With Riverside Park Fenced, Old 41 Is Doing the Park's Job This Fall

"It's finally filling in," Bonita Springs Mayor Mike Gibson told WINK News about the Old 41 corridor. He was describing a plan years in the making: the city rebuilt the street first so that restaurants and redevelopment would follow.

This fall the street is carrying more than anyone planned for. Riverside Park, where most city events usually happen, is closed for construction. The Bamboo Lot, once the default place to park for a downtown evening, has been gone since last December. So for the next several weeks, downtown Bonita gathers on the sidewalks of Old 41, against the building fronts and inside the businesses that opened over the past two years. The city's Halloween programming makes the point clearly. It projects onto buildings and closes the road because the lawn isn't available.

The Park Is Offline Until Winter

The city's Downtown Projects Update from April 8, 2026, reported that Riverside Park's Phase One was complete and that Phase Two would begin the second week of April. The park would stay closed through that work, with a grand opening targeted for Winter 2026. Since then it has reopened only once, briefly, for Star Spangled Bonita on July 4.

The bandshell is still closed for renovations. The city's Parks and Recreation page for Riverside Park gives its planned reopening only as "late fall." That bandshell and the lawn around it normally host Celebrate Bonita, Taste of Bonita, Movies in the Park and most of the city's other events. With the park fenced, the city has pointed event organizers to the Liles Hotel Plaza and the green space between the hotel and the park.

The Banyan Lot is under construction on the same schedule. It is getting a new splash pad with upgraded lighting and a restroom building, also expected by winter 2026. Until both projects open, downtown's two main public outdoor spaces are construction sites, and the evening shifts to the street.

Parking Moved Off the Bamboo Lot

Since December 1, 2025, the Bamboo Lot has been closed to public parking. It is now the construction site for a public-private development with Barron Collier. According to the city's downtown projects page, the remaining public options are:

• On-street parking along the downtown corridor, part of the roadway work the city started in 2017
• The Felts Avenue lot, which appears on the city's downtown public parking map

The project going up on the old lot, called Imperial 41, will eventually return some of what it took away. In its September 2025 project description, Barron Collier described one- and two-bedroom apartments, commercial space, two public parks, public restrooms, public parking, a public fire pit and public bike racks. The city's page also lists river access among the public open-space features. Neither source gives a completion date. For this season, plan on street spaces and Felts Avenue.

A smaller change is on the way. In May 2026, City Council approved a proposal to evaluate and design a new Old 41 crosswalk between Tennessee Street and Packinghouse Lane.

The Buildings Become the Venue

The clearest sign that Old 41 is filling in for the park is the city's free Happy Haunts Halloween walk. It doesn't need a lawn. The city's announcement describes short animated Halloween shows projected onto downtown buildings, along with music, lighting and photo spots. It also encourages downtown businesses to decorate and light their storefronts, and the city judges their décor. The announcement describes it as a way to visit downtown businesses while taking photos. There is no candy on regular nights. That comes on Halloween itself.

The schedule from opening night through the contest results:

1. October 22: Happy Haunts opens, with décor lit nightly from 5:30 to 10 p.m. The city judges downtown business décor the same day.
2. October 23: Boo-Tanical Evening at 27180 Old 41 Road, listed on the city's approved events calendar.
3. October 31, 4 to 9 p.m.: Old 41 closes between Wilson Street and Dean Street.
4. October 31, 5 to 8 p.m.: The Bonita Springs Downtown Alliance hosts Trick or Treat on Old 41, and Happy Haunts stays open that night too.
5. November 4: Décor contest winners are announced at the City Council meeting.

On Halloween, the street itself becomes the event space. The road closure on October 31 lasts an hour longer than the trick-or-treating on each end, so leave time to park on a side street or at Felts Avenue and walk in.

Where the Evening Ends Up on Old 41

When the park is the main draw, restaurants are where you eat before or after. With the park closed, the restaurants and bars are the main draw. Most of the newer ones sit in two places.

The first is Entrada, at 27975 Old 41 Road, where three places now share one building:

The building makes an easy one-stop evening. The News-Press reported that Craft Spirits Social opened on New Year's Eve, upstairs and a couple of doors down from The Bohemian. Wichcraft followed this spring, right next door to The Bohemian, as both SWFL Life and the News-Press reported.

The second is SugarShack Downtown, a live-music venue, restaurant and bar on Old 41. Gulfshore Business restaurant tracker Tim Aten reported that it opened in late January 2025. With the bandshell closed, SugarShack is one of the few places downtown where live music is a regular part of the evening.

What Returns When the Fencing Comes Down

The calendar shows the park coming back to life in December, just as winter arrives. The city's approved special events list brings people back to the Riverside Park and Liles Hotel area within a few weeks:

• December 8: Stardust Memories Big Band at Riverside Park
• December 12 and 13: Kris Kringle Village at the Liles Hotel
• December 13: Bonita Springs Concert Band, listed at Riverside Park on the city calendar. The band's own site gives Estero High School as an alternate venue, so check before you go.
• December 24: Christmas Eve candlelight service at Riverside Park

The Bonita Springs Lions list their farmers and makers market at Riverside Park every Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., December through April. The club's page doesn't give a 2026 start date. After that, Arts Bonita brings its Riverside Park National Art Festivals back on January 9 and 10, February 6 and 7, and March 6 and 7, 2027.

If you want a market before then, the city lists the Local Roots Flea Market every Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon at Promenade at Bonita Bay. It started October 3, 2026, and runs through May 29, 2027.

More is coming along Old 41. SugarShack owner Kyle Moran is building HoneyHole Downtown, a restaurant built around live music, which WINK News reported is expected to open in early 2027. WINK also reported that Moran is building Telephone North and Telephone South as full-service restaurants with indoor and outdoor dining, but gave no opening dates for either.

The park and the splash pad are targeted for this winter, with HoneyHole expected in early 2027. For the rest of October, the evening happens on Old 41 itself: park on the street or at Felts Avenue, walk past the projected buildings and end up at Entrada or SugarShack.

Families have been part of Bonita Springs for generations, and so has Owens Jablonski | Gulf Coast Advisors. We follow downtown's changes the way neighbors do, from the Riverside Park fencing to each new door opening on Old 41. If you'd like to talk about where downtown Bonita is headed this winter, and what it means for your corner of the city, we'd welcome the chance to Request a Concierge Consultation.