulf and Sunset Bar are pouring again. The Naples Beach Club, A Four Seasons Resort, officially opened and welcomed its first guests on Monday, November 17, including local treasures HB's and Sunset Bar.
Both sit on the original footprint. HB's sits on its original footprint, with expanded deck dining and oversized umbrellas that keep the space usable in every season. Those umbrellas are not a decorative note. The resort invested in a series of oversized, engineered umbrellas, each worth about $100,000, to create a remarkably cool, UV-buffered dining experience that lets the Gulf take center stage. If you have wondered why the deck feels usable at two in the afternoon in July when it never used to, that is the answer.
Sunset Bar reads familiar and slightly not. The Naples Beach Club revives Sunset Bar, the long-loved gathering spot for live music and golden hour drinks, now reimagined with neon accents, Latin-leaning small plates, and tropical cocktails, keeping its easy, open-air spirit while infusing a lighter, more playful energy. The blue-and-green striped awning residents grew up with was preserved in principle. A wide blue-and-green striped awning, echoing HB's original metal shade, is now rendered in a fresh, weather-resistant fabric.
What's Still Arriving Through 2026
The rest of the property is opening in staggered waves. If you are trying to plan a dinner reservation, a spa afternoon, or a tee time, the calendar matters:
| Amenity | Status |
|---|---|
| HB's on the Gulf | Open since Nov 17, 2025 |
| Sunset Bar | Open since Nov 17, 2025 |
| The Merchant Room | Open, led by Chef Gavin Kaysen |
| Sanctuary Spa | Opening 2026, 13 treatment rooms |
| Naples Trading Co. | Grab-and-go market, opening 2026 |
| The Wager | Sports gastropub with four-lane bowling, 2026 |
| The Gardens golf course | Fall 2026, 18 holes, Tom Fazio design |
The Merchant Room is the one worth flagging. Just beyond the lobby, the flagship restaurant, The Merchant Room, brings culinary weight to Naples' fine dining scene, led by two-time James Beard Award-winning chef Gavin Kaysen from Minneapolis, with a menu that promises a French spin on Gulf flavors. It is not a soft-launch tenant. It is the culinary anchor, and reservations from Coquina Sands addresses have been easier to secure in the opening months than they will be once season fully absorbs the room.
The spa is a different scale of arrival. Additional hotel amenities will be completed shortly after the opening, including the Naples Trading Company grab-and-go market and beverage center featuring wines, coffees and teas; the Sanctuary Spa, the resort's spa and wellness center with 13 treatment rooms for massages and therapeutic experiences; and The Wager, a sports gastropub with private dining and a classic four-lane bowling alley.
The golf course is the piece that ties the whole property back into the neighborhood's daily rhythm. The Gardens, the new Tom Fazio 18-hole golf course, will open in the fall of 2026 as its completion is limited by the construction access road that ensures there is no construction traffic in Coquina Sands from the development. That last clause is the one to read twice. The reason the fairways are still coming together is a deliberate choice to keep dump trucks out of the residential streets. Residents who complained loudest about construction traffic through 2023 and 2024 are the reason the delay is what it is.
The Road You Actually Live On
Most posts about the Naples Beach Club focus on the resort. The change residents will feel most is not the porte-cochère. It is the roadway.
Following the City's completion of its water line along Gulf Shore Boulevard North and its north outfall pump station in 8th Avenue North, the new Gulf Shore Boulevard North will fully open. New enhancements include landscaped medians, upgraded sidewalks with pavers, safer crosswalks with a new pedestrian warning light system, and new bike lanes.
If your walk to Lowdermilk has involved crossing four lanes of traffic at a crosswalk that felt more suggestion than protection, that is the sentence to hold onto. The pedestrian warning lights are new. The paver sidewalks are new. The bike lanes are new. Taken together, they change the way a morning routine feels along the corridor between Coquina Sands' interior streets and the beach itself.
One Block South, A Playground That Ian Took
The other structural change is at Lowdermilk. Three and a half years after Hurricane Ian, the north-side playground is finally on the docket.
The Naples City Council is set to vote on a $699,787 agreement with Playmore West Inc. for the purchase and installation of a new playground and covered gazebo at the park. The project would replace the park's previous playground on the north side that was destroyed by Hurricane Ian in 2022.
The funding structure is worth reading closely. Funding for the expansion would come from a combination of two previously approved park enhancement projects and a $250,000 donation from the Nommensen family. A quarter of the project is private philanthropy from a single family. That is the kind of civic mechanic that does not appear in a generic city-park article, and it is the reason the gazebo is happening at all after an earlier attempt stalled. The gazebo, originally planned as part of a 2025 park improvement project, was postponed after construction bids exceeded the available budget. If approved, the plan would also update the city's 2025-26 budget to provide an additional $250,000 from the Beach Fund to help cover project costs.
For families in Coquina Sands who used to walk to Lowdermilk with a stroller and stopped after Ian, the north-side play area is coming back. For everyone else, the new gazebo will absorb the reservation pressure the existing pavilion has carried alone since 2022.
What This Adds Up To
Zoom out and the individual updates form one shape. The Naples Beach Hotel that anchored this stretch of shoreline for 75 years came down in 2022. Nearly seven years after the city approved the plan, and four years after the original 1946 Naples Beach Hotel came down, the new Naples Beach Club, A Four Seasons Resort, officially opens to the public on November 17. A $1 billion-plus project with a 220-room resort and 153 private residences, the first Four Seasons in Southwest Florida carries forward the legacy of the Watkins family, who stewarded the hotel over three generations.
That is a different order of magnitude than a hotel renovation. The 125-acre campus is now also 153 private residences, a Market Square that functions as a public commons, five dining concepts, a spa, a bowling alley, and a Fazio course, all wrapping the north edge of a residential neighborhood that has been quiet by design for six decades. At the heart of the resort lies Market Square, a vibrant social hub that connects guests and locals alike through a dynamic mix of retail, dining, and entertainment. The extensive 125-acre coastal destination is introducing 153 exceptional luxury residences and a Tom Fazio-designed 18-hole golf course in partnership with Discovery Land Company. The highly amenitized golf course spans 100 acres and is set to open in 2026.
Legacy is carried here through detail, not declaration.
That line from the Gulfshore Life design coverage is the interpretive frame worth holding. Legacy is carried here through detail, not declaration. Florida vernacular, a style informed by climate and local materials, carries throughout the property. Materials, colors, finishes and murals nod to coastal aesthetics without tourist iconography. The effect is subtle and refined, with familiar notes. For a neighborhood that has always valued restraint over spectacle, that ethos matters. The new anchor at the north edge of Coquina Sands was designed to sit inside the existing architectural conversation, not to overwrite it.
A Note For Owners And Prospective Buyers
The practical read for anyone who already owns in Coquina Sands: the amenity ring around the neighborhood is now denser than at any point in the last twenty years. Public beach access at Lowdermilk is getting rebuilt. HB's is walking distance again. A Fazio course is opening at the north edge. Gulf Shore Boulevard North is a better street to cross than it was in 2023.
For anyone weighing a move into Coquina Sands, the same list is a preview. The infrastructure and amenity changes that will define the next decade of daily life here are visible now, and the streets themselves remain the low-key residential grid they have always been.
If you would like a quieter conversation about what any of this means for a specific address or a specific timeline, Sandra Edwards is available. Let's connect.
