The second-floor theater at Mercato has now closed twice in less than a decade. Alamo Drafthouse Cinema shut its 11 screens on September 9, 2026, in the same space where Silverspot Cinema had run for roughly a decade and a half before Alamo took over on April 29, 2024. That means Alamo's run lasted under two and a half years before the marquee went dark a second time.
What makes this closure different from the last one is timing. This isn't happening in the middle of a property-wide disruption. It's happening after one. Over the past year, Mercato finished the biggest common-area renovation in its history, and the restaurants around that renovation opened, got reviewed, and settled into the rotation. The one piece of the property that still hasn't found its footing is the same second-floor space that keeps changing hands.
The Same Footprint, Different Tenant, Same Question
Paragon Theaters, which already runs a 10-screen cinema across U.S. 41 North at The Pavilion, is working to take over the vacated space. Nothing is signed yet. Jamestown, the company that leases and manages Mercato for owner PGIM Real Estate, has confirmed a new tenant is in the works without naming one publicly.
"Entertainment continues to be an important part of our vision for the property."
That's how Jamestown spokesperson Lauren Ness described it when Alamo's closure was announced. If a deal closes, Paragon co-CEO Michael Whalen has said the target is a mid-December reopening, timed to the December 18 release of new Avengers and Dune sequels. Paragon's plan for the space includes its Axis15 tilted-screen format and Lux Box heated recliners, the same setup it already runs a few minutes away at The Pavilion.
None of that is guaranteed yet. A lease has to get signed first, and mid-December is a target, not a commitment. Right now the second floor at Mercato is empty, in a footprint that has swapped operators twice since 2023.
The Piazza Already Got Its Fix
While the theater question was still years off, Mercato spent last summer rebuilding the property's central gathering space. Construction broke ground July 23, 2025, closing the Piazza for about three months. It reopened with a grand reveal event on the evening of November 5, 2025, a coastal-themed party with live music and an open bar that also raised more than $20,000 for the Guadalupe Center, according to coverage of the unveiling.
The project was billed as tripling the size of the existing 3,000-square-foot green space, which had run from the old Bravo Italian Kitchen storefront to Narrative Coffee Roasters. The finished Piazza was reported at about 6,700 square feet, with a retractable screen for movies on the lawn, a covered stage for live performances, and new seating built to host more than 100 events a year. It was the first major upgrade to Mercato's shared outdoor space since the property opened.
The Restaurant Lineup Already Turned Over
The dining changes around that construction weren't a single addition. They were a full reshuffle that played out over roughly two years and had mostly settled by the time the Piazza reopened:
- Old Vines Naples opened in January 2024 in a storefront that had been vacant since the Stage Deli location closed years earlier.
- Waxin's Restaurang & Bar, a Swedish-American concept, opened in the former Counter Custom Burgers space and was already running by the summer of 2025.
- Violi, a 300-seat Greek restaurant from Chicago's DineAmic Hospitality, opened November 10, 2025, timed to debut right alongside the newly finished Piazza, in the space Bravo Italian Kitchen had occupied for roughly a decade before closing.
- Shake Shack was still finishing buildout nearby as of last fall, with an opening targeted before the end of 2025.
By the time Violi's doors opened next to the rebuilt Piazza, the ground floor of Mercato had already absorbed most of its turnover for this cycle.
The One Piece That Didn't Settle
Put those two timelines side by side and the current cinema gap looks different than it would on its own. The Piazza construction, the restaurant swaps, the grand reopening with its benefit for the Guadalupe Center: all of that wrapped up close to a year before Alamo's closure. Mercato had already completed its transition into the kind of property it's now marketed as, entertainment stage included, before the one thing actually built for entertainment upstairs went dark again.
That's the part worth knowing if Mercato is where you'd normally end an evening out. The dining lineup is in better shape than it's been in years, and the rebuilt Piazza has a retractable movie screen of its own for the free lawn nights Mercato already runs. What isn't there right now is the indoor theater, and whether it comes back by mid-December depends on a lease that hasn't been signed yet.
What This Actually Changes Along Livingston Road
Talis Park's own neighborhood materials route residents to Mercato for shopping, dining and entertainment, reached via Livingston Road north of Immokalee Road, the same corridor that connects the community to the rest of North Naples. It's the off-property counterpart to whatever social life happens inside the gates, the place to go for a different restaurant or a night out without leaving the immediate area.
For now, that trip looks different than it did a year ago. The Piazza is bigger, the restaurant lineup has more range, and the one thing missing is the part that used to close out the evening. If Paragon's timeline holds, the screens come back the same week two of the year's biggest franchise sequels open. If it slips, this becomes the second time this decade that the same second-floor footprint has sat empty waiting for someone to take it on.
If you're weighing what daily life along this stretch of North Naples actually looks like, from what's changed at Mercato to what day-to-day life inside Talis Park itself involves, Jay Westerlund can walk you through it directly.
