If you walked Third Street South in April and haven't been back since Memorial Day, the block looks the same and reads differently. The awnings on Broad Avenue are new. A restaurant that was framed lumber in March is seating 222 people for dinner. A florist you passed for a decade is pouring champagne after five. The season crowd is gone, but the neighborhood has been busier than it looks.
Here is the thesis worth carrying on your next walk: Old Naples this summer isn't adding businesses so much as replacing them at a higher register, and the June-through-August lull is the only stretch of the year you can actually try the new ones without waiting.
The Broad Avenue Anchor
The single biggest change is one block off Third.
