Q: What’s happening to the Barnes & Noble building at Waterside Shops? – Starr Guimond, Naples
A: The interior and part of the exterior of the former Barnes & Noble building at Waterside Shops are being demolished to enable the buildout of that two-story space for Williams-Sonoma and Pottery Barn home furnishing stores, which are expected to relocate there later this year or early next year.
While initially believed that both national retailers, jointly owned by San Francisco-based Williams-Sonoma Inc., would each take separate floors in the freestanding outparcel at 5377 Tamiami Trail N., the building will be divided more vertically instead, according to the latest architectural plans created by Interior Architects for The Forbes Co., the Michigan-based owner of Waterside Shops. An L-shaped, 2,033-square-foot outdoor terrace with a custom pergola will be created on the second-floor of the northwestern corner for displaying patio furniture, slightly decreasing the building’s overall square footage, plans show.
While that demolition work involving a large crane towering over the corner of Waterside Shops has been highly visible lately at U.S. 41 North and Seagate Drive, many more changes are in the works and coming soon to the open-air mall, plans show.
Dior development
The most notable change to Waterside Shops’ interior involves the former inline space of Williams-Sonoma, which quietly closed in January a year ahead of its reopening in the former Barnes & Noble space with Pottery Barn, a retailer that Williams-Sonoma also owns. The interior of Williams-Sonoma’s former space and three smaller adjacent units were recently demised and demolished to make way for the launch of other new stores at Waterside.
Christian Dior, the French luxury fashion brand that has had a longtime boutique inside the nearby Saks Fifth Avenue anchor store at Waterside Shops, is taking the majority of the newly vacated space, plans show. Italian luxury brand Brunello Cucinelli is taking the remaining space.
“This is an exciting time for us. There’s a lot happening,” said Waterside Shops General Manager Nick Fabregas.
Plans filed with Collier County Growth Management show Dior will have a new 5,888-square-foot store created by combining more than a third of the former Williams-Sonoma space with adjacent units vacated by three other luxury retailers in the “E” section of the mall. Dior’s storefront will have about 145 linear feet abutting Saks, plans show.
In addition to the longtime space vacated by Williams-Sonoma, adjoining units also were freed up by stores for Italian brands Panerai watches and 120% Lino clothier recently moving across the mall to neighboring units between Santa Fe Café and Yamron Jewelers. A fourth space was created when the adjacent Anne Fontaine fashion boutique moved out of Waterside to a new location on Fifth Avenue South in Naples.
That leaves about 4,000 square feet of the former Williams-Sonoma store between Lilly Pulitzer and the future Dior boutique available for Brunello Cucinelli.
Scaling up
Demolition progress has been made on two other projects on the western edge of Waterside Shops in Pelican Bay.
Extensive demolition and buildout continues to convert a former 9,896-square-foot bank building on the corner of Seagate Drive and Myra Janco Daniels Boulevard into Eddie V’s Prime Seafood, a 361-seat restaurant with outdoor dining. The single-story site has been reduced to a metal frame to create the first regional location of Eddie V’s, an upscale brand from Florida-based Darden Restaurants, which owns and operates area locations of Bahama Breeze, The Capital Grille, Cheddar’s, LongHorn Steakhouse, Olive Garden, Seasons 52 and Yard House.
On the other side of the parking garage, the former footprint of Nordstrom department store is cleared and ready for the development of RH, formerly known as Restoration Hardware, which plans a unique one-story gallery in that open space. The California-based high-end home furnishings retail brand features furniture, lighting, textiles and decor designed for an upscale look and displayed in spaces with a luxurious wow factor.
Conceptual plans and renderings for RH show it divided into six galleries with courtyards, glass-roofed walkways and outdoor seating spaces with fountains and palm trees connecting the different areas. At the center of RH, a wine bar and restaurant are proposed beneath an elongated glass atrium. Each individual gallery also includes a skylight atop its vaulted ceilings, plans show.
The “Tim Aten Knows” weekly column answers local questions from readers. Email Tim at tim.aten@naplespress.com
