Drive east from Coquina Sands, cross Tamiami Trail at Golden Gate Parkway, and the western edge of Coastland Center looks like a construction site. Fencing surrounds a cleared pad in the Macy's parking lot near Fleischmann Boulevard. A crew is getting the freestanding building on the northwest corner ready for new paint. Inside the mall, a former pizza restaurant and the empty unit beside it are being joined into one large dining room.
These are three separate projects, but they're all heading in the same direction. For years the US 41 side of Coastland served Mexican, Caribbean and pizza. Over the next few months it's set to serve Mediterranean steak, Brazilian churrascaria and a raw bar with a grill. All three are targeting roughly the same stretch, late 2026 into early 2027.
The Frontage, Address by Address
All three projects share the Ninth Street North addresses along the mall's western end. The table below sets each one against the restaurant it replaces.
| Address | Previous tenant | Incoming concept | Indoor size | Reported target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2096 Ninth St. N. | Uncle Julio's, closed in February | Atlantic Forge Mediterranean Steakhouse | Nearly 11,500 sq ft | Early 2027 |
| 2048 Ninth St. N. | Aurelio's Pizza plus an adjoining vacant unit | Rodizio Grill | 9,160 sq ft | Late 2026 or early 2027 |
| 2094 Ninth St. N. | New outparcel in the Macy's lot | Oar & Iron Raw Bar & Grill | 5,899 sq ft plus 1,833 sq ft patio | End of 2026, otherwise early 2027 |
| 2088 Ninth St. N. | Bahama Breeze | Vacant as of late September | Not applicable | Not applicable |
Together that's about 26,000 square feet of indoor dining, all built around meat and seafood. The rooms they replace include a Mexican restaurant, a pizzeria and a Caribbean-inspired grill. Only one of the three new projects is a new building. The other two reuse rooms built for earlier tenants.
Three Kitchens Built Around Meat and Fire
Atlantic Forge is taking over the most visible building on the corner. Naples Press reported in September that the Naples Design Review Board gave final approval on Aug. 26 to changes to the building's façade, landscaping and signage. The large, colorful mural on the western wall, which was the old Uncle Julio's signature, will be painted white and carry the new restaurant's name in gold letters. The agave and umbrella plants are coming out. Italian cypress, bougainvillea and podocarpus are going in, in a palette of white, gold and browns. Jason B. Taylor of Bradenton-based Taylor Studios told city staff, according to the same Naples Press report, that the patio would get "firepit tables, freestanding firepits, some planters and a built-in gas fireplace feature." The city's application lists LH Coastland Center, LLC as the property owner and describes the project as turning the former Uncle Julio's into a high-end steakhouse.
Rodizio Grill brings meat back to a space with a history of it. The inline unit at the mall entrance near CMX CinéBistro was once Pate's House of Prime Rib and later Ted's Montana Grill, before Aurelio's Pizza moved in. The Utah-based chain has more than 20 locations, six of them in Florida. Its format is a churrascaria: gauchos carve rotisserie-grilled meats from skewers at the table, with all-you-can-eat meats, a hot and cold salad bar and a full bar. The Coastland room will be much larger than the Rodizio Grill that has operated at Coconut Point in Estero since April 2016. It also has no outdoor seating. The Rodizio Grill Naples page lists the Coastland location and says it is opening in 2026.
Oar & Iron Raw Bar & Grill is the only new building of the three. RAVentures Hospitality Group owns and operates it. The concept is a Florida version of the Northeast's 110 Grill, named for the Massachusetts highway where the first one opened, with lighter nautical colors, big outdoor dining areas, a raw bar and more seafood and steak on the menu. North Naples already has one. The first Oar & Iron opened in late 2023 at Founders Square, at Collier Boulevard and Immokalee Road. Locations near Topgolf in Fort Myers, in Parrish and in Babcock Ranch followed, which makes Coastland the fifth.
The Patio Facing Fleischmann
The first sign on the Oar & Iron pad said "Coming late 2025." Rob Luzzi, RAVentures' senior director of marketing, told Naples Press columnist Tim Aten that the group "would love to be open by the end of 2026, but otherwise early 2027, based on construction."
Where the building's outdoor space goes is the important detail for anyone coming from the Gulf side of the Trail. The 1,833-square-foot patio will sit closest to the main entrance, at the corner of Fleischmann Boulevard and US 41. It will have a firepit under a louvered pergola. Atlantic Forge's fireplace and firepit tables will be at the northwest corner by Golden Gate Parkway. So the two new patios will sit at either end of the mall's Tamiami Trail side, both lit by fire, both on the side closest to Coquina Sands.
That stretch has filled up one building at a time. Naples Press counts Oar & Iron as the sixth chain restaurant outparcel built on Coastland's western end. The Cheesecake Factory came first and did well for a long time, and freestanding buildings for CMX CinéBistro, Uncle Julio's, Bahama Breeze and Twin Peaks followed. This round is different because two of those six closed within about a year of each other, and their replacements come as a matched set.
The One Address That Isn't Getting a Restaurant
Not every dining space near the mall is staying a restaurant. Dorona, the Aielli Group's modern Italian steakhouse, closed in May 2025 after more than seven years at 2110 Tamiami Trail N. That's the southern end of the Centre Pointe retail center, on the northeast corner of US 41 and Golden Gate Parkway. Over the years the 7,380-square-foot space had also been TGI Friday's and Midtown Kitchen & Bar. It is now being built out as the Northwestern Concierge Clinic, which is affiliated with Chicago-based Northwestern Memorial HealthCare. That health system also runs Northwestern Medicine Concierge Medicine Naples on Fourth Avenue North in Old Naples.
So the Golden Gate Parkway corner is losing one steakhouse and gaining another just across the street. Steak dinners there will now happen on the mall side, and the Centre Pointe space becomes a medical office.
The other open question on the row is Bahama Breeze at 2088 Ninth St. N. Darden Restaurants closed 15 Bahama Breeze locations in May 2025 and plans to convert the rest to other Darden brands when it retires the concept next spring. The Bahama Breeze in south Fort Myers is slated to become a Yard House. As of Naples Press's September report, Darden had no plans for the Coastland building, so it sits empty between Twin Peaks and the incoming Atlantic Forge.
What's Serving Along the Row Now
Until the new rooms are ready, the established restaurants are still serving on Coastland's western end:
- The Cheesecake Factory, the original outparcel. Its page on the Coastland Center directory lists hours through the start of November.
- CMX CinéBistro, the dine-in theater next to the future Rodizio Grill. Its showtimes page runs into November.
- Twin Peaks at 2078 Ninth St. N., listed as open on the restaurant's Naples page.
Just Salad opened in September at Naples Plaza, across from the mall, as part of a summer of openings and closings that Naples Press summarized in its off-season roundup. That leaves three sit-down dinner restaurants on the row this season, with three more under construction around them. If the targets hold, the US 41 side of Coastland will have five restaurants and a dine-in cinema by early 2027, and three of those restaurants will be new and focused on steak and seafood.
The Earls | Lappin Team keeps track of changes along Tamiami Trail like these because they shape what Coquina Sands is like from one season to the next. If you'd like to talk through what's opening across the Trail, or what it might mean for a property you own nearby, Earls & Lappin is glad to hear from you.