A Chicago trucking entrepreneur is betting that Southwest Florida has room for an immersive, three-hour cabaret dinner show. Roy Dobrasinovic plans to open Voulez-Vous Naples, a cabaret and nightclub, inside the long-vacant former Southwest Florida Event Center at 11515 Bonita Beach Road SE in Bonita Springs. The venue would pair fine dining and cocktails with an immersive production featuring singers, dancers, aerialists and live music.
The opening date has moved around in recent coverage. According to the Business Observer, Voulez-Vous Naples was initially scheduled to open in November 2026 but a project spokesperson said the launch was pushed back to January 2027. Separately, Gulfshore Business reported the venue is targeted to open in November, with a separate report from that outlet describing an expected opening before the end of 2026. Dobrasinovic told the Business Observer that construction delays and scheduling adjustments are part of bringing a project of this scale to life.
Dobrasinovic, who also goes by the title of CEO and president of Chicago-based Compass Holding, told the Business Observer he wanted to bring a new destination to Southwest Florida that combines dining and entertainment. The concept was announced on October 19, and organizers say it aims to offer an international-production-style evening not typically found in the region.
What's Inside the Former Event Center
The building, long known locally as a shuttered performance hall, will be split into two main spaces. Per the Business Observer, the venue includes a main dining and performance room for about 350 guests and a lounge for about 170 guests — though Gulfshore Business describes that second room, called the Lounge, as an intimate space for about 170 people anchored by a celebrity booth, four LED screens and a dedicated stage. Gulfshore Business also reports the larger room, referred to there as the Glamour Room, welcomes up to 350 guests for a three-hour cabaret performance.
The menu and programming lean Mediterranean, with live performances and international DJs rounding out the entertainment lineup, according to Gulfshore Business. The experience is designed to unfold in stages — the table, the show and the night — and the club plans to host birthdays, anniversaries, corporate gatherings, product launches and VIP occasions, with both partial and full venue buyouts available. It will operate as a 21-and-over club with a dress code described as elegant with a touch of glamour.
A Building With a Rocky Recent History
The property has seen plenty of turnover. The Business Observer reports the building measures 20,000 square feet, while a separate account from news-press.com describes it as a 650-seat venue on a 2.71-acre lot. Gulfshore Business, meanwhile, puts the structure at more than 25,000 square feet and traces its history back to an original build as an Eckerd pharmacy before it became the Southwest Florida Performing Arts Center in 2016.
The Southwest Florida Event Center closed in May 2020 due to the pandemic, and an attempt to reopen it in early 2022 did not come to fruition, according to the Business Observer. Brian Spina had previously spent about $7 million converting the building into a concert space. Compass Management, which is based in Clarendon Hills, Illinois, and is connected to Dobrasinovic's trucking businesses, bought the complex for $2.5 million in December 2023 from sellers Jennifer and Richard Shanahan.
From Truck Driver to Nightclub Developer
Dobrasinovic's path to Southwest Florida nightlife runs through the freight industry. He was born in Berane, Montenegro, and moved to the United States in 1997, settling in Akron, Ohio, after leaving Eastern Europe nearly three decades before this reporting. He worked for a trucking company for a year before purchasing his own truck, then built Compass into a 100-truck operation within a year, according to his LinkedIn profile cited by the Business Observer. The company reportedly grew to 250 trucks at its peak, and Dobrasinovic went on to create Compass Holding, which now includes businesses handling truck-driver sales, financing, trailer leases, insurance and factoring. He declined to disclose the Naples project's cost in an email response to the Business Observer.
Bonita Springs is not the only market getting a Voulez-Vous location. Dobrasinovic is also working on Voulez-Vous Chicago, being developed in Willowbrook along historic Route 66. That venue is planned across three floors, with capacity for about 350 guests across its first two floors combined and room for another 200 guests on its third floor.
Dinner Theater's Broader Comeback
The Bonita Springs project arrives amid renewed interest in performance-based dining nationally. A 2026 industry report cited by wgcu.org projects the global dinner theater market will grow from $3.1 billion in 2024 to $5.4 billion by 2033, with corporations increasingly leveraging dinner theater venues for team-building events, product launches and client entertainment. Elsewhere in the region, Michelle and Jeremy Kuntze are opening a second Fort Myers Theatre location, the Fort Myers Dinner Theater, in Lee County, with an inaugural performance that was scheduled for late July.
