The stretch between Memorial Day and the first cool morning in October has a reputation for stillness in Pelican Bay. Half the towers dim their lanai lights, the Marker 36 valet line thins, and the tram schedule loosens. Look past that surface this year and a different picture emerges. Between the Waterside Shops property line and the Clam Bay boardwalks, three of the neighborhood's daily anchors are being rebuilt on overlapping timelines. By the time your neighbors return in November, the walk from your building to dinner, to a gallery, or to the sand will not feel the same as it did in April.
Waterside Is Not The Property You Left In April
The center at 5415 Tamiami Trail N. has spent most of 2026 in visible transition. If you have driven past the north edge, you have seen it: the former Nordstrom footprint, dormant since 2020, is now an active construction site. What is going in there is a departure from the department-store model the space replaced.
The former Nordstrom building, 74,591 square feet and vacant since 2020, is now the construction site for RH Naples. Six separate galleries with skylights will connect through landscaped courtyards and glass-roofed walkways, surrounding a central 4,143-square-foot, full-service restaurant and wine bar beneath an elongated glass atrium. The total footprint is 29,382 square feet. RH has not confirmed an opening date, but county construction permits were issued in August 2025, and the projected timeline points to late 2026.
That is one project. Here is what else is happening on the same 29 acres this summer and fall:
- Dior: A standalone boutique after relocating from its former store-within-a-store location inside Saks Fifth Avenue, a 6,000-square-foot suite as of June 11.
- Anthropologie: Moving into a larger storefront expected to open this fall.
- Vuori: The California-based athletic apparel brand plans to open this fall.
- Peter Millar: Taking the former White House Black Market space with premium sportswear and golf apparel.
- Piranesi: A fall 2026 opening near Gucci at 5435-19 Tamiami Trail N.
- Eddie V's: Opening summer 2026 at 765 Seagate Drive.
- Buck & Rider: The Scottsdale-based seafood concept's first location outside the Southwest, slated to open in late 2026.
- Hermès and Brunello Cucinelli: By late 2026, Waterside will hold three new sit-down restaurants, a Christian Dior flagship, the return of Hermès after a nine-year absence, and a Brunello Cucinelli boutique.
The through-line is dining density. At the start of 2025, Waterside had one major sit-down seafood option and a casual Italian chain that had filed for bankruptcy. By the end of 2026, it will have Eddie V's, Buck & Rider, and the RH restaurant, three concepts with no overlap in price point, format, or menu identity. For a resident who used to leave the property for a serious dinner, the calculation has changed inside twelve months.
One small summer gesture worth knowing about while the construction fencing is up: the center introduced a seasonal guest appreciation initiative dubbed "The Squeeze." Throughout July and August 2026, the property is offering complimentary lemonade on Fridays and Saturdays. If you have been avoiding Waterside because of the buildout, this is the summer to actually walk it and see what remains open around the work.
The Baker Museum Is Doing Its Best Work Between May And September
Season visitors miss most of what is on the walls right now. That is the local advantage.
Two shows are worth planning a Sunday morning around. Discovering Ansel Adams runs January 10 through November 1, 2026 on the second floor and features over 100 photographs that share Adams' most celebrated works while revealing aspects of his development that are frequently overlooked. It closes just as season begins, meaning the summer months are the quiet window. The second is newer: The Surrealist International: Fifty Years of Dreams opens July 11, 2026 in the Springborn Gallery, running through early January. If you have out-of-town guests over the Fourth of July weekend, the timing is unusually good.
The Baker Museum will be open all summer, and beginning May 17 through September 6, museum admission is free on Sundays. The other resident-friendly slot is Art After Hours on the last Wednesday of each month from 6pm to 9pm, with live music performed by local musicians, food and beverages available for purchase at Heidi's Place, and free admission to all museum exhibitions.
The Naples Philharmonic's summer calendar is not the Masterworks lineup that fills Hayes Hall in February, but it is not empty either. Upcoming: Chuck Redd All That Jazz with the Naples Philharmonic Jazz Orchestra on July 8, Konstantin Soukhovetski's Beethoven and Joplin on July 16, and the Chi-Town Transit Authority Chicago tribute band on July 21. Walking distance from most of the Pelican Bay Boulevard towers.
The Beach You Walked In March Is Not The Beach You Walked In November
The most consequential change to the neighborhood this year is under your feet, not behind construction fencing.
The Pelican Bay Beach renourishment was funded by the Pelican Bay Services Division since it is not a public beach, using trucks to haul beach-quality sand from Stewart Mining in Immokalee. Crews spread the sand across 2.9 miles of Vanderbilt Beach and Pelican Bay Beach from Florida Department of Environmental Protection reference monuments R-22+300 near the Bluebill Avenue beach access to R-37+000 about 1,000 feet south of the Pelican Bay North Pavilion. Total project cost across both beaches was approximately $7.5 million. The contractor's target for completion was January 15, 2026.
That is the sand. The Clam Bay side of the story is arguably more interesting. With the double impact of Hurricanes Ian and Milton, Clam Bay and the mangroves took a beating. Inlet and dune restoration took place in late 2025, thanks to the Pelican Bay Services Division and Collier County Commissioner Dan Kowal. The project included the replenishment of the mangroves that protect the coastline. Beyond beautification, this is the first example of a nature-based resiliency solution in Collier County.
Translation for the resident who walks the north berm at 7 a.m.: the mangrove screen you have been watching thin out for three years is being rebuilt with a different playbook than concrete armoring, and it is the pilot for the county's approach going forward. Worth watching from the boardwalks this summer.
A Quieter Fight At The South End
If you live in the southern half of the community, the other item on your radar this summer is what happens next door at Naples Grande Beach Resort. Its plans for a pool with water slides and other structures are described by the resort as an "amenity" and by its neighbors as a "water park," and opponents are drawing battle lines. Residents of Pelican Bay are opposing the plans, citing concerns over noise, traffic, parking, and incongruence with neighborhood character. Over two days of meetings in March 2026, residents heard from the company promoting the additions, the design review board assessing them, and officials fighting the proposal. The Clam Pass Cove filings are worth reading before the next public hearing.
The Marketplace Quietly Got Its Fourth Anchor
Buried under the Waterside news is a smaller change that will actually alter more Saturday mornings for people who live here. Sunshine Ace Hardware at Pelican Bay Marketplace hosted a two-day grand opening on January 24 and 25, 2026, co-anchoring the marketplace with Publix. It is the fourth Sunshine Ace location to open in Collier County in the past three years and the 16th hardware store owned by the Wynn family.
For anyone who has driven to the Airport-Pulling location for a garden hose fitting on a Sunday afternoon, the utility of a hardware store within walking or biking distance of the tram stations is not small. Pair it with the Publix trip, and the marketplace now functions as the neighborhood's actual daily-errand hub in a way it did not fourteen months ago.
A Note On Who Runs What
Two organizations touch most of the changes above, and it is worth keeping them straight when you write a check or send a comment letter. The Pelican Bay Foundation manages member amenities, including beaches, trams, dining, fitness and racquets. The Pelican Bay Services Division, a Collier County municipal services unit, provides functions like water management, street lighting, beach renourishment and oversight of the Clam Bay Natural Resource Protection Area. The tram numbers alone tell you how much throughput the Foundation is managing: Foundation drivers complete more than 900,000 trips to the beach and back each year.
The private beach dining lineup remains three-part: Marker 36 at North Beach offers an upscale coastal kitchen with indoor and outdoor seating and seasonal live music. Sandbar at South Beach serves a more casual, Mediterranean-leaning menu, and The Nest provides a smaller snack and drink stop with views. Summer hours shift. Confirm with the Foundation before you send a guest.
The Point
The temptation with a summer in Pelican Bay is to treat it as a pause. That was true five years ago. It is not true this year. Between the RH campus rising on the north end of Waterside, the Ansel Adams show hanging quietly through Halloween, the newly renourished sand, and the mangrove restoration that will define the next decade of Clam Bay's shoreline, the neighborhood you own into in November will be materially different from the one that quieted down in May. The residents who spend the summer here are the ones who will notice first.
If any of the changes above have you rethinking a building, a floor, or a floor plan, The Beachfront Team tracks Pelican Bay at the building level and would be glad to walk you through what the summer's changes mean for your address. Experience the Beachfront Difference — Schedule a Confidential Consultation.
