Albertsons #4479 / Naples International Pavilion / Seed to Table
4835 Immokalee Road, Naples, FL
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| Today's post is a presentation of Collier County retail |
The subject of today's post gives the phrase "Grocery Palace" a whole new meaning! I never would have guessed I would see the day when a former Grocery Palace Albertsons store would be turned into a literal grocery palace! While you won't be seeing much of the old Albertsons' Grocery Palace today, I promise everyone you won't be disappointed by what we're about to see. Seed to Table Market has made it itself a grocery destination in Southwest Florida, and even with the lack of Albertsons remnants in the present day, I will still very excited to visit this store based off what I had seen of it online. Seed to Table is a store that's rather hard to describe - I guess you could say it's like a cross between Detwiler's and Wegmans - but I think I'll just have to let the pictures do the talking for this one! While I've been talking up Seed to Table, before we get to that, let's go back to this building's roots and see how one big flop of an Albertsons has become one of Florida's ultimate grocery success stories:
Albertsons opened its Immokalee Road store in Naples in March 2002, opening as part of a large new store push in the rapidly growing region of Southwest Florida in the early 2000's. In the stretch between the northern extents of Naples and the southern reaches of Fort Myers, Albertsons built 3 stores in the early 2000's - #4478 in Estero, #4479 in North Naples (today's subject), and #4483 in Bonita Springs, and was apparently in talks in 2003 to add another Naples store not too far from the site of #4479 as well (although that planned Albertsons development ultimately became home to a new Sweetbay store).
Albertsons #4479, with its March 2002 opening date, would put it as the final Grocery Palace newbuild in Florida. All the remaining stores built in Florida with the Grocery Palace layout would switch to a revival of the Blue and Green Awnings decor, which Albertsons would use for new stores going into 2003.
Of the 3 early 2000's stores Albertsons built in Southwest Florida, #4479 was the big flop of the bunch. While #4478 and #4483 didn't last very long themselves, they both did make it until 2009, when Albertsons closed its last few Southwest Florida stores that were not sold to Publix in 2008. #4479 would close after barely 5 years in business, serving its last shoppers in February 2007.
While North Naples doesn't quite skew as high-end as the areas of town closer to the Gulf coast and downtown, I would still consider Naples' northern reaches a fairly well-off area overall. As we've discussed in the past, Albertsons never did a good job of coming across as a higher-end grocery store, something that never helped the chain compete well in these upscale-skewing areas dominated by Publix. Looking at satellite images of this store from when it was open, its parking lot was always sparse, so it seems like Albertsons just wasn't a match for this neighborhood outside of a few locals who shopped there out of convenience. This store's poor sales after it first opened, combined with Albertsons' downward spiral in Florida in the years leading up to the chain's 2006 breakup, are probably what spelled doom to the planned store mentioned before where the Sweetbay was eventually built.
Following the closure of Albertsons in 2007, everything that came to this building after it started to skew higher-end, coming more in-line with the tastes of the area. In 2009, the former Albertsons site was leased by a group who wanted to turn the building into a high-end event center that would host the Naples International Art and Antique Fair - a fair that was supposed to rival similar internationally acclaimed fairs in places like Miami, Palm Beach, and even London, where vendors from around the world would come to sell the finest of art and antiques on the market.
The new venue would be named the "Naples International Pavilion", and prep work began on the building in 2009 to prepare it for its first fair, which was scheduled to begin on February 24, 2011.
When I was first getting things ready to begin this blog in the early 2010's, there were quite a few pictures online of the Naples International Pavilion as it was a big to-do at the time. I downloaded all these photos from various websites back then, although 15 years later, I have no idea where they came from or if they still exist online anywhere. Anyway, what I did find were a few artist's renderings of what the remodeled building would look like inside and out, as well as a few photos from when the fair finally began in February 2011.
During the run of the Naples International Pavilion, the entire supermarket sales floor was converted into event space per the diagram above, with only a few minor adjustments made to the perimeter space to accommodate vendor booth spaces. It appears the Grocery Palace pharmacy island survived the conversion in some form at the Naples International Pavilion, given the odd shape of booth 106 just inside the entrance that looks just like the island would have. Off on the left side of the building, the liquor store was converted into a catering room, with a door cut out to connect that space with the main event floor.
While some work was done to the building's interior, the exterior was left virtually untouched from Albertsons. The photo above was from the conversion's early days, and as you can imagine for a high-end event center, that banner sign was eventually replaced with a permanent one. We can see the new signage below, as well as how the building was freshened up with a new coat of paint by opening night:
The Naples International Pavilion opened with a great fanfare as scheduled on February 24, 2011, the opening night of the inaugural Naples International Art & Antique Fair, with people from around the globe looking to purchase million-dollar art and jewels from in a former supermarket.
The inaugural event included a headlining feature of a collection of original Renoir paintings for sale, in addition to gemstones with as much as 132 carats, diamonds and rubies, and servers handing out caviar to patrons as they strolled through the fair. Quite the leap from a few years prior, when this place was selling bologna and Hot Pockets instead!
I can't remember the last time I saw that many luxury cars in front of a former Albertsons before!
While the inaugural Naples International Art & Antique Fair did "OK" according to event organizers, it turned out the event would end up being a "one and done" affair once the fair closed for business on March 1, 2011.
Shortly after the fair concluded, the event's organizers turned the building's lease back over to Albertsons, citing the "economic malaise" of the time in addition to Collier County's signage restrictions, which prevented the organizers from placing signs and flags along Immokalee Road to attract shoppers.
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| I can't believe Renoir paintings were on display in a building that still had an obvious Grocery Palace floor left in-tact! |
Due to the county's restrictions, the organizers decided it wasn't worthwhile to keep running the building as an event center, even though other groups were showing interest in the building for additional events.
Following the fair's closure in March 2011, some action happened at the old Albertsons site in the following years. In 2012, Dunkin Donuts took over the former Albertsons Express gas station in the supermarket's parking lot. Dunkin demolished the old gas canopy but retrofitted their new location into the existing convenience store building, bringing a little more life to this property - at least until 2015, when a man named Alfie Oakes came along...
Alfie Oakes is the owner of his namesake Oakes Farms, one of the largest agricultural companies in Southwestern Florida. Starting the company as a small produce stand with his father, Frank Oakes, Oakes Farms has grown into a full agribusiness network with operations on both the growing and retail sides.
The Oakes Farms retail operations began in 1994 with the original Oakes Farms Market on Davis Boulevard in South Naples. The Davis Boulevard store, while expanded through the years, always served as a traditional farmer's market type store with a focus on produce, evolving to add features like a deli, meat and seafood, and wines. The original store, even at its largest size following an expansion in the early 2010's, was never more than 15,000 square feet. Wanting to think big for his company's next move, Alfie Oakes came across the old Albertsons building on Immokalee Road.
According to one of the article's on Seed to Table's pending opening, there was quite a bit of interest in the old Albertsons building. A charter school was under contract to buy the building from Albertsons in early 2014 until that deal unexpectedly fell apart, which allowed Alfie Oakes to jump in and buy the building for $5 million later that same year. Alfie had begun accumulating refrigeration units and other items from grocery store auctions for his new store in the years prior, expecting to see his new store dream coming soon before long. Even with some equipment already purchased, Alfie planned to spend $3 million on a complete overhaul of the building to transform it into more of an "old Florida" style. Following the closing of the building's sale in mid-2014, Alfie expected his new store would open in November 2015, just in time to celebrate the 21st anniversary of his original Oakes Farm store.
Unfortunately, the construction of the new "Seed to Table" store (named after Oakes Farms end-to-end process of being both the farmer and the retailer) took longer than expected...much, much, longer. Between construction delays and Alfie Oakes' vision for the new store changing frequently, the 1-year timeframe for getting this store open ended up turning into a 5-year endeavor.
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| It's the Grocery Palace wine department floor again! |
Due to all the delays, the opening of Seed to Table became a recurring topic in the local paper's Q&A section, spanning from 2015 all the way until 2019.
As the years went on, Alfie Oakes would keep pushing the opening date out further and further, wanting the new store to live up to the hype of the destination he had envisioned. While I know construction projects never seem to go smoothly and are always subject to delays for one reason or another, the 5-year delay this one went through was more of an extreme than a norm!
Even as 2019 rolled along, uncertainly about the store's opening date still swirled around. The November 6, 2019 date mentioned above, which would have coincided with the 25th anniversary of the opening of the original Oakes Farms store, would eventually be missed due to some final electrical approvals the store still needed, pushing off the opening until at least December 2019.
The people of Naples were certainly intrigued by all the hype created by Seed to Table's years-long construction was creating, as well as that of a certain supermarket blogger (who was following this project as well at the time). Let's just say this place really was worth the wait!
By December, shelves were in place and items were being stocked, so an opening, at long last, was close.
The manager's description was spot-on - Seed to Table is hard to describe (even though I tried to do so at the beginning of this post), and you have to see it to really experience it. While I tried to photograph this store the best I could, pictures really don't do this place justice, and even then in pictures it's pretty hard to visualize this store. The layout is strange and there's so much everywhere, I just couldn't capture everything without making this post super long!
I actually had to visit this store twice to fully grasp it, which is why it has taken me so long to post it, as Naples isn't a part of the state I frequent. The vast majority of the photos you'll be seeing today are from my original visit in 2022, with a few scattered in from my 2025 revisit.
Both of my visits to this store were in the mid to late mornings on a weekday, and both of those times I visited this store, it was packed. If this place draws a crowd during what is normally off-peak hours for a supermarket, I don't think I want to know how busy this place gets on a Saturday afternoon! With the crazy crowds, some of the photos you're about to see came out a bit strange as I tried to avoid getting a lot of people in them. However, no set of photos will ever do this store justice, so whatever I got I was happy with! After all the build-up, it's now time for all of you to experience this one-of-a-kind Floridian supermarket destination:
Stepping inside, you're immediately taken into the produce department, located in the front right corner of the building in what would have originally been Albertsons' pet department. The skylights over this part of the store let in a lot of natural light, which looks nice in person, but wasn't making my phone's camera very happy!
While in 2025 there was a replica pickup truck parked up here, in 2022, this front area was filled with a number of other tables featuring various weekly specials.
Also just inside the main entrance was the store's coffee kiosk, one of many food service kiosks in here (in addition to its 3 full-service liquor bars - that sure puts Lucky's old sip and stroll to shame!).
Looking into the front right corner of the building, just inside the entrance we have the ice cream shop, followed by candy and then the bakery. While that department in the corner is signed as the bakery, it's technically one of two bakeries in here - this bakery is just for sweets and desserts, while the other bakery on the other side of the store is solely for breads.
While Albertsons' was going for a downtown-style feel in their own Grocery Palace stores by giving all the departments an individualized feel, Albertsons stopped short of building replica downtown storefronts for their departments - Seed to Table, though, corrected that, particularly with the design of their own candy corner.
Before we get too deep into this store, I need to take a moment to describe its layout. I wish this store had a map posted (as that would have made things so much easier), but I never saw one. Anyway, this store is essentially designed as a loop, with the main flow of traffic going around the store in a racetrack, with a few cross-through aisles connecting the front and back of the building. There really aren't any standard grocery aisles in here, with all of the service departments either around the perimeter or in islands, with a few pockets of dry groceries in little alcoves squeezed in between. Even then that's a pretty generalized description - it was pretty confusing trying to get a logical flow of photos through this store with the wonky placement of everything, so I apologize in advance if I messed up the layout and describe a position wrong as we go through this tour, as I had to circle this place a few times to get a comprehensive set of photos. Oh, and before I forget, I should also mention there's a second floor in this store too, but more on that in a bit.
Back to where we left off in the produce department, this large pergola is the centerpiece decoration for that department, with produce displays placed both underneath and around it.
Behind produce is the service cheese counter, which is also placed directly across from the deli counter:
The deli counter is located along the store's right side wall, in what used to be Albertsons' frozen foods department. The deli crowd both times I was here also made the Pub Sub line at lunch rush look like nothing too! As such my only photo of the deli was taken from afar, next to the cheese counter. The deli contains the traditional sliced lunch meats as well as a variety of salads and ready meals, although the prepared foods selection over here is nothing - there are more prepared food counters located elsewhere throughout the store.
Heading into the back right corner of the building, a "Grocery Palace" isn't complete without a giant prop of some kind of food hanging from the ceiling, right? The service counter located back here is the seafood counter, although the decor over the counter is nothing compared to the giant fish sculpture hanging over the seafood cooler!
Here's a better view of the giant hanging fish, a side profile this time. I think this fish would have fit in perfectly with the original Grocery Palace decor this building had!
The graphics over the seafood counter are nice as well, but the giant fish is the star of the show back here!
To the left of the seafood counter is the meat department, bringing us to the store's back wall. While the meat department lacked a giant cow sculpture hanging from the ceiling, we got a neon cow sign on the wall as a consolation.
Leaving meat and seafood behind us, the back of the store transitions into what I would call the "food court". One of the store's 3 bars, as well as most of the quick-service food options, were located back here. The burger bar can be seen in the foreground, with other food options such as tacos, pizza, pasta, sushi, salad bowls, and more mixed in - more detail of which we'll be seeing shortly.
Before we dive too deeply into the "food court" area, we'll veer into one of the center cut-through aisles that connects the front and back of the store. Off these various cut-throughs are little nooks with some dry grocery product, such as the one seen above featuring bulk foods and jams/jellies.
At the front of the cut through, we return to the promo area near the front entrance and the restrooms. The lower ceiling you see above is the store's second level, the access to which located on the next cut-through over.
Running from the front entrance back to the food court is this large clerestory skylight, which really brightens the store up and makes the color of the produce pop. Seed to Table added the clerestory to the building, as I've never seen an Albertsons with a skylight like this!
Passing under the skylight, the front end and check lanes are just out of view to my left. Across from the check lanes are these two service islands - the one in the foreground (with a script name I can't quite make out) is some kind of ready meals counter (there were a number of grab and go meals placed in front of it along the counter and in the coolers). Beyond that is the bread bakery.
Here's a better look at all the prepared food coolers here in front of the check lanes, Seed to Table's "grab and go" setup to keep those just popping in for lunch near the entrance to get them in and out quickly without having to meander to the other food options elsewhere in the store. A closer-view of the bread counter can also be seen above, and we'll get one more look at the bread counter before the end of this tour too.
Moving along to the next center cut-through, a skybridge crosses over this aisle to connect the two halves of the second floor together. What's up there on the second floor, you ask?
The second floor is home to "Hops and Vines", one of Seed to Table's 3 full-liquor bars in the store (and by far the largest of them), doubling also as a sit-down restaurant. Hops and Vines is the store's nightlife hub, and where the nightly live music is located. Being a nightlife oriented spot, and myself visiting this store in the mid-late morning hours both times I was here, the upper level was closed both times I visited. The first time I was here (when I took the above photo) I was able to walk up the stairs, just to find a rope blocking me from going any further at the top. The second time I was here the rope blocking the stairs was moved to the bottom, so in short, my coverage of the second floor ends with this picture of the (very nice) staircase with (what appears to be) a live tree growing between the two sets of stairs. There are pictures of the upper level posted to Seed to Table's Google Maps page if you're curious to see what it's like, although this video contains one of the best panoramas of the space.
Since we can't go upstairs, we press on with the main level and return to the food court in the back of the store. Looking to the right from the end of the cut-through, we see the second of the three bars in this store. In addition to alcohol, this bar also doubles as a smoothie stand for those looking for a less potent sip-and-stroll option.
Opposite the burger bar we saw a few photos back, we find the taco bar. With the giant neon sign and accompanying neon arrow, there's no missing where this is located amongst all the service counters! In person, at least, the sign is big and bright, but my old phone was not a fan of the bright light from the skylight shining down on the neon, leading to the sign looking washed out in this photo.
Continuing along from the taco bar, we come across the salad and "healthy alternatives" station, followed by sushi next. There was also a pizza bar back here somewhere too, which appears to have not made it into any of my pictures.
Even though I missed the pizza station, I did get a close-up of the healthy food bar.
Even for being before noontime, there were still a few people at the "food court" bar in the back of the store. I guess they all could have been there drinking smoothies, but my feeling is that probably wasn't the case.
Continuing along the back wall, leaving the food court, we enter the dairy department. The back wall itself is to my left, where the milk coolers and other fluid dairy were located. Cheeses were located in the coolers to my right, with some additional cheese coolers located in short aisles to my left as well.
The dairy sign can be seen above, where you get a small feeling of how this department feels like an alcove with the way all the coolers are positioned. When Albertsons was here, the current dairy department was located roughly where the old "International Deli" alcove was.
On the other side of the long cheese cooler, we find organic produce. While seeing a cooler of produce over here seems random, the aisles to my left are home to the "Food & Thought" department, which is Seed to Table's branding for their organic foods section. The organic produce was placed back here to keep all the organics together in their own section, which seems to defy the logic of the major supermarket chains these days, who moved away from dedicated organic sections and have now dispersed that product into the main grocery aisles next to its conventional counterparts.
Next to the organic department, we have this interesting promo display - the presidential kiosk! Alfie Oakes, when not running his farm or store, is very involved in politics. His political views are no secret once you enter the store, and this isn't the only display like this either - it's just the largest! This blog is not the place for politics so we're got going any deeper into the subject than this (that's why Facebook was invented), but if you're in the market for a bucket of Trump hair cotton candy (that's exactly what the sign says too if you zoom in), now you know where to buy it!
Leaving the organics and dairy portions of the store, the building's left wall is home to the little bit of non-food product sold here. The back left corner is home to the My Pillow showroom, seen above. Alfie Oakes is friends with My Pillow founder Mike Lindell, and as such gave his product a prominent showcase within the store as part of the health and beauty section.
Between the My Pillow showroom and health and beauty is this door out the side of the building, leading to Seed to Table's future "Greenhouse". Touted in the original articles from the store's 2019 opening, the Greenhouse is expected to be a large garden center where shoppers can try their hand at some "Seed to Table" growing of their own, with a variety of vegetable and other plants for sale. As of 2025, the Greenhouse appears to still be a work in progress, as even at the time of this post's publication, I see no mention of it on Seed to Table's website, meaning it must still be a work in progress.
Continuing down the store's left side, health and beauty products can be found lining the remainder of the wall in what used to be Albertsons' produce department. I really like the decorative tile used in the health and beauty department too - it's a nice pattern, and really, all the flooring is very nice in this store with the different varieties of tile.
All of the health and beauty products in the store skew toward specialty natural and organic brands, fitting the overall theme of the store as a hub for specialty products. The lower-ceiling area contains the main portion of the health and beauty department, although shelves and displays still spill out into the aisle in front of that.
Across from health and beauty is the main portion of the "Food & Thought" department, home to all the standard organic dry goods. The "Food & Thought" sign is mounted to another suspended wooden trellis as well.
Along the front wall beyond health and beauty and the organics is Seed to Tables' "Little Farm", a complimentary play area where parents can drop off their children while they shop. While some supermarket chains have experimented with kids play areas in the past (like Fred Meyer and Wegmans), most of those companies gave up on play areas post-COVID. Seed to Table's play area, which opened with the store only a few months before COVID became widespread, survived the pandemic and remains open to this day, and is the only in-store supermarket play area I know of still open to this day.
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| Photo courtesy of Google Maps |
Between both of my trips here, I managed to neglect getting a photo of my own of the store's 3rd and final bar that we've yet to see - the wine bar. The wine bar is located outside the entrance into the beer and wine room, which fittingly, occupies what was previously Albertsons' liquor store.
"Hops & Vines" is what Seed to Table calls the alcohol department in this store. To create this department, the "liquor wall" was demolished to create this pass through, almost like what you'd see from a liquor store in a Louisiana Albertsons.
Inside the former liquor store, the exterior entrance was sealed up and is now home to the wall of fine wines. If the $1,000/bottle stuff isn't in the budget, there were plenty of other wines in here to choose from - the selection in here was quite impressive!
If wine isn't your thing, you could also find a large selection of beer over here too. I typically don't look too closely at the alcohol selection in any store I visit, but this jumped out at me as I passed by - Seed to Table had its own house brew of beer called Alfie's Ale, in addition to a few other custom brews too.
Leaving the alcohol behind, here's a look across the front of the store. To my right are the check lanes, with the bread bakery pictured to my left.
Making our way to the check lanes, that wraps up our look at the interior of this alternate Grocery Palace. Like I said a few times already, pictures do not do this place justice - you have to see this store in person to really understand it, there's just too much going on. Even after being here twice I still feel like I haven't seen everything.
Back outside, here's a look down the building's front walkway as seen looking from the exit doors to the liquor store's former exterior entrance.
When Seed to Table redid the facade, they blended the liquor store into the rest of the building. However, the photo above is looking toward what was the former liquor store, which still recognizably juts out from the left side of the building when you look at this place from above.
I highly recommend a visit to Seed to Table if you're ever in the Naples area. It's a unique store and certainly the most over-the-top grocery shopping experience you'll get in Florida. The store is a bit on the pricier side, but just walking around is an experience enough even if grocery shopping isn't high on the priority list during a visit.
With how successful (and busy) this store is, Alfie Oakes is planning a second "relief" location for Seed to Table in South Naples. Located at the site of the original Oakes Farms store on Davis Boulevard (which closed in 2022 following damages from Hurricane Ian), Alfie envisions the second Seed to Table store as a "light" version of the North Naples flagship. The new store will be 60,000 square feet - 10,000 square feet smaller than the flagship, but will be two stories, and carry over some of Seed to Tables "best of" features. Alfie wants the new store to be a more "peaceful" experience compared to the chaotic atmosphere of the original, so it will be interesting to see how the new store turns out. Hopefully that store doesn't take as long as the original to come to fruition though!
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| Image courtesy of Google Street View |
In addition to the main Albertsons building, #4479 also included an Albertsons Express gas station in the store's parking lot, facing Immokalee Road. The Albertsons Express station closed with the main store in 2007, not even lasting long enough to be sold off with the rest of the Florida Albertsons Express stations in 2008.
The former Albertsons Express sat vacant until 2013, when it was repurposed as a Dunkin' Donuts. Somewhat of a strange conversion, but it turned out well! Dunkin' removed the gas pump canopy but fixed up the convenience store building to fit their needs, and even repurposed the car wash lane behind the building to serve as their drive-thru (although the car wash structure was removed). Dunkin' completely gutted and rebuilt the interior, although due to the shape of the building, the dining room is much wider and narrower than you'd see in a typical newbuild Dunkin'.
Now that we've made the donuts, it's time to go up in the sky for some aerial images, starting with some Bird's Eye aerial images courtesy of Bing Maps:
Front - Bing Maps has some seriously outdated images of this building, as we'll be seeing it as the abandoned Naples International Pavilion in our Bird's Eye shots! (Not that I'm complaining!) The image looks to have been captured in the 2013-2014 timeframe, as we see a relatively new Dunkin' Donuts in the parking lot where the Albertsons Express used to be.
Right Side
Back
Left Side
And now for some historic aerial images courtesy of Google Earth:
Former Albertsons #4479 - 2025 - See, I told you Seed to Table was popular! Cars are parallel parked along the eastern edge of the property too!
Former Albertsons #4479 - 2019 - Seed to Table under construction
Former Albertsons #4479 - 2017 - A little earlier in the Seed to Table conversion process
Former Albertsons #4479 - 2016 - Looks like the Seed to Table conversion was in its earliest phases here
Former Albertsons #4479 - 2014 - Just vacant here, but Dunkin' was looking new
Former Albertsons #4479 - 2013 - No Dunkin' yet, but the pump canopy at the Albertsons Express station had been removed
Former Albertsons #4479 - 2012 - Everything was empty here
Albertsons #4479 - 2006 - Albertsons was not drawing those Seed to Table-type crowds
Albertsons #4479 - 2004 - Albertsons wasn't drawing much of a crowd at all - this was the busiest the place ever looked in any of the images captured of this store while it was open.
Future Albertsons #4479 - 1999 - Looks like there was some kind of building right on the corner that was removed to make way for the Albertsons.
From one Grocery Palace to another, I highly recommend a visit to Seed to Table if you're ever in the Naples area. While lacking in Albertsons remnants, this place makes up for that in just about everything else! Seed to Table is definitely Florida's contribution to the world of "experiential" supermarkets, and certainly different than anything we'll ever see out of Publix or Winn-Dixie (although who knows, if Alfie Oakes keeps building more of these, we may see a Greenwise 3.0 that looks suspiciously similar!)
More to come in 2 weeks, so until the next post,
The Albertsons Florida Blogger
