The banyan tree at 27381 Old 41 Road now carries 54 lights, and the oak beside it has four more. Both are synchronized with a new splash pad that brings together 74 lights and nozzles, with four 360-degree speakers set around the fountain's edge. The pad is built for daytime play and for choreographed evening shows, and the City of Bonita Springs holds its official ribbon cutting for Banyan Square tonight, Thursday, October 29, at 7:30 p.m., after sunset.
Downtown Bonita Springs has plenty of places to spend an evening, but most of them are restaurants and bars. Banyan Square is the first new public space downtown designed as much around what it does after dark as around what it does at midday. For the next several months it is also the one finished piece of downtown's public spaces, while the larger projects around it run on longer timelines.
Six Feet by Day, Twenty Feet by Night
According to the City's announcement, the fountain has two modes. During daytime "play fountain" hours, water sprays reach up to six feet. For evening performances, the water reaches up to 20 feet. The nozzles can fire individually or in groups to make what the City calls "sculptural water patterns," lit by RGBW color lighting and choreographed to music.
The same hardware does both jobs. At midday it's a place for kids to run through low sprays, and after dark the sprays are more than three times as tall and work with the lit banyan as a backdrop. Because the tree lights are synced to the fountain, the square's best-known landmark becomes part of the show.
The water is treated with an integrated filtration and chlorination system that the City describes as comparable to those used in community pools. Wright Construction Group built the splash pad, and its project scope also covered restrooms, lighting, irrigation and walking paths around the parcel.
What's Open Now and What's Still Behind the Fence
The grounds came first. A local report published October 23 said Banyan Square was open to the public with new landscaping, pavement, shaded picnic tables, restrooms and uplighting around the banyan.
The same report said the splash pad itself was still behind a temporary fence waiting for final approval, and that it was expected to open soon. The City's October 22 notice had announced a 10-minute Halloween fountain show every night of the Happy Haunts stroll. If you're going tonight, plan on the grounds, the lit tree and the ceremony. Treat play in the water as something that depends on when the final approval comes through.
For questions about splash pad hours, rules or future fountain shows, the City's ribbon-cutting announcement lists 239-949-6262.
Halloween Was the First Rehearsal
The City scheduled Banyan Square's opening for the middle of Happy Haunts, its free, family-friendly Halloween stroll. The stroll runs October 22 through October 31, and the décor stays lit from 5:30 to 10 p.m. each night. It includes Halloween music, video projections, lighting and photo spots.
The stroll uses the new square as its starting point. As the October 23 report described it, a walk through it currently goes like this:
- Banyan Square. Inflatable decorations, projections, animatronics, and lawn games for kids such as chess and ring toss, all set against the lit banyan.
- Riverside Park, beside the train tracks. That edge of the park has colored lighting, more inflatables and more animatronics.
- The Liles Hotel. At the river end of the walk, the historic hotel is lit with projections and Halloween decorations.
Happy Haunts doesn't hand out candy or offer trick-or-treating. That's a separate event, Trick or Treat on Old 41, on Saturday, October 31, from 5 to 8 p.m. Old 41 will be closed to traffic from 4 to 9 p.m. that night, so driving through downtown on Halloween evening will need a different route.
Downtown businesses took part as well. The City invited them to decorate their storefronts and judged the entries on October 22. Winners will be announced at the November 4 City Council meeting. Last Saturday's Nightmare on Old 41 linked six venues by free trolley: Chartreuse, Hide-A-Wai, Rooftop at Riverside, Canary Club, Sugarshack Downtown and Mari Restaurant. Before the new square opened, those venues already gave downtown its evenings. Now the walk between them goes past a public plaza designed to light up at the same hours.
Why This One Square Carries Downtown This Winter
Banyan Square is one of three downtown projects the City and its partners have underway. The other two are a long way from finished.
| Project | Where it stands | What the published timeline says |
|---|---|---|
| Banyan Square and splash pad | Grounds and restrooms open; splash pad awaiting final approval as of October 23 | Ribbon cutting October 29, 2026 |
| Riverside Park, phase two | Under construction since the second week of April 2026 | City lists construction as April through November 2026, completion targeted for winter 2026 |
| Imperial 41 on the former Bamboo Lot | Under construction as of June 2026 | Commercial spaces delivered to tenants for interior buildouts in summer 2027 |
Riverside Park has been closed for phase two since April. During construction, the City has pointed event organizers to the Liles Hotel Plaza and the green space between the hotel and the park. The City hasn't posted a firm reopening date. Its approved special events list does place several December events in the park, including the Stardust Memories Big Band on December 8, the Bonita Springs Concert Band on December 13 and a Christmas Eve candlelight service on December 24. Kris Kringle Village is set for the Liles Hotel on December 12 and 13, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Those dates show where the City expects things to happen. Whether the park is back in full use by then depends on when phase two actually finishes.
Imperial 41 is the bigger change, and it's further out. Barron Collier Companies' June 2026 announcement describes about 19,000 square feet of commercial space and 120 rental residences on both sides of the Imperial River. The first signed tenants are Oberweis Ice Cream and Dairy, Simple Beauty Studio, Old Bonita Surf Shop and The Brass Alligator. Summer 2027 is when those businesses get their spaces to start interior buildouts, not when they open their doors. The City's downtown page says the project's public areas will include water access points, a fire pit, bike racks and restrooms.
So for this season, Banyan Square is the finished public space downtown. Riverside Park is getting its final work and Imperial 41 is still a construction site. That's why the City built the plaza for evening use and opened it during a nighttime stroll.
Parking for an Evening Visit
Parking downtown has changed because of the Imperial 41 work. The Bamboo parking lot stopped being available for public parking on December 1, 2025. The City lists on-street spaces and the Felt's Avenue lot as the remaining options. For tonight's ribbon cutting or a Happy Haunts walk before Saturday, arriving before the lights come on at 5:30 gives you more choice of spaces. On Halloween night, the 4 p.m. closure of Old 41 means you'll need to park off the corridor before the street shuts.
The City's Happy Haunts page is the place to check if the schedule changes this week. The Downtown Events page carries the City's construction updates for Riverside Park.
Steve Comstock has watched downtown Bonita Springs change one project at a time, and Banyan Square is the first piece residents can actually use. If you're weighing what Imperial 41 and a finished Riverside Park could mean for your home near Old 41, or planning a move between Minnesota and Southwest Florida, Comstock & Company is glad to talk it through. Let's Connect.
