Which beach end do you head for this winter? If your answer used to be 12th Avenue South, the City has already chosen two others for you. The beach ends one block to either side of it are open and have restrooms. The closures with no end date are a mile and more up the beach, where a different project is running past its own schedule.
The News-Press and Naples Daily News reported on October 6 that this winter will be the fourth season without the pier. Even so, the pier end is the easiest part of the shoreline to plan around.
What "past halfway" means at 12th Avenue South
The City's project timeline shows how fast the rebuild has moved since it got going:
- January 5, 2026. Public groundbreaking at the pier, with construction starting the next day.
- April 13. Demolition of the old pier finished.
- April 24. Fifty-nine concrete pilings sunk at Wasmer Reef, expanding an artificial reef first built in 2015.
- June 17. Shoreline Foundation began building a trestle along the south side so work can continue even when weather sends the offshore barges in for shelter.
- June 26. First concrete pour, about 20 cubic yards out of roughly 602 the project will need.
- July 24. Third pour, bringing the total to about 200 cubic yards. Two-thirds of the new decking had arrived.
- September 18. The mid-pavilion pour pushed the project past 50 percent of its total concrete.
From late June to late July the crews poured about a third of the concrete. By mid-September they had passed half. The City says framing and the first sections of decking are already being built. Shoreline Foundation plans to install the ipe, a tropical hardwood picked because it resists rot, after all the concrete is poured.
The new pier is not a copy of the old one. Turrell, Hall & Associates and MHK Architecture designed it with fewer piles set farther apart. Each pile is 18 inches across instead of 14, the concrete under the decking is beefed up, and the whole structure sits higher. Benches and fish-cleaning stations are still on the to-do list, and work is underway on electrical systems and on renovating the bathroom and storage building.
The October 6 report puts the target at "sometime in the summer of 2027." Its FAQ describes a 14- to 18-month build aimed at July 2027 completion. That is a target, and the City's own page gives only an approximate 18-month duration. You can watch progress between beach visits on the live pier camera at NaplesPanorama.org.
Broad Avenue South and 13th Avenue South are the new front doors
The closure around the pier is bigger than the pier itself. It includes the stairs, restrooms, showers, and 12th Avenue South west of Gulf Shore Boulevard South. In the pier parking lot at 12th and Gulf Shore Boulevard South, only the western third is open to the public. The other two-thirds hold construction equipment.
The City has set up pedestrian bypasses at the Broad Avenue South and 13th Avenue South beach ends. It has committed to keeping both open for the whole project, and both have restrooms. In the City's beach-access status table, those are the only two ends on the list marked "Restrooms Available." If you want a restroom near the water without driving to a park, these two ends are now the closest.
The beach ends around them are mostly finished. The City's separate Beach Access Restoration Project covers 30 of the City's 40 access points, with fewer hard surfaces and what the City calls a more natural, "Old Florida" look. Some ends that used to have benches may now have fewer, and some that had none may now have one or more. Here is the City's current status table, condensed:
| Beach access | Status | Reason or note |
|---|---|---|
| Lowdermilk Park | Open | |
| 8th Ave N | Closed | Stormwater Beach Outfall Project |
| 7th Ave N, North Lake Drive, 6th Ave N | Open | Construction complete |
| 4th, 3rd and 2nd Ave N | Closed | Stormwater Beach Outfall Project |
| 1st Ave N through 11th Ave S | Open | Construction complete at all but 8th Ave S, which shows no note |
| Broad Ave S | Open, restrooms | Pier bypass |
| 12th Ave S | Closed | Naples Pier Rebuild Project |
| 13th Ave S | Open, restrooms | Pier bypass |
| 14th through 18th Ave S | Open | 17th Ave S shows no note |
| 21st Ave S | Open | Future reconstruction planned |
South of Central Avenue, only one beach end in the table is closed, and it has open beach ends right next to it on both sides.
The closures without a date are on the north end
The four closed ends north of Central Avenue belong to the Naples Beach Restoration & Water Quality Improvements Project, which most people call the Stormwater Outfall Project. The project is removing all eight City stormwater pipes that empty onto Naples beaches and into the Gulf. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection directed the work. The upgrade raises the system's capacity from a 5-year storm to a 25-year storm. The work runs along the Gulf Shore Boulevard right-of-way from Oleander Drive to just south of 2nd Avenue South. The project costs $86 million, and the State of Florida is covering $40 million through legislative appropriations.
The project's own website says crews are working at the 8th Avenue North and 3rd Avenue North pump stations and that beach access at both ends would stay closed "until summer 2026." Summer is over, and the City's table still lists 8th, 4th, 3rd, and 2nd Avenue North as closed. No new reopening date has been posted for any of the four.
The closures affect more than the sand. In early February, construction moved south to the stretch between 4th Avenue North and 1st Avenue North. "Road Closed" and "Local Traffic Only" signs went up at 4th Avenue North and Central Avenue, and eastbound traffic coming off Gulf Shore Boulevard North was detoured. The project site says pedestrians and bicyclists are not allowed inside the construction zone. On the stretch between 2nd and 8th Avenue North, a walk or ride along Gulf Shore Boulevard North can end at a fence. South of Central Avenue, the pier closure covers one beach end and one block of 12th Avenue South.
What's on the calendar near the pier bypasses
The pier is closed, but the blocks around it are busy. The Saturday Farmers Market runs from 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. in the parking lot behind Tommy Bahama, with City-listed dates of October 3, 10, 17, 24, and 31. The winter schedule after October had not been posted at the time of writing.
From there through the winter, both Third Street South and Fifth Avenue South have full calendars:
| Date | Event | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Oct. 8 | Evening on Fifth, live music, 6:30–9:30 p.m. | Fifth Avenue South |
| Oct. 12 | Stardust Memories Big Band, 7–9 p.m. | Cambier Park |
| Oct. 15–18 | Autumn Sidewalk Sale, 25-plus businesses | Third Street South |
| Oct. 31 | Halloween Spooktacular 3–5 p.m., then Evening on Fifth 5–8 p.m. | Cambier Park and Park Street, Fifth Avenue South |
| Nov. 1 | Naples Concert Band, 2–3 p.m. | Cambier Park |
| Nov. 14 | Fine Arts & Craft Show, 10 a.m.–4 p.m. | Cambier Park |
| Nov. 23 | Naples Tree Lighting, 6–9 p.m., street closed to traffic | Third Street South |
| Dec. 4 | Christmas celebration, tree lighting about 6 p.m. | Fifth Avenue South |
| Dec. 8 | City of Naples Christmas Parade, 6:30 p.m. | 3rd Street South and 9th Avenue South to City Hall |
| Dec. 12 | Santa Paws, 1–3 p.m. | Near Sea Salt, Third Street South |
The 49th annual Christmas on Third adds live music Tuesday through Saturday of Thanksgiving week from 5 to 8 p.m., with "snowfall" at 7 p.m. and nothing on Thanksgiving Day itself. Santa-letter drop boxes go up at Fleischmann Plaza near Gattle's and at Santa's Workshop near Sea Salt from November 25 to December 23. In the new year, Cambier Park hosts the Naples New Year's Art Fair on January 2–3, 2027, The National Art Fair on February 19–21, and the Naples Downtown Art Fair on March 20–21.
The playground is the one gap at Cambier Park. The City lists it as closed, and a September 29, 2026 update puts completion in July 2027. That is the same month as the pier's target. The bandshell, Norris Community Center, tennis center, and shuffleboard and bocce courts are still listed as park amenities.
Where the old pier went
You won't see the last piece of the old pier from the beach. The 59 pilings pulled from the demolished structure weigh about 300 tons in total. They now sit at the Wasmer reef site, about 10 miles offshore of Gordon Pass, where they add to a reef more than a decade old that already supports coral and aquatic vegetation and gives young and adult fish shelter and food. The concrete pour log on the City's project page is the best way to judge whether next summer's target is holding. Once the pours reach the full total of about 602 cubic yards, the ipe installation can start.
If you own near Gulf Shore Boulevard and want to know how the pier timeline and the north-end beach-access work affect your home, the advisors at KW Elevate Luxury follow both projects and are glad to talk through what they mean for your block. Contact Us.
