Stand in the southeast parking lot at NW 2nd Avenue and Jeffrey Street and you can see three stages of the same park. The big building beside you is Boca Paddle by CityPickle, which is almost done and opens Wednesday, Nov. 18. East of the road, crews are clearing invasive trees from 70 acres that are supposed to become trails, a dog park and a playground. Up at the northwest corner, children ride bikes past painted stop signs on what used to be tennis courts.
The Greater Boca Raton Beach & Park District is turning the former Ocean Breeze golf course in Boca Teeca into North Park, a 212-acre public park at 5800 NW 2nd Ave. At the Sept. 3 groundbreaking, executive director Briann Harms told the Boca Raton Tribune the project was "a long time coming." She pointed to "all the obstacles we had to go through" since the District bought the property in 2018. The order in which the pieces are opening has less to do with what residents asked for first and more to do with the kind of deal behind each piece.
Three pieces on three timelines
| Feature | Where | Who built it | Status this week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Traffic Garden | Northwest corner, former tennis courts | District, with the City of Boca Raton | Open and free since September 2025 |
| Boca Paddle by CityPickle | Southeast portion | Private partner, on District land | Grand opening Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2026 |
| East side: trails, dog park, playground | 70 acres east of NW 2nd Ave. | Butters Construction, under District contract | Broke ground Sept. 3, 2026; target is substantially complete by June 2027 |
| Skatepark and pump track | North Park | American Ramp Company, under District agreement | City approvals done; District has started permitting |
The club came through a public-private partnership
Boca Paddle is a public-private partnership. The District asked for proposals to design, build and manage a racquet sports facility on the southeast part of the park. It chose the Malcolm Butters group in March 2024, and the Board approved a contract with Boca Paddle in August 2024. Under the deal, the Boca Paddle group would build the $17 million facility. The District owns the building and the land, and Boca Paddle runs it. The City's Planning and Advisory Board approved it on Sept. 5, 2024. The project broke ground in June 2025, construction started that August, and the building is opening in November 2026.
From selecting a partner to opening day took about 32 months, and the District's record shows no rounds of rejected bids along the way.
The trails were bid three times
The east side took a different route. The District prequalified firms with experience in park building and soil remediation, then took bids. All four bids in the first round came in over the District's budget, so it rejected them and narrowed the scope. The second round also drew four bids. During that review, the City took over the pedestrian tunnel part of the project, which changed the bids enough that the District rejected that round too. It advertised the project a third time with the revised scope and awarded it to Butters Construction in June 2026.
The east side is the part most neighbors would use every day for free. According to the District's description, it will have more than five miles of walking and riding trails, some with exercise equipment, plus a dog park, a playground and more than 1,000 native trees. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection will help make sure soil contaminated by chemicals from the golf course years is cleaned up. The whole project is being built to Sustainable SITES Initiative standards. The District's September 2026 capital update expects the east side to be substantially complete by June 2027.
That means about seven months will pass between the club opening and the trails being substantially done. This winter, the main new building at North Park is a sports club, and the open green space around it is still a construction site.
What Nov. 18 means if you don't join
Boca Paddle sells memberships, but you don't need one to use the building. Here are the main facts from CityPickle's Oct. 21 grand-opening announcement:
- The restaurant is open to everyone. Farmer's Kitchen by Farmer's Table is a full-service restaurant and bar. You don't need a membership or a day pass to eat there.
- Day passes have a resident rate. Non-members can buy a day pass for $35 with Boca Raton residency or $40 without.
- There are more pickleball courts than padel courts. The 25 courts include 19 pickleball courts, one of them a stadium court, and six padel courts. Sixteen courts are indoors and climate-controlled: 14 pickleball and two padel. The other nine are outside, five under canopies and four uncovered.
- A pro team plays here. The club is the official home of Major League Pickleball's Palm Beach Royals.
- You can tour it before opening. Hard-hat tours have been running by advance appointment since Oct. 7. The Boca Raton Tribune reported on Oct. 6 that the public could book them.
Individual memberships cost $49 a month for Community, $149 for Standard and $299 for Plus. There's no initiation fee, and couple and family plans are also offered. Higher tiers get earlier booking and more programming. The club plans to cap membership at 1,000 through 2026. Since it opens Nov. 18, that cap covers roughly the first six weeks. The Palm Beach Post also reported the Nov. 18 date and the day-pass option in early October.
The building has more than courts. CityPickle lists a recovery area called The Zone with physical therapy services, locker rooms with showers, saunas, cold plunge pools, a pro shop, and co-working space with free Wi-Fi and private phone booths. On a weekday morning this winter, the building may get as much use from people working remotely and people meeting for lunch as from people playing.
The free piece was supposed to be temporary
The only free part of North Park open today started as a placeholder. In November 2024, the District's Board approved resurfacing the old tennis courts at the northwest corner and repairing the parking lot next to them for a traffic garden pilot run with the City. The idea was to put the site to use cheaply instead of paying for sod and irrigation. All County Paving resurfaced and striped the courts in early 2025. Schiff Construction then added paint, thermoplastic striping and portable signs.
The Traffic Garden opened in September 2025 as North Park's first recreational feature. It copies real streets, with stop and yield signs, crosswalks, bike lanes and direction arrows, so children can practice riding and crossing safely. The District calls it temporary but says it will stay open until the site is redeveloped. It also says families and schools have made it popular. Boca Magazine reported that it's free to use and that motorized bikes, boards and vehicles aren't allowed. The District's own write-up mentions nearby parking, restrooms, shade and seating.
So a stopgap that cost little to build is the free part of the park this winter while the larger public part is still underway.
Next: the skatepark
The skatepark and pump track have gone through their own separate approval process. Skateboarders spoke at length during public comment, and on April 7, 2025, the Board unanimously directed staff to look at options. It accepted a $32,600 Plant-A-Park grant for concept design that May. Plant-A-Park helped run public design workshops in August and December 2025, and the Board accepted the final design in January 2026. That design includes a street course, pump tracks, transition and bowl areas, shaded green space, accessibility features, landscape buffers and lighting mitigation.
On May 4, 2026, the Board approved a construction agreement with American Ramp Company. The agreement says work can start only after all permits and City approvals are in place. The City's Community Appearance Board approved the project unanimously on Sept. 1, 2026, and the Planning and Zoning Board did the same on Sept. 3. The District has now started permitting. The District hasn't published an opening date.
The plans still have critics. The Tribune reported that speakers at District meetings keep pushing for golf and opposing changes that would affect Boca Teeca condo owners. The same story quoted retired city staffer Diane King, who remembered, "We didn't have any parks to go to in our neighborhood." She said she liked the idea of kids walking five blocks to North Park. The District keeps its full set of plans on its North Park project page.
If North Park's progress affects your plans, whether that's a home near NW 2nd Avenue or a guess at how Boca Teeca will feel once the trails open in mid-2027, I'm glad to go over what's being built and when. Reach out to Michelle Yales to schedule a free consultation, or call or email me directly.
