By Katy Bishop
The Shirley Street Antique Mall has a new home sweet home.

Owners Tom Ramsey and Richard Gazzerro packed up hundreds of pieces of furniture, glassware and lamps and moved from their Shirley Street warehouse to a new space on Goodlette-Frank Road at Central Avenue, resolving troubles they had with Collier County code enforcement.

Meanwhile, Homer Helter, who rented space from Ramsey and Gazzero in the back of the Shirley Street warehouse, has taken over the building’s lease. He plans to hire a lawyer and find a legal way to operate his military relics business and an antique mall there.


The Shirley Street Antique Mall is now in a nearly 15,000-square-foot space in Naples.

Ramsey, who began selling antiques at about 15 years old, wove his way through a labyrinth of antique furniture, display cases and boxes as the antique mall was getting set up to open this weekend.

Every few steps, he stopped to tell the story behind an item: from a Chinese wedding bed to a tilting dressing room mirror to an Indonesian table with carved, wooden elephants marching under its glass top.

Being an antique dealer is “all about the search and find,” Ramsey said. “You get this great feeling when you find something unique.”

The mall has taken over three spaces in Victoria Square plaza, and opened Saturday. It now takes up an entire block along Goodlette-Frank Road, general manager and vendor Anita Ashton said with pride.

The new space has about 50 vendors, with 40 floor spaces marked out on the carpet with tape and more than 30 display cases.

Wander toward the back and you may find yourself walking through a nautical area created by Hugh James, a boat captain at the Cocohatchee Nature Center, or a vintage clothing space created by Jeanne Sullivan, who has studied fashion for years.

If you catch them in their corners, they’ll tell you a tale.

Sullivan will tell you about the early 20th century clothing and accessories in her nook: like an early 20th century dressing gown or a pair of slip-on shoes from the 1960s in her display case that have a contraption in the insole called a “springalator” to keep them from slipping off.

The nets draped on Captain James’ showcases and walls were used to fish in the Gulf of Mexico and off the shores of Alaska, and his Japanese fishing floats — brightly colored, glass vessels covered in a web of knotted rope — are made from recycled glass.

Photo by Jimmie Presley / Daily News
Vendors and management spend the day moving into the Shirley Street Antique Mall’s new location in Naples on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2014. The store is scheduled to open on September 15.

Some vendors moved with Ramsey and Gazzerro from Shirley Street to the new space. Some are new, and others stayed behind in the North Naples warehouse.

They sell anything and everything, from antique furniture, collectables and vintage clothing, to original artwork, gift items and new furniture.

Ramsey and Gazzerro bought the Shirley Street Antique Mall business at 5510 Shirley St. in 2012. Last year, they were cited by code enforcement for operating a retail business with a wholesale license because the retail space occupied more than 20 percent of the industrial warehouse.

After going before county commissioners, Ramsey and Gazzerro were granted three years to comply with the code. The move to downtown Naples resolves their troubles.

Homer Helter, who is still in the Shirley Street warehouse, has resolved to find a way to make his military relics business and the antique mall space legal in the industrial area.

Helter has renamed his business Homer Helter’s Military and Antique Mall, and plans to have about 40 antique vendors in the nearly 12,000-square-foot front of the warehouse. He will continue to operate his military relics business in back space.

He’s not sure yet how he will make the business legal in its current location, Helter said, but he has been meeting with code enforcement to work out the issue.

“Believe me, our work’s cut out for us,” Helter said. “I can tell you that it is going to cost some money to do this. We have to come up with a plan that code enforcement and the commissioners will say ‘Yes, this is OK.’ What that is yet, I don’t know.”

Helter, who has operated out of the warehouse for nine years and six months, has 28 months left to resolve the code enforcement violations and believes he has a 50-50 chance of succeeding, he said.

Whoever is operating a business on that site will have three years to comply with the code from the meeting at which commissioners made the decision, said Michelle Arnold, Collier County code enforcement director.

At the moment, Helter is remodeling the warehouse, and everything inside is covered in plastic as the walls are painted in preparation for the opening under its new ownership. He hopes to have the warehouse repainted, cleaned up and full of vendors for a grand opening celebration between Oct. 15 and the beginning of November.

As for Ramsey and Gazzerro, though they aren’t on Shirley Street anymore, they’re still calling their business the Shirley Street Antique mall.

“We have a lot of work to do, but it’s a relief” to have a new home, Ramsey said.

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If you go

Shirley Street Antique Mall, 50 Goodlette-Frank Road, Naples

Phone: 592-9882 or 643-1882

Homer Helter’s Military and Antique Mall, 5510 Shirley St., Naples

Phone: 594-9900