"We want to be the new Cheers of downtown," marketing director Jeremy Christenson said when The G Spot and its attached ghost kitchen, Chef & Co., opened at 2400 First St. this past winter. The bar has 24 beer taps and a 98-inch television, and it took over a space that Voodoo Brewing Co. occupied from May 2024 to April 2025.
That corner isn't an outlier. Look at three of the most talked-about storefronts in the River District right now and a pattern shows up fast. The tenants keep changing. The type of operator taking the lease does not.
The Corner Next to the Library
The space beside the Fort Myers Regional Library was home to Voodoo Brewing Co. from May 2024 to April 2025. The G Spot and Chef & Co. followed, opening in late December 2025 with a full liquor bar, eight TVs, two dartboards, indoor shuffleboard, and a Golden Tee machine.
Chef & Co., the food half of the operation, isn't run by the bar. It's a separate, made-to-order kitchen owned by Naser Abuoqab, whose family immigrated from Palestine to LaBelle more than three decades ago and who already runs a taco restaurant called Fiesta off State Road 29 in LaBelle. He described the new spot as a launching pad for smash burgers and gourmet bar food built on a background of tacos. That's not a stranger betting on downtown Fort Myers. That's an operator with an existing customer base testing a second stage.
The Waterfront Table That Outlived Two Restaurants Already
A few blocks over, at 2024 W. First St. overlooking the Caloosahatchee, the turnover math looks completely different. The original Chart House opened there in 1984 and ran for nearly two decades before Joe's Crab Shack took over the lease in 2003. Joe's Crab Shack held the space for 22 years, closing in 2025 when its lease expired. Forty-one years, two tenants, one address.
The next occupant is Nellie's Boatyard, planned to open in late 2026 under restaurateur Leonard Lemmer. Lemmer isn't new to the area or the business. He already runs Cantina Laredo in Fort Myers, Nervous Nellie's on Fort Myers Beach, and Walk-On's Sports Bistreaux in Cape Coral. In July 2026, after 12 years of leasing the Nervous Nellie's property, he bought it outright. He's said he plans to bring some of that menu's popular dishes to the new waterfront spot. A restaurant industry report on the project noted Lemmer described it as revitalizing a site with a storied history rather than starting from scratch.
The Brewery That Skipped the Getting-Known Phase
The third address, on First Street, previously housed 10 Twenty Five restaurant. Its replacement is a downtown satellite taproom from Point Ybel Brewing Co., a Sanibel-inspired brewery that has been pouring beer in Fort Myers since 2013. Head brewer and co-owner Jordan Weisberg had targeted an end-of-March 2026 opening for the 2,300-square-foot space, which was set to carry 17 taps and live music. Check-ins on the beer-tracking app Untappd show the downtown location was up and running under the name "Point Ybel Brewing Co. - Downtown Fort Myers" by late June, a few months past that original target but open well ahead of the fall season now underway.
Weisberg's read on why his brand can expand while beer sales nationally were down about 5% in 2025 is worth sitting with. In a piece covering the expansion, he said he sees the slump as more of a market correction than a downward spiral, and pointed out that a lot of the breweries that opened during the boom weren't prepared for what happened to the market because they leaned on marketing plans instead of business plans. His own brewery, thirteen years in, is the one being handed the higher-visibility lease.
| Address | Previous tenant | New tenant | Operator's other local ties |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2400 First St. | Voodoo Brewing Co. (2024-2025) | The G Spot & Chef & Co. | Chef & Co. owner also runs Fiesta in LaBelle |
| 2024 W. First St. | Joe's Crab Shack (2003-2025) | Nellie's Boatyard (late 2026) | Owner also runs Cantina Laredo, Nervous Nellie's, Walk-On's Cape Coral |
| First St. corridor | 10 Twenty Five | Point Ybel Brewing downtown taproom | Original Point Ybel location has operated since 2013 |
What the Three Deals Have in Common
Each of these storefronts went to an operator with an existing business elsewhere in Southwest Florida. Abuoqab has Fiesta in LaBelle, Lemmer has Cantina Laredo, Nervous Nellie's, and Walk-On's, and Point Ybel has been brewing in Fort Myers since 2013. For the River District, that means the newest names on First Street come with a track record a short drive away, and regulars may already know the menus.
What That Means for the Fall Calendar
All three addresses sit inside the walking loop for two of downtown's regular monthly events. Art Walk runs the first Friday of the month, with October's edition set for October 2 and November's for November 6. Music Walk follows on the third Friday, October 16 and November 20. Both are listed on the River District's own event calendar, which also shows Forever Everly running at the Caloosa Sound Amphitheater from September 15 through October 25, and CAKE playing the amphitheater on October 24, the night before that Everly run wraps.
If you're planning a fall Friday downtown, that's a real stretch to work with. Grab a beer at Point Ybel's taproom before an Art Walk stop, catch a set at Caloosa Sound, and swing by the library corner for whatever The G Spot has on the big screen that night. By the time Nellie's Boatyard opens its doors on the waterfront later this year, it'll be one more stop on a loop that's already running.
If you're tracking what's opening, closing, and changing hands along First Street for reasons that go beyond a night out, Kona Realty keeps an eye on the River District block by block. Reach out if you want the read on what these shifts mean for the corridor.
