Last Thursday night on Old 41, the banyan tree at the edge of downtown Bonita Springs was lit with dozens of colored lights. At its base, water rose and fell to music. The city cut the ribbon on Banyan Square and its new splash pad on October 29 at 7:30 p.m. at 27381 Old 41 Road, during the last week of its Happy Haunts Halloween Stroll. The News-Press photo gallery from that evening shows children already running through the spray, Mayor Mike Gibson at the ceremony, and a drone show overhead.
Banyan Square was built to do its main work at night. It also sits between two of Old 41's established evening spots. For the first time, downtown Bonita has a public gathering place in the middle of its after-dark blocks instead of at the edges.
A fountain designed for after dark
The city's own specs show where the effort went. By day the splash pad runs as a "play fountain," with sprays that reach up to six feet. In the evening the same nozzles can push water up to 20 feet, more than three times higher. The nozzles can be controlled one at a time or in groups to create shaped spray patterns.
The lighting is planned the same way:
- 74 lights and nozzles in the fountain itself, with RGBW color lighting controlled through a DMX system
- 54 additional lights in the banyan tree and four in the neighboring oak, all synchronized with the water
- Four 360-degree speakers around the fountain's edge, so the shows can be set to music
The water runs through an integrated filtration and chlorination system that the city compares to those used in community pools. The city's April project update listed new restroom facilities as part of the Banyan Lot work.
The first show was choreographed for Happy Haunts. That 10-minute Halloween program ran nightly from October 22 through October 31. Since the show can be reprogrammed for the season, the holidays are an obvious next occasion. Before you plan an evening around a specific show time, call the city at 239-949-6262 or check cityofbonitasprings.org.
Three addresses on one stretch of Old 41
The location matters as much as the lights. On the same stretch of Old 41 Road, the address numbers run like this:
| Address | Place | What it offers in the evening |
|---|---|---|
| 27313 Old 41 Road | Chartreuse Craft Cocktail Lounge | Craft cocktails and desserts in a 1930s, Old Florida setting; walk-ins welcome as space allows |
| 27381 Old 41 Road | Banyan Square / Splash Pad | Light-and-music fountain shows under the banyan |
| 27421 Old 41 Road | Sugarshack Downtown | Restaurant and live-music venue, with free music advertised seven nights a week |
Before Banyan Square, a night downtown usually meant picking one of these places and staying there. Now a family with grandchildren in town can split the evening. One group watches the fountain while another settles in at Chartreuse. Then everyone ends up at Sugarshack, whose own site advertised a live-music Halloween party on October 31. Chartreuse also books live music. A local events listing showed singer Sarah Hadeka there on October 2.
City leaders have said this mix is the goal. In a WINK News report on the Old 41 corridor, Mayor Gibson said the city is "always looking to keep everything balanced, something for the adults and something for the kids." He also described years of street investment meant to bring redevelopment to the corridor. "It's finally filling in," he told WINK. In the same piece, a lifelong Bonita resident named Chartreuse and SugarShack as examples of places to gather that didn't exist before. Banyan Square gives the kids' side of that balance an address between the two.
Parking has changed since last season
If you last spent an evening downtown during the 2025 season, plan to park somewhere new. The Bamboo Lot stopped serving as public parking on December 1, 2025. On-street parking and the Felt's Avenue lot are still available, and the city links a public parking map from its downtown projects page. The Bamboo Lot is now part of a public-private partnership with Barron Collier for a mixed-use development of residences, retail, offices, and public space. The plans include water access points, a fire pit, bike racks, and restrooms.
Walking along the corridor should also get easier. In May, City Council approved a $62,500 engineering design proposal for a crosswalk on Old 41 between Tennessee Street and Packinghouse Lane, just south of the Oak Creek Bridge. That approval covers design only. The city's announcement does not give a construction date.
December brings the park back into the picture
Banyan Square opened first, but it's one half of a pair. The city lists phase two of the Riverside Park renovation as running from April through November 2026. Its April update announced that the park would close starting the second week of April and pointed event organizers to Liles Hotel Plaza and the lawn between the hotel and the park in the meantime. The city's Riverside Park page gives a "late fall" reopening for the bandshell without a specific date. The city's event layout for the finished park labels a synthetic-turf lawn, a shade sail with a picnic table, a Holiday Tree, a Veterans 360 Bench, the Veterans Memorial, and an art sculpture.
The city's approved-events list already puts several December evenings at the park, so once it reopens, Banyan Square and the bandshell will be busy on the same nights:
- Tuesday, December 8, 7 to 9 p.m. Stardust Memories Big Band at Riverside Park
- Saturday and Sunday, December 12 and 13, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Kris Kringle Village at the Liles Hotel
- Sunday, December 13, 6 to 8 p.m. Bonita Springs Concert Band at Riverside Park
- Thursday, December 24, 6 to 8 p.m. Christmas Eve Candle Light Service at Riverside Park
All of these sit within a short walk of the banyan. Because the park's reopening date hasn't been set, check the city's special events page before heading over for the band concerts.
What fills in around it next
The corridor's next openings will add to this same stretch of evening activity.
HoneyHole Downtown. SugarShack owner Kyle Moran is planning HoneyHole Downtown, a restaurant built around live music. WINK News reports it is expected to open in early 2027. Moran told WINK he wants to combine great music, great food, and great community, "all woven into one."
Telephone North and South. Moran is also building two full-scale restaurants with indoor and outdoor dining, according to the same WINK report. Telephone North at 27550 Old 41 includes a restored 1950s telephone building. Telephone South at 27459 Ragsdale Street is planned for four restaurant and retail spaces. Both are still in progress.
Imperial 41. Barron Collier Companies' mixed-use project along the Imperial River will have about 19,000 square feet of commercial space and 120 rental residences. As reported by Florida Weekly, the first signed tenants are Oberweis Ice Cream and Dairy, Simple Beauty Studio, Old Bonita Surf Shop, and The Brass Alligator. The spaces are expected to go to tenants for interior buildouts in Summer 2027, so openings will come after that. In the same article, Kelly Kennedy, Barron Collier's director of commercial leasing, said the project will add "restaurants, retail, public green spaces, and convenient public parking."
The McSwain Home. A piece of downtown's history is moving as well. On August 18, the city's Planning & Zoning Board unanimously approved relocating the historic McSwain Home, a house more than a century old that serves as headquarters of the Bonita Springs Historical Society, as reported by the Naples Daily News. According to the Bonita Springs Historical Society, the museum and gardens will move to 26961 Pine Avenue, which keeps them within the downtown corridor.
Florida Weekly also reported that one riverfront restaurant space at Imperial 41 was still available for lease. The ice cream shop, the new live-music room, and the Telephone restaurants are all planned within a few blocks of the fountain the city lit up last Thursday.
If you're planning a December evening on Old 41 with family visiting for the holidays, or you'd like to talk about which nearby communities make downtown an easy drive, Donna Marcotte has lived in Southwest Florida since 1997 and would be glad to share what she knows about the corridor as it fills in.
