Q: Do you have any new info about Oakes Farms’ plans to rebuild on the Davis Boulevard site? – Kathy N., Naples A: Oakes Farms intends to do a lot more than rebuild its grocery store on Davis Boulevard in East Naples. Early plans show a major redevelopment with a two-story grocery store, a 12-story hotel, a 12-story residential tower, restaurants, a luxury wellness center, retail spaces and parking garages. “We’re just excited to be moving forward,” said Oakes Farms founder Alfie Oakes, who plans to incorporate some of the successful elements of his Seed to Table destination in North Naples with his longtime Oakes Farms Market, which has been shuttered since the East Naples store was flooded three years ago by Hurricane Ian’s storm surge. The expanded local market at 2205 Davis Blvd. is just part of a rezoning proposal to create a planned unit development on 5.76 acres with proposed pedestrian bridges on the second, third and fourth stories to connect buildings on both sides of Brookside Drive at Davis Boulevard. The project’s first phase would include the grocery store, a 239-room hotel with banquet space, an anti-aging cellular health clinic and restaurant and retail spaces on two parcels on the eastern side of Brookside that formerly were home to Oakes Farms Market and Salvation Army thrift stores. The second phase proposes a 186-unit tower of condominiums or apartments, a restaurant adjacent to a waterfront park and more than 60,000 square feet of retail on a former Oakes parking lot on the western side of Brookside. Both phases also include public rooftop bars and two five-level parking garages with 450 spaces each, conceptual plans show. While the two-story grocery store planned on Davis is not expected to be quite as large as Seed to Table, it most likely will be about three times as large as the original Oakes Farms Market. “I think the idea is that we would be a little smaller of a footprint than Seed to Table. I think we’re like 73,000 or 74,000 [square feet] floor space over there, like 80,000 total with all the back of the house at Seed,” Oakes said. “The retail portion of the store is probably going to be around 60,000 square feet. That could be with integrated food, concession areas similar to Seed to Table, but not necessarily. There are just a lot of ifs still. We’re in that early phase. We always kind of feel these things out. You know, Seed to Table took a long time to feel it out and get it to the right way it was going to flow. We have a lot of the same people working on this project, and it will come together.” One difference between the stores may be a greater separation of the shopping from the sit-down dining and bar areas. “We’re wanting to create an environment that’s not quite as loud as Seed to Table. We’re trying to make more of a peaceful shopping experience, I guess,” Oakes said. “The store will be two stories with more of the eating and things up on that second story. The third story would be the wellness clinic.” ...