Drive north on NW 2nd Avenue past Jeffrey Street and you will see the same thing most East Boca residents have been watching for a year: chain-link fencing along what used to be the back nine of Ocean Breeze golf course, a rendering of covered pickleball courts staked into the grass, and, past that, a lot of open ground that has not changed much. Something is happening on this old fairway, under a mile and a half from Bel Marra's canals. The question residents actually want answered is not "is it coming." It is "which part."
That distinction matters more than it sounds. The 212 acres the Greater Boca Raton Beach & Park District bought in 2018 are becoming two separate projects that happen to share a fence line, a groundbreaking photo op, and the name North Park. One of them is privately financed, backed by professional pickleball players and a construction magnate, and was supposed to open by now. The other is publicly funded, was the thing residents actually asked for in planning workshops, and only got a construction contract two months ago. If you assumed North Park opens on one day, as one park, you are working from the wrong model.
Two Projects, One Property
The fast-moving piece is Boca Paddle by CityPickle: a 100,000-square-foot, climate-controlled racquet club with 19 pickleball courts and six padel courts, built through a public-private partnership between the park district and developer Malcolm Butters. The $20 million facility broke ground in June 2025 with an investor list that reads like a pickleball who's who, including pros Anna Bright, Ben Johns, JW Johnson, Jorja Johnson and Gabriel Tardio, team owners Al Tylis, Richard Chaifetz and Ron Saslow, and fitness operator Life Time. Farmer's Table, the local farm-to-table restaurant, will run the food and bar program on site. It was announced for an "early 2026" opening.
The slower-moving piece is the park itself, the 69.49-acre east side at 5800 NW 2nd Avenue that is supposed to hold the multipurpose trails, mountain bike trails, dog park, playground, gardens, and a larger Boys & Girls Club facility. That contract, worth $19,741,054.81, went to Butters Construction & Development only in June 2026, as the Boca Raton Tribune reported. As of that report, there was no groundbreaking date yet for that side of the property.
"It's about time."
That was the reaction from Greater Boca Raton Beach & Park District commissioners after the unanimous vote to award the contract, per the Tribune. Seven years after the district bought the land, the part of North Park most residents said they wanted is just now getting a contractor.
The Timeline, Side by Side
| Boca Paddle (racquet club) | North Park (public infrastructure) | |
|---|---|---|
| Funding | Public-private partnership, $20M private investment | District-funded, $19,741,054.81 contract |
| Groundbreaking | June 2025 | Not yet scheduled as of June 2026 |
| Promised opening | Early 2026 | No public target date |
| Status as of June 2026 | Under construction, opening "expected this year" | Contract just awarded, "no date for shovels in the ground yet" |
| What it includes | 19 pickleball courts, 6 padel courts, restaurant, locker rooms, saunas | Multipurpose trails, mountain bike trails, dog park, playground, gardens, Boys & Girls Club expansion |
The district itself confirms this split on its official North Park project page, which describes construction beginning in June 2025 on the pickleball and padel complex with a planned grand opening in 2026, while listing the trails, dog park, and gardens as part of a separate, later phase of the master plan.
What Residents Actually Asked For
Before any of this was designed, the district ran community workshops to find out what people wanted on the old golf course property. According to the district's own account, those sessions identified walking trails and bike trails as some of the most desired features, not a racquet club. The dog park, the playground, the mountain bike loop: those came out of resident input too.
None of that is wrong to build. It is just built on a different clock. The amenity that moves fastest through a public park system is usually the one somebody outside the government is willing to finance and operate, because a private partner can sign contracts and start pouring concrete on a timeline no city procurement process matches. The pieces the public actually asked for first go through the slower, fully public-funded track, competitive bidding and all. That is not a complaint about the district. It is just how a public-private partnership tends to sequence itself, and it explains why a chain-link fence a mile and a half from Bel Marra can hold a nearly finished stadium court next to open dirt that has not been touched.
What You Can Actually Do This Summer
If you want pickleball now, not "early 2026, still expected," the better bet sits a few miles away at Patch Reef Park, where 18 new fully covered courts were added on top of the existing 12, bringing the total to 30. That expansion was far enough along by late February to host the 2026 Boca Open, a four-day tournament that drew close to 600 players and moved its home base there after three years at a different venue, according to the tournament's own site. Patch Reef is a working example of the same kind of investment North Park is promising, already open, already hosting a regional tournament with a charity exhibition from Ivan Lendl on the schedule.
Back at North Park itself, one small piece has actually delivered on time. Where a set of old tennis courts used to sit on Jeffrey Street, the district converted the pavement into a Traffic Garden, a child-focused bicycle and road-safety course, and it opened to the public in 2025 with dedicated parking already in place. It is a modest amenity next to a $20 million racquet club, but it is the one piece of North Park that a family in Bel Marra can use this weekend rather than wait on.
The Practical Version
For anyone keeping score on what to expect from the old Ocean Breeze property over the next year, the pattern is worth holding onto:
- Open now: the Traffic Garden on Jeffrey Street, a kids' bike-safety loop with parking.
- Under construction, opening promised for later in 2026: Boca Paddle by CityPickle, 19 pickleball courts and 6 padel courts, restaurant by Farmer's Table.
- Contract awarded in June 2026, no groundbreaking date yet: the trails, dog park, playground, and gardens on the 69.49-acre east side, plus the expanded Boys & Girls Club facility.
- Already open and hosting tournaments, several miles from Bel Marra: Patch Reef Park's 30 total pickleball courts.
A property this size rarely opens on a single day, and North Park is proving that out in real time. The lesson for a Bel Marra household is less about pickleball specifically and more about reading these announcements correctly going forward. When a press release says a park is "opening in 2026," ask which part of it that actually refers to. On this particular fairway, the answer has been two different projects since the day the fence went up.
Watching a mile-and-a-half stretch of old fairway turn into two different timelines is a small reminder of something bigger about this stretch of East Boca: the neighborhood keeps changing in ways that are easy to miss if you are not paying close attention to what is actually breaking ground versus what is just breaking news. If you are weighing a move within Bel Marra, or wondering what a property near this kind of investment is actually worth right now, the Dana Ocampo team can walk you through what these local shifts mean for your specific street and your specific dock. Reach out for a free home valuation and a customized marketing plan built around what is really happening in this corner of Boca, not just what the renderings promise.
