The Island's Biggest Opening This Season Is a Park on South Ocean Boulevard

The biggest new arrival on Palm Beach Island for the 2026–27 season is the restored Phipps Ocean Park at 2201 South Ocean Boulevard. The Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach has set its ribbon cutting and grand opening for Thursday, November 19, 2026, at 11 a.m. The event is free and open to the public. The opening comes about six weeks from today. Most of the restaurant pipeline that has filled island conversation this year still has no opening date, and some of it is scheduled for 2027 or later.

Eighteen months behind a fence

Most of the park closed to the public on May 1, 2025. The Foundation's project page still says the park stays closed until November 2026. The tennis center and its parking lot are the exception. The schedule has moved several times along the way:

1. April 2024. At the groundbreaking, construction was expected to start in June and run 15 months.
2. Late 2024. The first construction contract was never finalized. The project was rebid to get more competitive pricing from subcontractors.
3. February 2025. A $31 million guaranteed-maximum-price contract was approved. That figure is a ceiling, not a final cost.
4. November 1, 2025. The tennis center reopened as the first phase. WLRN put the target for the rest of the park at October 2026.
5. December 16, 2025. Crews moved the Little Red Schoolhouse about 100 feet from its old spot on South Ocean Boulevard to a more visible site near the base of the 22-foot dune.
6. April 2026. The Town was aiming for September completion. Its engineer said design changes made that date less certain.

The November 19 date is the latest one in that sequence, and the first tied to a public event.

What the plans call for

Raymond Jungles drew the master plan, and Fairfax, Sammons & Partners designed the park buildings. The firm's architects are Anne Fairfax and Richard Sammons. The Danish firm MONSTRUM designed the playground. The Garden Club of Palm Beach was set to work with the Foundation on the wildflower garden.

The list below comes from the Foundation's campaign plan, which was written before construction began. Read it as what is planned. Finished features will be confirmed at the opening.

• On the beach side: public parking, a south entrance, restrooms, beach pavilions, showers, drinking fountains, sand paths and an ADA-accessible route to the beach.
• Racquet sports: the existing racquet facility kept and upgraded, with two new pickleball courts.
• Lawns and gardens: a Great Lawn, wildflower and rain gardens, and an outdoor classroom.
• Education buildings: the relocated Little Red Schoolhouse and the Kenneth C. Griffin Coastal Conservancy, a plant nursery and center for horticulture education.
• Plantings and habitat: restored dune and mangrove areas, invasive plants removed, and about 80,000 native plants added or moved. An earlier Foundation booklet describes an 18,000-square-foot parking area built with permeable pavers.

WLRN reported that the finished park is meant to have about two miles of trails through the dunes, with views of both the ocean and the Intracoastal. No other public space on the island combines an ocean view and an Intracoastal view on a single walk at that length.

Who paid for it, and why that matters

Most of the money came from private donors. The Foundation reported $29 million raised by April 2024, including a publicly announced $7 million gift from Ken Griffin. As of November 2025, WLRN reported those donations alongside a $2 million capital grant from the Town. Eleven "landmark donors" gave at least $1 million each: the Town, Griffin and nine donors who asked not to be named. A separate state grant of $442,195 from the Florida Division of Historical Resources went to moving and rehabilitating the Schoolhouse.

That funding setup explains who will run each part of the park. Under the agreement the Town Council approved in November 2024, the Foundation pays for most of the redevelopment. In return it holds two 75-year leases, one for the Schoolhouse and one for the nursery and education building that the 2024 agreement calls the Coastal Restoration Center. The Town agreed to pay for the tennis work through its Recreation Department and the lifeguard-station upgrades through its capital improvement fund. In practice, the courts and the beach stay with the Town. The education buildings will be run by the Foundation.

What you can use on November 20

The tennis center is the only part of the park with posted hours so far. Palm Beach Recreation lists the Phipps Racquet Center as open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Sunday. Courts are booked online through Play by Point. Those hours appear on a live page with no publish date, so check it before you go.

The grand opening listing gives a time for the ceremony only. It does not give regular hours for the rest of the park or for the beach. As of August 2026, the Schoolhouse program page said it was closed for construction and asked visitors to check back for booking information. In a normal year it offers free, booked field trips for schools and homeschool groups from September to May, usually 10 a.m. to noon. To attend the opening, register through the Foundation's event page.

The rest of the season, by what has a date

The restaurants are the slower part of this season. Here is where each one stands:

• Élephante is planned for the former Almond space at 207 Royal Poinciana Way. Nick Mathers' Wish You Were Here Group also plans a market and bakery next door. As of October 1, no opening date had been announced.
• Avenue 31, the Monte Carlo import going into 380 S. County Road, lists only "OPENING 2026" on its own site.
• Room Service is the tentative name for a Stephen Starr steakhouse planned for 151 Worth Ave., with 165 seats. The earliest reported opening is December 2027.
• 150 Worth Ave. has initial plans that include a Casa Tua restaurant and private club, a Robin Birley club and Birley Bakery. The Town has not approved them yet, and no date has been given.

The confirmed changes are smaller and spread out across the island. Bice Ristorante at 313½ Worth Ave. is adding an eight-seat private dining room. CEO Raffaele Ruggeri expected it to take bookings in early to mid-October. Michael Kors Collection has opened a 700-square-foot boutique at The Colony, 155 Hammon Ave., in the former Dolce & Gabbana space. At 151 N. County Road, White's Apothecary is set to take over the retail and pharmacy side of Green's this season. Green's keeps its name and its luncheonette.

Some shops are leaving or still in limbo. The RealReal moved its Palm Beach store across the bridge to 700 S. Rosemary Ave. in West Palm Beach and opened there August 13. Kapsiki closed its 235B Worth Ave. shop on May 31 and said it would reopen somewhere on the island this fall. No new address has been announced.

The cultural calendar is fully set. Every date below comes from the venue or a local outlet:

The Flagler Museum's posted fumigation closure ran through Monday, October 5. Glazer Hall sold more than 3,000 tickets to its summer run of first-run films and says it will keep showing new releases when scheduling allows.

Lay those dates side by side and the shape of the season is clear. The Flagler exhibition opens nine days before the park. The Four Arts photography show opens about two weeks after it. The earliest reported date for the next big Worth Avenue restaurant is a full year after that. For the first stretch of the season, the new places on the island are a museum gallery, a sculpture garden and two miles of dune trails on South Ocean Boulevard.

If you own on the South End and want to talk through what a restored public oceanfront park next door means for your property, Samantha Curry and her team can walk you through it privately. Request a Confidential Market Consultation.