Drive east on Bonita Beach Road past the I-75 interchange and you'll pass a 68-acre construction site with a tenant roster longer than most finished shopping centers and a parking lot that's still mostly gravel and rebar. Ask three different neighbors when it opens and you'll get three different answers, because three different companies have put three different timelines on it this year.
The site is Midtown at Bonita, developed by The Zuckerman Group on the corner of Bonita Beach Road just off Interstate 75. It's been the subject of a steady drip of leasing announcements since the start of 2026, and by late August the project had reached roughly 75 percent occupancy on paper. Almost none of that is open to walk into yet.
What's Actually Signed So Far
The tenant list has grown in waves rather than one big reveal. TJ Maxx and Ulta Beauty signed in February, described at the time as pushing the retail piece toward 100,000 square feet leased. Five more names followed in June: Dana Tyler Boutique, Airport Donuts, Prime IV Hydration & Wellness, Fresh Monkee, and Mattress Warehouse. By August the full list being cited by the developer's retail partner, Torose Equities, included a mix that covers most of a normal week:
- TJ Maxx and Ulta Beauty as the anchor tenants
- Chipotle Mexican Grill, Panera Bread, The Hangry Bison, Cold Stone Creamery, Mason's Famous Lobster Rolls, Jeff's Bagel Run, Airport Donuts, and Three Sixteen Cafe for food
- Club Pilates, Good Vets, Prime IV Hydration & Wellness, Fresh Monkee, and a Pacific Dental Services office on the wellness side
- Noire the Nail Bar, SugaringLA, Dana Tyler Boutique, Mathnasium, Bonita Beach Wine & Spirits, Mattress Warehouse, Gelato & Co, LowBrow Pizza, and a UPS Store rounding out the rest
That's the kind of list that covers errands, not just outings. Scott Sherman, principal at Torose Equities, has been direct about the intent: the goal is to make Midtown "an everyday destination for locals" rather than a seasonal draw. Dana Klein, who's bringing her boutique to the project, framed it as filling a gap for "neighborhood boutiques" and a gathering spot away from downtown.
None of that tells you when to actually show up.
The Gap Between Leased and Open
Here's the part worth sitting with if you live nearby and have been watching the fencing for a year. A signed lease is not a storefront. Retail construction broke ground in November 2025. Tenants were expected to start their own buildouts in spring 2026. By June, leasing had crossed the halfway mark and openings were being described as likely "by year's end." By late August, with occupancy near 75 percent, the developer's own language had softened to "later this year," according to reporting from the Business Observer.
That's three different phrases inside eight months, each one a little vaguer than the last as the actual date got closer instead of further away, which is backwards from how most projects narrow their estimates. It's a useful reminder that a leasing percentage measures paperwork, not plywood. Every one of those tenants still has to take possession of their space, finish interior buildout, and clear inspection before a door opens to the public, and that sequence runs independently of how full the rent roll looks.
The one piece of Midtown that is finished and occupied is the residential side. Paradiso Bonita Springs, the 400-unit apartment community that anchors the project, is already open. That means there are people living inside Midtown right now, surrounded by a retail corridor that exists mostly as signed paper and unfinished buildings. If you're timing a visit around a specific coffee shop or the TJ Maxx opening weekend, the honest answer is that no source, including the developer, has put a date on any single storefront. The estimates you'll see are development-level, not store-level, which is its own signal about how much buildout is still left to do.
Two Different Rhythms on the Same Stretch of Road
Midtown isn't the only thing changing along this corridor, and it's worth separating the two stories rather than lumping them together. A few miles west, the walkable Old 41 stretch through downtown Bonita Springs has been adding independent concepts, including SugarShack's new HoneyHole Downtown, which is expected to open in early 2027 and keep that corridor's momentum going. Separately, the former Southwest Florida Event Center on Bonita Beach Road SE is being converted into Voulez-Vous Cabaret Lounge, a dinner-show venue expected to open before the end of 2026.
Those are two different kinds of nights out. Old 41 is built around small, chef-driven, walk-in spots you discover one at a time. Midtown is built around a single drive-to hub where you can hit the pharmacy, the pilates studio, and dinner without moving the car more than a few hundred feet. Neither replaces the other, and the tenant mix at each makes that obvious. Midtown's list is heavy on national chains that reward consistency, not exclusivity. That's a deliberate choice, not an accident, and it means the two stretches of Bonita Beach Road are going to keep feeling like different neighborhoods even though they're a short drive apart.
What to Actually Watch For
If you want a real signal instead of a press release date, the numbers to track are the ones that keep shifting. Reports on Midtown's total commercial footprint have ranged anywhere from roughly 175,000 to over 300,000 square feet depending on whether a given report is counting only retail and restaurant space or folding in the planned 150-to-165-room hotel and office component as well. That range narrowing is a better indicator of how close the project is to done than any single quote about grand opening timing. So is the leasing percentage itself. It moved from under half in February to about three-quarters by late August, which is real progress, even if it hasn't yet translated into a single open door.
The practical version of all this: don't plan a specific errand around Midtown yet, but don't ignore it either. The lease sheet says this corner of Bonita Beach Road is about to become one of the more used addresses in town. The construction fencing says that's still a matter of months, not weeks. Paradiso's residents are already living with both of those facts at once, which is probably the clearest read available on how this actually plays out.
If you're weighing a move to this stretch of Bonita Springs or trying to figure out how a corridor like this one affects timing and value for a specific property, Jill Nicholas can walk you through what's actually on the ground versus what's still on paper.
