Drive past the Bonita Bay gate on Tamiami Trail this fall and nothing will look different. The palms are the same, the guardhouse routine is the same, the shopping center at the corner is running its usual season hours. Inside the gates, the 2026–2027 season is the first one that runs on a decision residents made in May, not one the original developer made in the 1980s.
That decision was a $110 million clubhouse project. It is the visible piece of a quieter pattern that already explains why the marina, the restaurant, and the calendar behave the way they do here.
The Vote Behind The Season
On May 4, 2026, Bonita Bay Club members approved a landmark $110 million clubhouse project, described by the club as a significant milestone in its ongoing evolution. It is the final phase of a broader, multi-decade transformation that began when members acquired the club from its original developer in 2010. Since that acquisition, members have put roughly $250 million of capital back into the property.
The new building will be 140,000 square feet, designed in a Florida coastal style, built in two phases on the 2,400-acre main campus in Bonita Springs. It follows the 2024 completion of a clubhouse project on the club's Naples campus, so this is the second half of a book, not a first draft. Employee facilities will grow by 500 percent, which is the operational detail members will feel in service speed long before they see it in a photo.
What Members Actually Get Back For $110 Million
The building program is specific enough to plan around:
- An expanded 55th Hole restaurant with indoor and outdoor dining and an integrated sushi bar
- The Sunset Lounge for casual drinks and light bites
- A rooftop bar with sweeping views of the golf courses and the Gulf of Mexico
- A grand ballroom for 360 with a dance floor and band setup, doubling as a daily card room
- Three full-service kitchens and a lower-level parking garage
CEO and General Manager Fred Fung framed the vote around identity rather than amenities:
"This project is far more than a new clubhouse — it reflects our identity as a member-owned club and the commitment to continuous reinvestment in our amenities."
The practical answer to the question every member will ask is that member access to amenities and dining will continue during the two-phased construction. The season does not go dark while the cranes are up.
Why The Marina And The Restaurant Read Differently In July Than In February
Most gated communities in Southwest Florida contract out both their food and their docks. Bonita Bay did not. The Bonita Bay Marina is resident-owned, and a restaurant, a luxury boat club, and two charter boat companies operate out of it. That ownership structure is why dry storage, wet slips, a boat launch, bait, fuel, the ships store, and on-site repair stay running through the slow months when a third-party operator would trim hours.
The same logic explains the schedule at Backwater Jack's. Beginning May 7, 2026, the restaurant runs Thursday through Saturday, 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., with happy hour from 3:00 to 6:00 offering $2 off wines by the glass, drafts, and house liquors. Compressed hours at a corporate concession are a signal that the owner is protecting a P&L. Compressed hours here are a scheduling choice made by the same people who eat there in July.
The math on Jack's Pack, the dining rewards program, exists for that reason. For $500 plus tax annually, members get 10 percent off all food and beverage including in-home catering, a $150 beverage credit, 10 percent off the Marina Ships Store, and 2 percent off marine gasoline, plus access to a members-only reservations portal that lets them request a seating area in season. A household that eats there twice a month and buys fuel for a boat clears the fee well before Thanksgiving.
Chef Cory Bass, known around the marina as CBASS, has been running the menu for years, and seasonal changes tend to show up as specific dish swaps rather than sweeping rewrites. Current summer standouts include grouper skewers marinated in ghost chili tequila and smoked sea salt, and a mixed-greens salad with pecan, apple, and chèvre in a warm pancetta vinaigrette. A few practical resets worth remembering if it has been a while: the restaurant is cashless, a 3 percent credit-card surcharge applies, and a 20 percent service fee is added to all checks.
The Season Calendar Already Taking Shape
Four dates and locations are worth blocking off now, because reservations, seating, and parking get tighter as season loads in.
Late April On The Har-Tru
The FineMark Women's Pro Tennis Championship returns to Bonita Bay Club April 27 through May 3, 2026. The draw pulls in players working their way to the tour, more than 20 of whom have played in a US Open, and the prize-money gap between here and a Grand Slam first round is what keeps the field strong. For a resident who lives a few minutes from the courts, watching a future top-100 player without a stadium markup is one of the amenities that does not appear on any brochure.
January On The Sabal
On Sunday, January 12, the fourth annual Lee Health Charity Golf Tournament was held on the newly redesigned Sabal Course at the Naples campus. The sold-out event raised $111,000 for the Lee Health Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation. The Sabal is one of the two Tom Fazio courses at the intimate Naples club, which sits inside the world's first private 36-hole Audubon International Signature Sanctuary. Season 2026–2027 is the first full one in which the redesign is broken in.
February On The Docks
The 2026 Bonita Bay Marina Boat Show, presented with Fish Tale Boats, runs February 20–22 at 27598 Marina Pointe Drive. Admission and parking are free, the community gate will direct traffic if you say you are heading to the show, and Saturday afternoon from 4 to 6 the marina hosts a street party with live music and complimentary beer, wine, and appetizers from Backwater Jack's. The New Grady-White 340 Express and the new twin-engine Premier 270 Intrigue RF are on the display list.
Saturday Mornings At The Promenade
The Promenade at Bonita Bay, at 26795 South Bay Drive, holds up in summer better than most Southwest Florida shopping addresses because its Saturday morning traffic is driven by something residents actually use. The Saturday farmers market brings local vendors, produce, bakery items, fresh fish, empanadas, and, most weeks, an on-site knife sharpener. DeRomo's Gourmet Market anchors the food side of the center with fresh pasta, mozzarella made on site, olive oils, and an Italian wine selection. Promenade season hours run 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 5:00 p.m. Sunday from November 1 through April 30.
A Practical Note For Members Heading Into Fall
Two small readings tell you how the season is going to feel inside the gates. The first is whether member dining stays fluid during the clubhouse build, since the two-phase design is the club's answer to that question. The second is whether the calendar fills earlier than usual, given that a $110 million construction announcement tends to draw member guests who want to see the site before it changes. Book restaurants and courts sooner rather than later, and treat the boat show weekend and the tennis week as anchor dates the rest of the schedule builds around.
The through-line across all of it is the ownership structure. The club is member-owned. The marina is resident-owned. The restaurant is run as an amenity of that marina. When members vote to spend $110 million on a clubhouse, they are voting on their own service standard for the next twenty years. Season 2026–2027 is the year that standard becomes visible on the ground.
If you own inside Bonita Bay and want a discreet read on how these community changes may affect your property's positioning, or you are simply weighing options within the gates for the years ahead, Chiodo Group is glad to walk the neighborhoods and the amenities with you at the pace this season allows.
