Walk to the west end of 12th Avenue South this week and the first thing you notice is the sound. No footsteps on the boardwalk, no line at the snack window, just the low grind of a barge crane working the trestle on the pier's south side. Fencing has wrapped the base of the structure since early this year. The beach on either side is doing exactly what it always has, low tide bringing out the paddleboards, gulls working the sandbar, someone walking a dog down toward Broad Avenue. The pier itself is a construction site, and it has been for a while now, but the way it actually interrupts the neighborhood's routine is narrower and more specific than the fencing suggests.
Fifty Percent, as of September 18
On September 18, 2026, Shoreline Foundation Inc completed the concrete pour for the pier's mid-Pavilion, pushing the project's own construction log past the halfway mark for total concrete pour. That log reads like a punch list stretched across most of a year:
- April 24, 2026: crews deployed 59 concrete pilings at Wasmer Reef, expanding an artificial reef site the city first established in 2015, using material recycled from the old pier itself.
- May 5, 2026: a month-long diving operation began to clear buried 1990s-era pilings and debris from the seabed, clearing the way for new pilings to go in without interference.
- June 17, 2026: crews started assembling a trestle, a bridge-like work platform on the pier's south side that lets construction continue even when rough weather sends the offshore barges looking for shelter.
- June 26, 2026: the first concrete pour for the bents, the vertical piling clusters capped by a crossbeam that will eventually carry the deck, went in at roughly 20 yards of concrete into a rebar and plywood mold.
- September 18, 2026: the mid-Pavilion pour crossed the 50 percent line for total concrete on the project.
That's a project moving in stages, not one closing in on a finish line.
Two Deadlines on the Same Project
If you've seen a completion date attached to this project, there's a good chance it was November 15, 2026. That date is real, but it isn't the one that matters for reopening. In December 2024, Naples City Council amended its contract with Naples-based engineering firm Turrell, Hall & Associates, extending the firm's design and construction-inspection contract through that date, with another 60 days built in for administrative close-out. That covers the paperwork on the engineering side of the project. It has nothing to do with the day the pier reopens to the public.
Construction itself didn't begin until the groundbreaking in January 2026, and Shoreline Foundation's contract runs on an 18-month construction window measured from that start. Even without weather delays, that math puts substantial completion somewhere in the second half of 2027, a full season past what the November date implies if you read it without the context. The pace visible in the city's own log, a first bent pour in late June and just past the halfway point on total concrete by mid-September, tracks with a project that still has real work ahead, not one approaching a ribbon-cutting.
What's Actually Closed on 12th
The closure itself is narrower than it looks from the street. The pier is off-limits, along with its stairs, restrooms, showers, and the stretch of 12th Avenue South west of Gulf Shore Boulevard South. The parking lot at that corner is split: the western third stays open to the public, and the eastern two-thirds is fenced off for staging.
Beach access hasn't gone anywhere. The city set up pedestrian bypasses at the Broad Avenue South and 13th Avenue South beach ends specifically so people could keep walking onto the sand without detouring around the entire block, and both access points have their own restrooms open for the duration of the project. For anyone whose daily walk used to end at the pier stairs, the adjustment is two blocks in either direction, not a rerouted trip across town.
The Pier That Comes Back Isn't the One That Left
When it opens, the rebuilt pier will look familiar from a distance. The final design, approved by council in March 2026, keeps the Polynesian roof lines over both the mid-point and end pavilions that have set this pier apart from others along the Florida coast. The structure will also sit higher than before, part of the effort to reduce vulnerability the next time a storm the size of Ian comes through.
One thing that isn't coming back in its old form is the fixed food concession at the midpoint. Federal regulations now bar a permanent structure built directly over the water for food service, so the approved design replaces the old concession with a portable cart instead. The new design does add something the old pier never had: an underwater camera near the end, letting anyone on the deck watch the marine life below without needing to get in the water.
Where the Old Pier Actually Went
The material that came off the pier didn't just get hauled away. City records show roughly 30 to 40 percent of the removed concrete was recycled into highway material, and a separate portion went straight back into the Gulf. The 59 pilings placed at Wasmer Reef in April weren't new material bought for the purpose. They were staged beneath the Judge S.S. Jolley Bridge off Marco Island, inspected by the Army Corps of Engineers, and then barged out to a reef site the city had already been building since 2015.
The benches got quieter treatment. Many were damaged in the hurricane, and the ones still salvageable were pulled and put into city storage before construction began. Residents and plaque owners can contact the city's Community Services department directly to arrange pickup or ask questions about a specific bench. The plaques themselves, mounted on the wall of one of the pier's facility buildings, stayed in place through the entire demolition and rebuild, and the city doesn't expect to move them once the project wraps.
For now, the neighborhood's version of a pier evening has simply shifted two blocks in either direction. Sunset from the sand at 13th holds the same line of sky the pier used to frame, and the walk in from Broad Avenue gets you to the water just as fast. The concrete keeps going up in the meantime, and the next entry in the city's log will say more about when that changes than any date still circulating from 2024.
Janine Monfort walks this stretch of Old Naples often enough to track these changes as they happen rather than when they make the news. If you're curious what's next for the pier, or anything else shifting along Gulf Shore Boulevard this season, reach out anytime.
