The Naples Pier Coming Back Next July Is Built Differently, Down to the Lunch Cart

On October 7, Shoreline Foundation Inc. drove the last of the 193 reinforced-concrete pilings for the new Naples Pier. The crews were standing on a temporary trestle built along the south side of the pier. The trestle lets work continue even when weather sends the offshore barges in to shelter. Fifteen days later, the City of Naples reported that work had started on the midpoint pavilion. For anyone in Olde Naples who has watched barges at the end of 12th Avenue South since January, those two dates mean every piling is in the water. Concrete, foundation upgrades and the parts people will actually walk on are still to come.

The City's Naples Pier Rebuild Project page still targets a July 2027 reopening. That makes this winter the last season without the pier. The pier that comes back was designed around one lesson from Hurricane Ian. It has less on the deck that a storm can destroy and much more holding it up.

What Ian Took, and Why the Answer Was Concrete

The pier has been a landmark since 1888, and the City counts more than a million visitors a year. It has also been rebuilt again and again. Major reconstructions followed storms in 1910, 1926, 1944 and 1960. After a renovation in 2015, Hurricane Irma damaged it two years later. On September 28, 2022, Ian dropped about 140 feet of it onto the Gulf floor, including the end shelter and more than 30 pilings. Waves gutted the concession area, the midpoint shelter and the storage facilities. City engineers decided the whole structure had to be replaced.

The replacement, designed by Turrell, Hall & Associates with MHK Architecture, is heavier where it counts.

The City puts the larger pile size at a 65 percent increase. The longer, thicker piles are what allowed the deck to be raised. The designers also used fewer piles spaced farther apart, to reduce shoreline impacts and erosion. The whole project needs about 602 cubic yards of concrete. With the September 18 pour at the mid-pavilion site, the job passed the halfway mark.

What goes on top keeps the look people remember. The midpoint pavilion will have pressure-treated pine columns clad in one-inch-thick Ipe, a tropical hardwood. The decking is also Ipe, and two-thirds of it had already arrived by late July.

Gulfshore Business put the total project estimate at $26.3 million. That includes a $23.45 million construction award to Shoreline Foundation and a FEMA grant of $11,401,144.20. Other funding listed includes $11 million in bonds, $2 million in county tourist-development taxes, state grants, the City beach fund and donations.

The Snack Bar Stays Gone

The same thinking that shaped the pilings also shaped the deck. The City says state and federal rules prohibited rebuilding the old mid-pier concession, the part of the pier Ian gutted. City Council looked at several options and chose portable food and beverage carts at the midpoint pavilion. It also approved a small Naples Police and Beach Patrol substation on the pier.

The landside plans were scaled back too. At the March 4, 2026 City Council meeting, Maureen Minker, MHK's design lead, presented a revision that followed Council's direction. Permanent concessions and outdoor dining were removed, and the landside structures were made smaller. In the new plan, the north men's restroom gets a small beach patrol office with its own bathroom. The old rear changing room becomes pier storage. Next to the south women's restroom, a small shade structure adds a few benches and space for educational boards, with the existing showers just outside it. Council told staff to go ahead with that design and to look at electrical capacity and where the carts could go.

For anyone who remembers ordering at the old concession window, this is the biggest change. The new pier will have shade, benches and carts, and the money has gone into the parts that should still be standing after the next big storm.

The Old Pier Is Already Working Offshore

This spring, 59 concrete pilings from the old structure were placed at Wasmer Reef, expanding an artificial reef first established in 2015. Naples Daily News reported that the reef is about 10 miles offshore of Gordon Pass. Collier County's reef inventory puts this year's addition at 26° 2.029′ N, 81° 58.585′ W, in 40 feet of water.

The reef is part of the Collier County Artificial Reef Program, which the county's Coastal Zone Management Department runs with local partners. The county describes its artificial reefs as supporting recreational fishing, charter fishing and diving. For a Port Royal or Aqualane boater who leaves through Gordon Pass, the old pier is now a waypoint.

Work in the water also cleared out an earlier version of the pier. In May, Shoreline Foundation began a month of diving to remove debris before the new pilings went in. That included pilings from the 1990s that had been buried.

How the Beach Ends Work This Winter

Until next summer, the City's closure covers the pier, its stairs, restrooms and showers, and 12th Avenue South west of Gulf Shore Boulevard South. In the Pier parking lot at 12th Avenue South and Gulf Shore Boulevard South, only the western third is open to the public. The eastern two-thirds is used for construction.

The City has set up pedestrian bypasses at the beach ends on either side, and both have restrooms. Its public beach access table shows the status this way:

• Broad Avenue South: open, restrooms available
• 12th Avenue South: closed for the pier rebuild
• 13th Avenue South: open, restrooms available
• 3rd through 11th Avenue South, and 14th through 17th Avenue South: open

The City's schedule for the rest of the project:

1. Now: work continues on the midpoint pavilion, which started October 22. Electrical work, renovations to the bathrooms and storage areas, and foundation upgrades are also underway.
2. Early 2027: Shoreline Foundation expects to finish all structural work.
3. After that: the Ipe decking and structures go on.
4. July 2027: the City's reopening target.

The deck will change fastest after the structural work is done. Anyone who walks to the Broad Avenue or 13th Avenue beach ends this winter will be watching the last stage before the Ipe goes down.

Where Local Gifts Go

Donations make up only part of the pier's funding, but they have a set channel. The Naples Pier Fund is a pass-through fund run by the Collier Community Foundation to help the City with the rebuild. It accepts one-time or recurring gifts. The foundation says any money beyond what the rebuild needs will be kept in an endowment for future maintenance and service improvements. That endowment ties in with the rest of the design. The pier was built to last through more storms, and the endowment is meant to keep it maintained.

The Naples Pier has been part of daily life in Olde Naples for most of my years here, and I'm looking forward to walking it again next July. If you're curious how a landmark this close by affects how your own home is valued, Laurie Bellico can give you an instant home valuation and a candid conversation about it.