After 20-month pandemic shutdown, theater plans to reopen

BONITA SPRINGS — The Southwest Florida Event Center in Bonita Springs, 20 months after shutting its doors due to the pandemic, has announced some show-must-go-on news: The facility is reopening.

The owners of the facility, Jennifer and Richard Shanahan, announced the news in a Facebook post Jan. 26, ending it with “Let’s rock 'n' roll!” The news reverses a May 6, 2020, statement, when the center, which has hosted acts from Melissa Etheridge to Amy Grant to Toad the Wet Sprocket, among dozens of others, had said it was permanently closing. “There are so many facets and so many unknowns that we have made the difficult decision to cease operations,” the Shanahans wrote back then.