Drive east on Pine Ridge Road toward Airport-Pulling and you will pass a parking lot that has spent the better part of a decade being one thing at a time. Winn-Dixie. Then Bed Bath & Beyond. Then nothing, for a few years, while the sign came down and the windows went dark. If you live in Pine Ridge Estates, you have probably driven past that empty anchor box more times than you can count, wondering what would eventually fill it.
The answer arrived this year, and it is not what the plaza's history would suggest. The box did not get one big replacement tenant. It got carved into pieces.
The Math Behind the Sprouts Sign
Ridgeport Plaza, on the northwest corner of Airport-Pulling and Pine Ridge roads, was built in the late 1980s with Winn-Dixie as its anchor. That grocery store held the space until 1995, when Bed Bath & Beyond moved in and stayed for close to three decades. When Bed Bath & Beyond closed a few years back, the plaza was left with a vacancy of more than 45,000 square feet, the kind of gap that usually waits years for a single big-box tenant willing to take on that much space at once.
Instead, Sprouts Farmers Market opened there on May 15, holding a ribbon cutting at 6:45 in the morning before opening its doors at 7, according to the company's own opening announcement. It is the Phoenix-based chain's second Collier County location, following the 2019 store at Logan Landings. What is worth noticing is the size: the new Airport-Pulling store measures 24,491 square feet, smaller than the 29,843-square-foot Logan Landings location.
Sprouts did not take the whole box. Golf Galaxy is moving in next door, relocating from its freestanding building at the Promenade at Naples Centre into a 20,780-square-foot inline space. The move was targeted for the third week of August, which puts it right around now if the timeline held, according to Gulfshore Business reporting on the plaza's tenant plans. That new footprint is more than 40 percent smaller than the retailer's previous 35,355-square-foot store.
Add the two footprints together: 24,491 plus 20,780 comes to 45,271 square feet, almost exactly the size of the original vacant anchor. The plaza did not lose retail space. It just stopped handing that space to one tenant and started handing it to two, with a third moving in a few doors down. If you are timing a Saturday run to this corner, that distinction matters more than it sounds like it should. One big-box trip has become a short walk between two or three separate storefronts sharing the same parking lot.
The Other New Faces at Ridgeport Plaza
The subdivision does not stop at groceries and golf clubs. A few doors south of the new Sprouts, Max's Natural Pet Market & Salon is building out the space at 5327 Airport-Pulling Road, a storefront that spent years as Before & After Salon & Spa. Its target opening was early June, and by late August the store should be up and running as the sixth Florida location for the brand, which also operates near Topgolf in Fort Myers.
None of this is happening in isolation. A short drive south, land clearing began in late February for a new 8,600-square-foot retail strip anchored by a Dunkin' drive-thru, on a two-acre parcel near Collier Boulevard and Pine Ridge Road, tucked between the existing VFW Golden Gate Post 7721 and a retail strip that includes World Bakery & Cafeteria. It will be the 28th Southwest Florida location for local franchisee Michael Koroghlian.
So the corridor you use to reach Waterside Shops, Mercato, or the beach is quietly picking up more individual stops, each smaller than what used to occupy that same ground.
A 45,000-square-foot box did not shrink. It just picked up two more doors.
The Road Getting You There Is Also Torn Up
Here is the part that actually affects your week more than any single storefront. According to the Pine Ridge Civic Association's own community updates, construction continues on the I-75 and Pine Ridge Road interchange, with lane shifts and temporary closures that residents are advised to plan around.
For anyone in Pine Ridge Estates heading east toward I-75, whether for a grocery run, a golf club fitting, or just passing through on the way to Fort Myers, that stretch of Pine Ridge Road is the same corridor carrying you past Ridgeport Plaza. The retail changes and the road work are not separate stories happening to overlap by coincidence. They are the same stretch of pavement, doing two things to your errand timing at once: more stops packed into one lot, and less predictable travel time getting there.
If you have found yourself sitting through a longer light cycle near Airport-Pulling lately, or noticed cones where there used to be an open lane, that is not a one-off. It is an active project the Civic Association is tracking and posting updates about, which is worth a look before you plan anything that depends on a tight schedule.
What Actually Changes for Your Week
Put the two pieces together and the practical shift is this. The old routine of one big stop at a single anchor store is giving way to a short sequence of smaller ones inside the same lot, produce and grass-fed beef at Sprouts, a fitting or new set of clubs at Golf Galaxy, food and grooming supplies at Max's a few doors down. None of that requires a separate trip across town. It requires parking once and walking further than you used to inside a single plaza.
What it does require is a little more slack in your timing on the drive there, since the interchange work means the corridor itself is less predictable right now than the stores sitting along it. If your Saturday used to start with a quick in-and-out at the old Bed Bath & Beyond, it is worth budgeting a bit more time this fall, both for the extra stop and for the road getting you there.
Pine Ridge Estates has always had this particular rhythm: no gate, no HOA fee running into the thousands, and a location that puts you close to everything without putting you in the middle of it. The plaza at Airport-Pulling and Pine Ridge has been part of that backdrop for decades, first as a grocery store, then as a home goods chain, and now as three smaller businesses sharing ground that used to belong to one. The neighborhood around it has not changed. What is inside the box, and how long it takes to get there, has.
If you are watching this corner change and wondering what it means for your own address, or you are weighing a move into Pine Ridge Estates and want someone who tracks these shifts as they happen, Matt Bianchini would be glad to talk through it. Let's Connect.
