Brooks Burgers Couldn't Buy Its Downtown Building. Now It Has to Reinvent a Block Four Bars Just Left.

"Our lease is up and downtown is sold," Todd Brooks told Gulfshore Business this fall. "We, basically, have 60 days to move. So, I'm pretty jammed up and between a rock and a hard place."

The burger place on Ninth Street South with the airplanes inside has to be out of 330 Ninth St. S. by Nov. 30. The one-story, multitenant building on U.S. 41 is nearly 60 years old. It is under contract for sale and will be torn down for redevelopment. Brooks Burgers will live on downtown as Brooks Burgers & Bar, about half a mile away at 1200 Central Ave. That is the space where The Alley and Mini Bar closed in mid-June.

At first glance this is a short move across town. The details make it something else. A restaurant that did well for more than 15 years couldn't keep up with what its own building was worth. Now it is moving onto a block where four concepts closed this summer. Whether the move works depends less on burgers than on whether a late-night block can become a place families stop for lunch.

A building that outran its tenant

Brooks meant to own his downtown spot. He had planned to buy the small multitenant building. But it went on the market for more than double what he had expected to pay, and it sold quickly for more than $5 million.

"We had planned on purchasing it but did not know that the values had gone up that fast," he said.

That gap explains what happened on Ninth Street South. A buyer paying more than $5 million for a one-story building with an aging burger restaurant in it is not paying for the restaurant. Brooks said as much himself: "I get it. It's an old building. Nobody's going to buy that and not knock it down, but it's one more part of Naples that's disappearing."

Gulfshore Business reported the contract, the demolition and the redevelopment. It did not name the buyer or say what will replace the building, so the future of that corner is still an open question.

The thing being lost is one regulars will know. "What I like about the downtown location is that we have kind of a dive feel, which I don't think you get a lot of that in Naples," Brooks said. That feel goes back further than the Brooks name. When Brooks moved from St. Louis in 2010 and took over the restaurant, it was a Lindburgers chain location. He turned it into Lindburgers & Bottles and kept the aviation theme. Later he renamed it Brooks Gourmet Burgers & Dogs, which most people just call Brooks Burgers.

The block it's moving onto

The new address has its own history. Christopher Shucart owns the city block bounded by Goodlette-Frank Road, Central Avenue, 12th Street South and First Avenue South. Until this summer it held several concepts side by side, run by CMC Hospitality. The Naples Press names its co-owners as Shucart, Marty Kenney and Christopher Lee.

Here is how the block was laid out and what happened to each piece:

Naples Daily News reported the four closures on June 17, 2026. No published account has given a reason. The block had already had trouble with the city. The Naples Press reported that the city objected to exterior signs for the different concepts. It also reported that The Alley's approval for indoor dining held up a reopening until a City Council matter was settled. That history matters, because Brooks' plans for the space also run through City Hall.

Shucart was open about not knowing at first whether one operator would take the whole block or the spaces would be leased separately.

"I wanted to find the right person, and my thought was whoever is the right person and the right concept will then dictate whether it's the whole space or whether it gets divided back up. In this case, I think this is the perfect use and concept and operator. He may end up taking District, as well, but I think this was kind of the bite-sized piece that was needed to get it in motion — kind of like eating an elephant. You've got to eat it one bite at a time kind of thing."

Brooks' first lease leaves out The District and Staff Only, and the Gulfshore Business story names no other operator for them.

A late-night block, rebuilt for families

Brooks isn't planning to run the space the way its last tenants did. "We'll also be a little more family friendly. I think we'll have a lot more kids and families come in there. It's not going to be bar-driven. We're not going to be like a nightclub with live music every night," he said.

The menu will stay close to what people know. Brooks plans to add a bar menu and a few new items, pizzas and bar appetizers among them, "so people can sit around and watch the game." Burgers stay at the center. "We'll still stay true to our core being burgers," he said. "Obviously, that's what's made us successful." Regulars who order Sandra's Hottie, named for Brooks' wife and made with bacon, herbed cream cheese, provolone and jalapeños, will be watching that promise most closely.

The room itself is the bigger task. About 70% of the seating at the new spot is outdoors. That works in January and is hard in August. Brooks wants the city to approve a palm-thatched chickee over the outdoor turf area, with cooling fans, in early 2027. "I think people like that feel of sitting under a tiki hut having a drink," he said. Until that happens, the outside "is not going to change a whole lot right away because we don't have time to plan it with the city." He doesn't like the picnic tables and wants them gone. He has decided that opening fast comes first, so they may stay for a while.

Inside, the airplanes are coming along. "Inside the Alley, we're going to make the inside part kind of look like downtown with our airplane stuff. Kind of casual," Brooks said.

The calendar between now and season

Everything depends on the next few weeks. As of Oct. 5, the reported timeline looks like this:

1. Nov. 30: Deadline for the original Brooks Burgers to be out of 330 Ninth St. S.
2. Last week of November to first week of December: Target opening for Brooks Burgers & Bar at 1200 Central Ave. "I need to hit season, so we're going to try to get it open by Dec. 1, in that general area," Brooks said. "I'm hoping to have less than two weeks of down time."
3. Early 2027: Brooks plans to seek city approval for the chickee over the outdoor seating.

These are targets, not confirmed dates. The latest version of the Gulfshore Business story is labeled updated Sept. 28, 2026. No newer public update on the move had turned up in early October. If there's a gap between closing on Ninth Street and opening on Central Avenue, the North Naples Brooks Burgers in The Pavilion shopping center, near Paragon Theaters, is still open.

Two moves driven by the same pressure

The downtown move isn't Brooks' only one coming up. He also runs Brooks Bar & Grill at Hibiscus Golf Club, off Rattlesnake Hammock Road in East Naples. That location is expected to close next year, when work starts on turning the longtime public course into The Lantern, a private club. He sold another location at Logan Landings and still licenses his name and burgers to Brooks Grill & Tavern.

In both places, a casual restaurant is giving way to a higher-value use of the land under it. On Ninth Street South, that's a teardown after a sale of more than $5 million. In East Naples, it's a public golf course becoming a private club. Brooks has a plan for downtown and a deadline to meet it. The one sure fact is that his dive-bar corner on U.S. 41 won't survive the redevelopment. The airplanes, the burgers and the regulars have about eight weeks to get to Central Avenue.

When a nearly 60-year-old building sells for more than its longtime tenant expected to pay, the land is usually what's being priced. If you own an older property in or near downtown Naples and want a clear view of how buyers are valuing the lot as well as the building, Dr. Frank Dittschar can take you through it calmly and in detail, in English or German. Let's Connect.