Mixed-use projects frequently are built in phases to accommodate growth, permitting and financing. But that can make marketing these projects tricky — it’s hard to see the full picture. What’s needed is a way to bridge time that allows residents to see what eventually will happen.
That was the challenge facing Aprea Development in its creation of The Avenues in Naples, Fla.
Spanning two urban blocks along Fifth Avenue, the project’s first phase features street-level retail beneath residential units and rooftop amenities. It will create a walkable community, surrounded by parks, galleries, beaches and marinas.
Aprea Development approached Panoptikon, an architectural visualization studio serving clients globally, to create marketing images and film the property, an assignment that grew quickly.
“The Avenue is a mixed-use development designed to unite the sophistication of urban living with the calm of the coast,” said Panoptikon Founder Tudor Vasiliu, an architect turned architectural visualizer. “What began as a single animation brief evolved into a full suite of 68 marketing visuals, spanning interiors, exteriors and atmosphere studies, that shaped the narrative and the design.”
Panoptikon began with a cinematic exploration of the project site context before producing detailed still images of interior and exterior spaces. The second phase presented a characteristic challenge: its design had advanced significantly but remained less defined than the first.
“The client envisioned the film for The Avenue as a walkthrough, but our take was to make it a mood piece, a visual statement,” Vasiliu said. “Like the project itself, the film we created reflects a new Naples: elegant, approachable, quietly confident.”
The initial scope evolved from a two-minute CGI film to the addition of tens of still visuals focusing on the exterior of the project, the retail and amenity spaces, design features, the interior street supporting retail and the interiors of representative high- end apartments.
“Demand for The Avenue has already exceeded expectations … it’s not just the design, it’s the lifestyle it unlocks,” said Christine Lutz of The Dawn McKenna Group, the residential sales representative for The Avenues.
