Three of this year's biggest waterfront decisions in Naples all face the same stretch of water, the Gordon River and Naples Bay that Aqualane Shores' canals feed into. On June 30 a resort with a 97-slip marina changed hands. In June City Council approved a new boat-oriented building on River Point Drive. A French-Mediterranean dining room is now serving on the southwest corner of Bayfront, with outdoor seating that looks out over the river and the bay. Taken together, they show where the waterfront is heading. Each project adds a new reason to come to the bay's edge, and the plans in front of the city add two slips that any boater can use.
For a neighborhood known for canal-front homes and a quick run to the Gulf, that ratio matters. Your own dock is the start of the trip. Where you can tie up at the other end decides where the trip can go.
Ninety-Seven Slips Under New Ownership
The largest marina on this list belongs to the biggest deal. Naples Bay Resort & Marina, along with the 450-member Naples Bay Club, was bought on June 30, 2026, in back-to-back transactions totaling $41.25 million, according to Collier County recorded deeds as reported by Naples Press. The buyer is a joint venture between Pyramid Global Hospitality, a Boston-based hotel management company, and Western & Southern Financial Group, a financial services and real estate investment company based in Cincinnati.
The new owners are a hotel operator and an investment group. This is a resort and a membership club that happen to have a marina, and the 97 slips come with that business. The sale coverage so far says nothing about changes to slip access, services, or how the marina runs day to day. Until the new owners say otherwise, it is fair to assume the marina keeps working as it did before, with hospitality, not walk-up dockage, as its main job.
That makes the second project worth a close read, because it is the only one on the bay this year with public slips in its approved plan.
| Waterfront site | What it is | Slips | Status as of early October 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Naples Bay Resort & Marina | Resort, marina, 450-member Naples Bay Club | 97 | Sold June 30, 2026, for $41.25 million |
| The Viceroy, 599 River Point Drive | 12 lodging units over office space and a ship store | 14, two of them public | Conditional use approved June 17, 2026; final design review still ahead |
| Ce Soir, 492 Bayfront Place | Restaurant with 165 seats inside and 50 on a covered patio facing the Gordon River and Naples Bay | None in the reporting | Open and taking reservations |
Two Slips for Everyone Else
The Viceroy is planned for a vacant 1.81-acre parcel on the Gordon River at 599 River Point Drive. Developer Harry Zea, through Viceroy Naples LLC, has proposed a three-story building with 12 transient-lodging units above commercial space. The dock plan is where the bay comes in:
- 14 boat slips, with 12 assigned to the lodging units and two open to the general boating public
- A 4,200-square-foot marina ship store selling boating supplies, with restrooms and showers
- Office space on the commercial level
- 34 public and 30 private spaces in an underground garage, plus 29 spaces at ground level
The site has a history. Zea's earlier concept for the parcel, The Promenade on Fifth, proposed five restaurants and was never built. Naples Daily News described the current version as years in the making and reported that the plan had run into challenges as it changed. A compromise was reported in November 2025. The plan that moved forward swapped a restaurant row for a building aimed at boaters, with a supply store and showers where diners would have been.
The city schedule went like this. The Planning Advisory Board took up the conditional-use petition on May 13, 2026. On June 17, City Council voted 4-1 in favor, with one member abstaining over a potential conflict of interest. That vote approved the transient lodging use. It was not a building permit. The final Design Review Board review and other regulatory steps were still ahead, and the reporting gave no construction date. We found no later report showing the project had cleared design review or broken ground.
Even on paper, the numbers are clear. Of the 14 slips planned at River Point Drive, two are for the public, next to a 97-slip marina that operates as part of a resort and club. The ship store, restrooms and showers do more for a visiting boater than the slip count suggests. Still, two slips are the full public dock addition on the table this year.
A Corner That Has Hosted Many Restaurants
The newest place to sit by this water does not come with a dock in any of the reporting. Ce Soir took over a space of more than 7,000 square feet on the southwest corner of Bayfront, near Goodlette-Frank Road and U.S. 41 East. Southern Style Kitchen & Raw Bar was the last tenant. Before that, the space hosted Il Bellagio, The Grill Club, Bianchi's at Bayfront, Alto Jazz Kitchen, Mereday's Brasserie and Stoney's Stone Crab over more than 20 years.
The operator, Canada-based Aidan Hospitality, runs a sister restaurant, Ce Soir Brasserie + Bar, in Oakville, Ontario. The company first aimed to open in Naples in early November. The renovation went down to the studs, and Ce Soir actually launched on May 2 in a soft opening, with a grand opening targeted for the last week of June. Its website now takes reservations and has been running a September 2026 dining promotion.
"We're going with kind of like a coastal elegant feel to it. We've done mosaic tiles throughout. We've got floor-to-ceiling windows that obviously came with the space."
George Gill, Aidan Hospitality partner and marketing director, speaking to Gulfshore Business
The layout centers on the water. A 24-seat U-shaped bar of Cristallo stone with a display of 560 wine bottles sits at the west end. A 14-foot raw bar for ceviche, lobster, oysters and tartares sits at the east end. The kitchen is built around a Josper charcoal wood-fired oven ordered from Spain. Early plans called for 80 to 85 outdoor seats. The restaurant opened with 165 seats inside and 50 on its covered patio, which looks out over the Gordon River and Naples Bay.
That outdoor patio follows the pattern of the season. Bayfront's largest restaurant space reopened facing the water, and the resort marina's new owners run hotels. The newest dock plan puts lodging upstairs and a supply store downstairs. Each project draws more people to the edge of Naples Bay, and on the water itself, two of the planned slips are for public use.
December 19, Seen From the Water
The bay's busiest public night of the year already has a date. The Marine Industries Association of Collier County has scheduled the Christmas Boat Parade on Naples Bay for Saturday, December 19, 2026, from 6:15 to 8:30 p.m. Naples City Dock hosts the parade, the judges and VIP guests, and viewing there is ticketed. The other viewing spots MIACC lists, in order:
- Pinchers Tin City
- Riverwalk Restaurant
- Naples Landing
- Kelly's Fish House
- The Boat House on Naples Bay
- Bayview Park
Most of those spots are restaurants or public parks on the shoreline, the same mix of places this year's projects are adding to. Entering the parade is the one way to be out on the bay that night, and the 2026 entry form is already posted on the MIACC event page. For a household whose canal runs out to the bay, that form opens the front row.
Upriver, the Viceroy file sits with the Design Review Board, the resort marina waits on its new owners' plans, and Ce Soir's covered patio heads into its first full winter season. If you own on an Aqualane Shores canal and want to talk through how dock access, slip arrangements and bay-side changes like these show up in what a waterfront home is worth, Coastal Living Real Estate Group offers a Complimentary Coastal Market Evaluation built around how your property meets the water.
