The 20,000-square-foot Sugarshack Downtown property was developed around an existing, 1943 building just across from Riverside Park at the intersection of Childers Street and Old 41 Road.
Now that former transmission shop has been transformed into a bar and gift shop filled with photos of the friends who started Sugarshack Sessions 11 years ago, a bar with an oversized guitar strings and frets embedded into its top, a merch shop and colorful statues of Sugarshack’s gnome mascot, Gnomeo.
Walk through the building’s doors, though, and you’ll find the real attraction at Sugarshack Downtown: A courtyard with oak trees springing from the pavers, donated guitars hanging everywhere, five covered pavilions, an outdoor bar and a concert stage where the Sugarshack guys plan to host live bands five days a week — plus major touring acts once or twice a month.
“We’ve always dreamt about having a venue," said Sugarshack co-founder Eddie Kopp. "The whole goal, the whole time, was to make a name for ourselves in the music industry and become a household name. And it’s starting to feel a lot more real.
“It feels like we’re closer than ever to being that. And in the digital space, we’re really close. Now bringing this into a physical reality, it’s unreal. It’s been the best week of our lives, celebrating with all our friends and family and the city.”
On this Monday afternoon, friends and Sugarshack supporters sipped wine and beer, chatted and hung out as chill reggae music played on the sound system and a gentle breeze cooled down the courtyard. In front of a large pavilion filled with concert seats, a band was setting up onstage next to a sign that said “WELCOME TO SUGARSHACK DOWNTOWN.”
Bloggers Bri and John Paul Opteyndt of SWFL Life (swfl.life) looked over a menu and planned their first meal at the place they’ve been looking forward to visiting for three years. They're both Realtors, and they see Sugarshack Downtown as another step in Bonita's growth.
“It’s so cool…” Bri Opteyndt said. “It’s been amazing watching it happen and kind of evolve into what it has become. It’s so cool to see how much of a community effort it has been.”
The Sugarshack Sessions story
YouTube channel Sugarshack Sessions started in 2014 with five friends who loved music and just wanted to shoot videos of cool bands. They filmed those laid-back concerts on the lush back deck of a small Bonita Springs house nicknamed the Sugarshack.
Fast forward 11 years, and Sugarshack has transformed into more than just a hobby or a side hustle for these guys. It’s a full-time business called Sugarshack Inc. that includes T-shirts, hats and other branded merchandise; a podcast; the independent music label Sugarshack Records (which releases free, streaming versions of the YouTube concerts); limited-seating, ticketed concerts for show tapings at The Sugarshack; and — now — a new restaurant/concert venue in downtown Bonita Springs.
“It started with local artists,” Kopp told The News-Press and the Naples Daily New in 2023. “Me and Alex (co-founder Alex Casement), we were in bands. So we started with bands that we had played with … and our friends, whether it was locally or regionally in the state of Florida.”
Since then, the Sugarshack Music Channel has grown to 509,000 subscribers on YouTube, plus another 18,500 followers on TikTok. The YouTube channel has racked up more than 500 million total views and counting, said co-founder Alex Casement.
More about Sugarshack Sessions:YouTube hit keeps growing with Bonita Springs venue, spinoff channel
In all, more than 300 local, regional and touring musical acts have performed on that cottage's back deck surrounded by palm trees, string lights and tiki torches. The biggies have been largely reggae and reggae-rock acts, including SOJA, Big Mountain, Rebelution and Fortunate Youth (that band’s performance of “Burn One” has scored 17 million views so far). But they’ve also filmed folk, acoustic, indie, hip-hop and other genres — more than 2,000 concert videos posted since Sugarshack started in 2014.
Now Casement sees the new venue as a way to give back to all the bands and the people who have made Sugarshack Sessions such a success.
“It’s been really special,” Casement said. “We’ve had this amazing online community for so many years. And it’s finally a way for us to give back to the public to come physically experience what we’ve been doing online for 11 years.”
Sugarshack Downtown's restaurant menu
Sugarshack Sessions already sells tickets for its YouTube concert tapings at the cottage, but those tickets are high-priced with very limited seating. Most shows at Sugarshack Downtown, by comparison, will be free.
“It’s a similar energy,” Alpert said. “It’s an outdoor experience that’s driven by live music, community and friendship and great food. And that’s what we have here.”
Sugarshack Downtown is more than just a concert venue, though. It’s also a restaurant with a full menu from Chef Gus Chaves, formerly of Naples’ 360 Market.
“He’s passionate,” said Sugarshack Downtown general manager/business partner Gary Rudd. “It’s just the love and energy he puts behind every dish.”
Expect lots of pizza, wraps, fresh burgers and more. But that menu will likely change based on what their customers want, said Rudd, formerly of Naples’ Celebration Park. “We’re going to evolve and grow based on what the community wants and demands.”
Maine-based chain Brickyard Hollow Brewing Co. was originally part of the project, but they’re no longer involved. That’s how Rudd and Chaves came into the picture.
They’ll be offering a healthier option for Southwest Florida diners, Rudd said, including bread made fresh every day and their own homemade pizza dough.
“We’ve got incredible food — seed-oil free,” Rudd said. “We are not gonna cook in that crappy canola oil, vegetable oil that’s killing America. We’re going to be using beef tallow, avocado oil, clarified butter — you know, back to the old roots of whole foods.”
A 'game changer' for downtown Bonita Springs
Organizers expect Sugarshack Downtown to be a big hit in Bonita and draw people from all over Southwest Florida, as well. To meet that expected demand, they’ve hired about 75 employees, including 50 full timers.
“It’s going to be a huge game changer for downtown Bonita Springs and for Southwest Florida, in general,” said Patrick Fraley of real-estate brokers IPC Naples, which helped develop the project with Sugarshack Sessions and real-estate developers Moran & Kennedy. “It’s going to be an attraction. … It’s just going to be a spot for people to come and hang out and listen to great music and good vibes.
“I think this is also a springboard for the rest of downtown Bonita Springs. Kyle (Moran of Moran & Kennedy) owns four other properties right around here, and we plan to do four to six more restaurants, full-service restaurants, in this area.”
The venue has a high-end sound system and 263 seats — about three quarters of which are under covered pavilions, including the large one in front of the concert stage.
In addition to great audio, that sound system limits how much noise can be heard by Sugarshack Downtown’s downtown Bonita neighbors, Casement said. “What we wanted to do is try to eliminate as much of the bleed that goes off of property, because we are close to residential neighborhoods and it is an outdoor venue. So we did an extensive delay speaker system throughout the property that has, essentially, cut-off points where the sound shouldn’t be traveling as far past the property.”
Sugarshack will have bands onstage five nights a week, Casement said, but they’re also bringing bigger-name acts to town for ticketed events. The first of those big acts will be happening in March, but they’re not ready to announce any names.
As for the YouTube channel, Sugarshack plans to continue filming at the Bonita cottage that gives the series its name. But they’ll also film shows at Sugarshack Downtown, too. Many of those bands will perform “double headers,” Casement said, playing the cottage one night and the venue the next.
The Sugarshack guys say they can’t wait for the first concert audiences to pour into the place. Alpert, for one, looks forward to everyone experiencing Sugarshack Downtown for a chilled-out night of great food and great music.
“In a world where we’re being divided, Sugarshack has this really unique super power of bringing people together,” he said. “And we do that through music, through great food and friendship and community.”
Sugarshack Downtown is at 27421 Old 41 Road, Bonita Springs. Learn more at sugarshackdowntown.com, facebook.com/sugarshackdowntown or instagram.com/sugarshack.
Charles Runnells is an arts and entertainment reporter for The News-Press and the Naples Daily News. To reach him, call 239-335-0368 or emailcrunnells@gannett.com. Follow or message him on social media: Facebook (facebook.com/charles.runnells.7) and Instagram (@crunnells1).