Drive north on Tamiami Trail past The Fresh Market and you will see it: a run of storefronts in different states of construction, paper taped over glass, a hand-lettered "opening soon" sign a few doors down from a space that has sat empty since spring. At a glance, it looks like a plaza losing ground. It is the opposite.
Over the past year, four separate storefronts at Park Shore Plaza have emptied out, and every one of them has already been claimed by a new tenant. That alone would be a modest update. What makes it worth your attention is the one move nobody would have predicted: Barnes & Noble did not close its doors and disappear. It left a shopping mall for a strip center, and it did not downsize to make the move. It got bigger.
The Vacancies, and What's Replacing Them
Here is the full accounting, space by space:
| Space that closed | Reason | New tenant | Size | Timing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saks Off 5th | Closed this spring after 10 years, part of Saks Global's Chapter 11 restructuring | TJ Maxx | 27,000 sq ft | Anticipated first quarter of next year |
| Party City | Closed last year | Sierra | 18,676 sq ft | Expected before the end of this year |
| Duck Donuts | Closed last summer after five years | Juice Society | — | Opened May 13 |
| Big Lots | Closed | Barnes & Noble, relocated from Waterside Shops | 35,000+ sq ft | Opened this summer |
The Saks Off 5th closure was part of a national wind-down. Saks Global shuttered all but 12 of its 50 Off 5th locations during its bankruptcy restructuring, and the Naples store was one of six in Florida to go dark. TJ Maxx is moving into that 27,000-square-foot footprint, and Sierra, which sells discounted outdoor gear and activewear, is taking the space Party City left behind. Brixmor Property Group, which owns the plaza, confirmed both leases directly. The addition of Sierra and TJ Maxx alongside the existing HomeGoods means Park Shore Plaza will soon house three TJX Companies brands under one roof.
The Move That Actually Matters
The TJ Maxx and Sierra leases are the easy story. Off-price retail backfilling off-price retail is not surprising anywhere in the country right now. The Barnes & Noble relocation is the detail that reframes everything else on this list.
Barnes & Noble had been an original tenant at Waterside Shops since 1992, operating out of a 24,000-square-foot freestanding building on that mall's edge for more than three decades. This year, the bookstore relocated about a mile south to Park Shore Plaza, moving into the former Big Lots space and expanding to more than 35,000 square feet in the process. That is not a retailer retreating from a glossy address to a discount strip center out of necessity. That is a retailer trading a smaller, standalone building at an upscale mall for a larger inline space next to a grocery store, and doing it on purpose.
The timing lines up with what Waterside Shops is doing to the space Barnes & Noble left behind. Pottery Barn and Williams Sonoma moved into that same freestanding building in January, part of a broader push by Waterside's ownership to trade general-interest tenants for a more upscale mix. Ann Taylor, Häagen-Dazs, Chico's and White House Black Market have all closed there to make room for stores like Vuori and a Restoration Hardware gallery and restaurant planned for late 2026. Barnes & Noble was not pushed out. It moved to a plaza that could give it more room, at the same moment its old address was reorganizing around a different kind of shopper.
Maria Pace, vice president of marketing for Brixmor, put the broader leasing wave this way:
"The leasing activity at Park Shore Plaza reflects the strength of both the center and the Naples market. Following the recent Saks Off 5th closure, we saw strong retailer interest and were able to quickly backfill the space."
Brixmor's own leasing materials back that up with numbers. The company markets the plaza to prospective tenants using a trade area with an average household income above $230,000 within a three-mile radius, as of its most recent leasing data. That is the kind of figure that usually gets attached to the mall down the road, not the center anchored by a Fresh Market and a Dollar Tree. The retailers filling these spaces are not settling. They are reading the same numbers Brixmor is publishing and deciding this stretch of 41 is worth building around.
What's Already Open While You Wait
Two smaller additions have already opened their doors, and both fill gaps the plaza had been missing.
Juice Society opened May 13 in the space Duck Donuts left behind after five years in business, serving cold-pressed juices, smoothies and superfood bowls out of a build-out at the corner of US 41 and Old Trail Drive. It is the brand's second Florida location, following its first regional store at Coconut Point in Estero.
A few doors down, Naples Society Wine Bar took over a former salon space. Owner Thierry Pourchet, who moved to Naples from New York in 2022 and holds a Level 3 certification from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, runs weekly Tuesday tastings built around a rotating theme, five wines and an appetizer for $30. The bar is open Tuesday through Thursday from 2 to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday until 10, and Sunday afternoons from noon to 4.
Kirkland's Home is the one holdover that has not resolved itself cleanly. The store ran a full going-out-of-business sale that wrapped up in late January, complete with everything-must-go signage and discounts on furniture and decor. It never actually closed. It is still operating today, restocked with new inventory, while its parent company works through a broader plan to convert Kirkland's locations into Bed Bath & Beyond Home stores over the next year or so. No closing or conversion date has been set for the Naples location.
The Practical Version, for Your Next Trip to the Fresh Market
If you are trying to plan around the construction rather than just drive past it, here is where things stand:
- Barnes & Noble is already open in its new, larger space, positioned between the future TJ Maxx and HomeGoods
- TJ Maxx is targeted for the first quarter of next year, in the old Saks Off 5th footprint next to The Fresh Market
- Sierra is expected before the end of this year, in the space between Burlington and Kirkland's
- Kirkland's remains open for now, with no announced closing date
- Juice Society is open Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed Sundays
- Naples Society Wine Bar runs its themed tasting nights every Tuesday
None of the new leases have confirmed opening dates from TJX directly. Brixmor's timeline estimates are the best information available as of this writing, and both could shift.
Why It Matters for Anyone Who Calls Park Shore Home
It would be easy to look at a strip of half-built storefronts and assume the plaza is struggling to hold onto tenants. The opposite pattern is what actually happened here. Every space that emptied out, whether through a national bankruptcy, a corporate consolidation, or a five-year lease simply running its course, got claimed again within months, and in the biggest case, got claimed by a tenant that chose to expand rather than shrink.
That is not a story about vacancy. It is a story about two shopping centers on the same road sorting themselves in opposite directions. Waterside is trading general-interest tenants for Restoration Hardware galleries and designer boutiques. Park Shore Plaza picked up the tenant that no longer fit that mix and gave it more room than it had before. The next time you are circling for a parking spot near The Fresh Market and wondering why there is scaffolding again, that is the answer. The plaza is not thinning out. It is being rebuilt around fewer, larger, more committed tenants, and that is a different thing entirely.
Work With Kim
Curious how retail shifts like this one connect to what is happening with home values and buyer interest in Park Shore right now? The Kim Price Group tracks the neighborhood at street level, not just on paper. Work With Kim — Request a Private Consultation.
