Gibson takes the helm: After decades of success, Bonita Downtown Alliance enters new era
Downtown Bonita Springs has come a long way since the 1990s when a Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) was formed to clean up the blighted area. At that time Old 41 Road was lined with auto repair shops and empty storefronts. There was the Driftwood Motel that was notorious for drugs and prostitution. It certainly wasn’t a place for families to enjoy or for people to wander downtown for food or drinks.
A lot has changed since then and now a new era is beginning as Mike Gibson takes the reins as the new president of the Bonita Springs Downtown Alliance. The Alliance was formed in 2016 with John Paeno heading the group. Trish Leonard just finished her term, making Gibson the third person in the leading role.
Gibson, a New Jersey native, has been a Bonita resident since 1994, but had been coming to town for years before that to visit his grandparents. His uncle created Engel’s Bicycles on Old 41 in 1994 and Gibson now runs the place.
Over the past three decades Gibson has seen great changes on the road where he works.
“There is new development, and the people that are coming in are getting stuff done,” Gibson explained. “For a lot of years the property owners would share plans and would say they were just waiting for something to happen. So nobody ever built or did anything. But when the city invested tens of millions in making the new road and new drainage, things changed. The city redid the road and then we started getting some smaller investments like the downtown coffee house and the apartments on Dean Street bringing more people in the area, and now we are getting the bigger stuff going.”
They have built it and now the people will come. That is what is happening. In mid-October a fall festival attracted thousands of people to Riverside Park and the nearby artist’s cottages. Children decorated pumpkins and went trick or treating in the park. On Halloween more than 2,000 people wandered up and down the street collecting candy from local businesses.
Gibson loves seeing these crowds coming to the downtown area, and he is excited to see all the new businesses. The old Colonial Bank, that stood empty for years on the corner of Old 41 and Bonita Beach Road, was renovated and modernized and is now home to a series of businesses and restaurants.
“Waffle Monkey, when they first opened I ate there every day until I had tried everything,” Gibson gushed.
He is also excited to see the new Sugar Shack being constructed.
Gibson wants his presidency to be focused on keeping the momentum going.
“I just want to continue on the momentum that Trish built,” Gibson began. “She has grown it tremendously. It just needs to be a meeting place and a forum for all the downtown businesses to help each other out.”
The new president wants to continue to have monthly meetings with speakers that will help local businesses.
“We try to have speakers that have something people should know about like the tax collector, mosquito control, the fire district, the YMCA,” he said.
Future speakers include the executive director of the Everglades Wonder Gardens and the new leader of Arts Bonita.
He also wants to reach out more to current and future members.
“The big thing is making sure the members know what is going on in the community, so they can give feedback and show their interest in the area,” he said.
Gibson has a long history in this community.
“My grandparents were down here in the 70s,” he recalled. “We would come down in October. There was the Wonder Gardens and the Shell Factory. I remember going there as a kid.”
He went to University of Florida where he studied engineering and business. He married his wife Bobbie and they have four children. Being a leader is nothing new for Gibson who served on the Bonita Springs City Council from 2014-2022.
Trish Leonard, the Alliance’s past president, says it is his knowledge of the community and his leadership experience that will make him a great person to take over the reins.
“He has been in Bonita Springs for quite some time so he is a local,” Leonard began. “He is a former council person so he knows community law and the rules of Bonita Springs. He will pick a different style, and I think that is great. Being a business owner on Old 41 helps because he sees everything that happens downtown. Since he has been around for so long, it is going to help the organization grow. New ideas help. There are so many cool things happening downtown, that it will be interesting.”
Gibson is proud to be part of the cool things that are happening downtown and he’s happy to be leading the way to an even better future for the area.
I just want to see a walkable livable area, and we are already seeing that,” Gibson said. “We are seeing more people with kids. We are seeing more people walking their dogs, pushing their strollers with kids in them and going to the coffee shops. It is changing.”
He knows there is still a lot more to come. The big Barron Collier project at the old Bamboo Village will start in another year or two. There will be more residential units being built and more shops and restaurants coming to the area.
“It is not always the end result,” Gibson stressed. “The journey is part of the fun.”
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This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: After decades of success, Bonita Downtown Alliance enters new era
