Phipps Ocean Park Reopening: What Returns to the South End

For almost a year, people have been driving to 2201 South Ocean Boulevard to play tennis and pickleball. The racquet courts reopened on Nov. 1, 2025, and the rest of the park and the beach stayed closed for construction. On Thursday, Nov. 19, at 11 a.m., the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach will hold a ribbon-cutting and grand opening for the rest of Phipps Ocean Park. The event is free and open to the public.

So the thing returning in November is the park itself, not the courts. That means the beach and the 18 acres running from the ocean to the Intracoastal, which the family of Henry Phipps Jr. gave the town in 1948. The Foundation calls the pre-renovation site a "long-underutilized space." The new design is built to fix that by putting the oldest building on the island at the center of the park and organizing the rest of the grounds around it.

The part that has been open all along

The racquet center was Phase 1, and it is the only piece with a track record so far. The Town rebuilt the tennis courts, added two pickleball courts and reopened them with the south parking area on Nov. 1, 2025. Courts are booked through Playbypoint. The outdoor pickleball courts book in 90-minute slots. The Town's recreation page lists Phipps Racquet Center hours as 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Sunday.

The current published daily rates, per person and before sales tax, from the Palm Beach Recreation passes page:

Resident rates require proof of residency. The Town's July newsletter also announced a maintenance closure of the racquet center through early August, so even the finished phase has had downtime this year.

A park arranged around a schoolhouse

The old Phipps Ocean Park was a place you crossed on the way to the sand. The new plan gives people reasons to stay between the road and the water, and the Little Red Schoolhouse is the main one.

The schoolhouse dates to 1886. It is the first schoolhouse in Southeast Florida and the oldest structure in Palm Beach. It closed in 1901, served for years as a gardening shed on the Casa Bendita estate, and was moved to the park in 1960. At its old spot it flooded repeatedly. "This iconic 19th-century building, where thousands and thousands of students learned about what it was like to be here in pioneer days, was flooding repeatedly," Foundation CEO Danielle Del Sol told WLRN. Crews moved it to a new foundation in December 2025, and it will anchor a new Great Lawn and wildflower garden. WLRN describes the schoolhouse as the inspiration for the whole renovation.

The Foundation's campaign plan lays out the rest of the site by area. Read from the ocean back toward the Intracoastal, it looks like this:

1. The beach edge. Restored dunes, sand paths to the beach, beach showers and drinking fountains, ADA beach access and a remodeled lifeguard stand. WLRN reports the dune system rising 22 feet.
2. The overlook. The Horizon Plateau, a gathering area with open views to the Atlantic, plus a sculpture and a Dune Crest Path.
3. The center. Beach pavilions, picnic tables, the Great Lawn for events, a wildflower garden, a schoolyard garden and an outdoor classroom.
4. The north end. The Coastal Restoration Center, a nursery and propagation facility for the native plants that will supply dunes in the park and around town. Next to it is a custom playground by the Danish firm MONSTRUM.
5. The Intracoastal side. Mangrove restoration, removal of invasive snake plant, and rain gardens at the north and south ends.

About two miles of trails will connect these areas. WLRN writes that visitors will be able to watch the sunrise from the beach or the sunset over the Intracoastal. The planting plan calls for about 80,000 native plants. Del Sol told WLRN that many of them "haven't been in the park for decades," and the same report says no toxic pesticides, fungicides or herbicides will be used. Del Sol also told WLRN the park will be ADA-accessible, "which it wasn't before."

Raymond Jungles, Inc. is the landscape architect, Fairfax & Sammons is the architect and Kimley-Horn is the civil engineer.

Why the date kept moving

The completion target moved twice, and the published reasons point to design changes made while construction was under way.

When the park closed, the Town's notice projected closure from May 1, 2025, through Oct. 1, 2026. At an April 14, 2026, Town Council meeting, Town Engineer Patricia Strayer gave a looser estimate, as the Palm Beach Daily News reported. She said there had been requests for changes and that Labor Day had been the goal. Then she added:

"I can't give you a timeline right now. We hope September … but it depends on how many more changes we embrace."

The same report said the budget had stayed balanced so far, and that any cost changes would come from requests by the Preservation Foundation, which is funding most of the work. At that meeting the council approved a $20,000 change order for Kimley-Horn's construction-phase services, to be paid by a Foundation donation. The Foundation's project page now says the park will stay closed to the public until November 2026.

The money explains why design changes could keep coming. The Foundation agreed to pay for most of what it described in November 2024 as a $30 million redevelopment. The Town took on the tennis facility and lifeguard station improvements. The project had to be rebid after the first round of bids came in high. In February 2025 the council approved a revised contract with Burkhardt Construction at a guaranteed maximum price of $31 million, which WLRN reported as a $2 million savings. A $7 million lead gift, announced by the Foundation on April 16, 2024, brought donations to $29 million. The Town added a $2 million capital grant in November 2024. The Foundation's campaign materials also list a $442,195 state historic-preservation grant for the schoolhouse and an estimated $625,000 a year from the Town for maintenance and security. Taken together, the Town owns the park, private donors paid for most of the rebuild with Town and state money alongside, and the Town will pay for its upkeep for years.

What was still under construction in April

The most detailed progress report available is from April 2026. It gives a fair picture of which pieces might still be finishing as November arrives. Adam Rossmell, Burkhardt's project manager, told the council that all four picnic pavilions had been built, with roofing still under way. The two restroom buildings were at a similar stage. The Coastal Restoration Center had its interior systems installed and was going through inspections. The lifeguard station was moving more slowly because of the condition of its original wood structure, and playground equipment was being installed. Crews were also regrading and replanting along the west side of South Ocean Boulevard.

No public report since April confirms which of those items are now done. The grand opening is set, but the Foundation has not said whether every feature on the plan will be finished on Nov. 19. Treat the list above as what the park is designed to include, not a guarantee of what will be open that morning. The Foundation has also not published regular park hours, lifeguard schedules or parking rules for the reopened lot. The Town's general rules separate ParkMobile paid spaces with blue signs from resident-permit spaces with green signs, and Town permits give residents two free hours in blue-sign spaces. How those rules will apply at Phipps is still a question for the Town.

The weeks around the ribbon-cutting

Phipps reopens during one of the island's busiest early-season stretches:

• Saturday, Nov. 7: The Metropolitan Opera's Così fan tutte at The Society of the Four Arts.
• Tuesday, Nov. 10: "America Takes the Stage: From the White City to Whitehall" opens at the Flagler Museum and runs through May 30, 2027.
• Wednesday, Nov. 11: The Israeli Chamber Project opens Flagler's 2026–27 Music Series.
• Wednesday, Nov. 18: Geoffrey Baer gives the exhibition lecture at Flagler.
• Thursday, Nov. 19, 11 a.m.: Phipps Ocean Park ribbon-cutting and grand opening, with registration through the Foundation.
• Sunday, Dec. 6: Christmas Tree Lighting Festivities at Flagler.
• Sunday, Dec. 13: Carols on the Lawn at the Four Arts.

The Foundation's events calendar also lists a Winter BioBlitz at Williams-Forsyth on Dec. 1, the same kind of native-landscape work the new Coastal Restoration Center is built to support.

An oceanfront park that is owned by the Town, restored mostly with donor money and maintained with Town funds every year affects the South End properties around it, through access, upkeep and the view from the road. If you own near Phipps or are weighing a move on that stretch of South Ocean Boulevard and want to talk through how the reopened park fits a longer-term ownership plan, Gregory Glenn is glad to talk it over. Schedule a Consultation.