In March 2022, the Southwest Florida Event Center reopened with a Beatles tribute by a supergroup that included Todd Rundgren and Christopher Cross. Florida Weekly reported that the show sold out in 15 minutes. The relaunch was short-lived. The building on the southeast corner of Bonita Beach Road and Imperial Parkway went back on the market and has hosted no regular performances in the years since.
Its next act is a cabaret. Voulez-Vous Naples is a Mediterranean dinner-and-performance venue going into 11515 Bonita Beach Road SE. It was expected to open in November, but the date has moved. A project spokesperson told the Business Observer on Oct. 28 that the opening "initially scheduled for November, has been pushed back to January."
The building was built out for performance and hard to use for anything else. The buyer who finally took it on is keeping it a stage.
A Drugstore That Never Opened Became a Concert Hall
The building started as an Eckerd pharmacy. Gulfshore Business reported that it was sold before it ever opened as a drugstore. In 2016 it became the Southwest Florida Performing Arts Center. According to the Business Observer, entrepreneur Brian Spina spent about $7 million converting it into a concert space. That is four times the $1.75 million the property sold for in July 2013, according to property records cited by Gulfshore Business.
Under its later name, the Southwest Florida Event Center, the hall drew national touring acts. Florida Weekly lists Melissa Etheridge, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, America and Sister Hazel among them. The Business Observer adds Amy Grant and Toad the Wet Sprocket. It also worked as a gala room. Gulfshore Life's 2019–2020 social calendar listed the Secret Garden Gala there, benefiting Kids' Minds Matter, at $500 a ticket with a cocktail dress code.
Jennifer and Richard Shanahan owned the building. Gulfshore Business reported that they never meant to run the venue themselves. They took over operations after their original tenant left the lease about a year after they bought it. On May 6, 2020, with the pandemic halting live music, they announced the business would close.
Why the Building Was Hard to Sell
The 2022 comeback had some real high points. A Phil Vassar soft opening on March 19 benefited The St. Jude's Children Center, and the Rubber Soul and Revolver tribute followed on March 25. That April, the News-Press reported a three-hour private show for employees of South Florida Gas, featuring ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons and 38 Special's Don Barnes.
Regular shows didn't last. Gulfshore Business later reported that the venue had not held a concert since the Rundgren show in April 2022. It was on the market again, with a Melissa Etheridge date booked as her fourth appearance there. In the same story, Matt Simmons, a property appraiser with Maxwell, Hendry & Simmons, explained why selling it would be hard:
"What it represents now is a special-use property. In its current physical configuration, it doesn't fit easily into any of the traditional asset class categories [retail, office, industrial]. The ideal buyer would be someone who wants to use that property consistent with how it's been built out. That can be a difficult buyer to find though."
Simmons said the building could be converted back to retail after a sale. That didn't happen. In December 2023, an LLC connected to Compass Management of Clarendon Hills, Illinois, bought the complex from the Shanahans for $2.5 million, according to Lee County property records cited by the Business Observer. That price is closer to the 2013 sale than to the roughly $7 million spent on the conversion. The buyer turned out to be the kind Simmons described, someone who wants to use the stage as it was built.
The Buyer Wants an Evening, Not a Concert Calendar
Compass Management belongs to Roy Dobrasinovic, a Chicago trucking and transportation entrepreneur. The Business Observer reports that he has called Florida home for more than 20 years. He told the paper by email that the concept pairs "fine dining and cocktails with an immersive, approximately three-hour show featuring singers, dancers, aerialists and live music in a spectacular, theatrical setting," and that "residents can enjoy the kind of evening they might otherwise travel to Las Vegas, New York or London to experience."
That is a different model from the one that came before. The event center depended on booking touring acts. In 2022, Jennifer Shanahan described the plan to Florida Weekly as "a couple of shows a week as opposed to 14 days straight like we used to." Voulez-Vous will produce its own show and plans to repeat it. Gulfshore Business reported an earlier plan for dinner shows on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. That plan came before the delay, and the venue's own site doesn't list show nights yet.
The seating has changed with each era:
| Era | Configuration | Reported capacity |
|---|---|---|
| Southwest Florida Event Center, before 2020 | Concert seating | 662 seats |
| 2022 relaunch | Tables removed for distancing | 458 seats |
| Voulez-Vous Naples | Main room plus lounge | About 350 plus about 170 |
The total is close to the relaunch number, but the setup is different. Voulez-Vous splits the space into two rooms. According to the venue's site, the Glamour Room will combine Mediterranean-inspired dining with live performance, and the Lounge will be for music and cocktails. Gulfshore Business quoted earlier website copy describing a lounge for 150 with a celebrity booth, four LED screens and a stage for live DJ sets. The current site says about 170.
What Is Confirmed as of Early November
According to the Oct. 19 announcement described by the Business Observer and the venue's own page, the following details are set:
- Format: an evening in three parts, "The Table, The Show and The Night," combining Mediterranean-inspired cooking, live performance and international DJs
- Age policy: 21 and over
- Dress code: "elegant with a touch of glamour"
- Private use: birthdays, anniversaries, corporate gatherings and launches, with partial and full venue buyouts planned
- Menus: kitchen and bar previews are posted on the Voulez-Vous Naples page
- Reservations: currently an email inquiry with your preferred date and party size, with online booking details to follow
There is no fixed opening day, chef, ticket price or show schedule yet. On the delay, Dobrasinovic told the Business Observer, "Construction delays and scheduling adjustments are never ideal, but they're part of bringing a project of this scale to life."
The venue carries the Naples name, but it is in Bonita Springs, at the same corner the concert hall used. The venue's site says it will welcome guests from Naples, Estero and Fort Myers. Dobrasinovic also plans a second location, Voulez-Vous Chicago, in Willowbrook, Illinois, Gulfshore Business reported. For now, the place to look is the Bonita Beach Road building, which last held performances in 2022 and is due to reopen in January.
A building like this, sold for well under what its conversion cost and then kept in the use it was built for, shows how special-purpose property trades in Southwest Florida. If you would like to talk through how a property's buildout affects its value and its likely buyers, Amy Nease is glad to help. Request a private consultation.
