What’s New in The Palm Beaches
Fall 2016 through 2017
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (November 1, 2016) — Inspiring vacationers since the late 1800s, The Palm Beaches continue to expand upon its collection of world-class experiences. Located between Miami and Orlando, America’s First Resort Destination® is a collection of 39 diverse cities and towns that span more than 2,200 square miles and stretch 47 miles of pristine Atlantic Ocean beaches from Boca Raton to Jupiter and Tequesta. With something for everyone, this slice of paradise invites visitors to come discover what’s new, as it continues to prove that this destination is The Best Way to Experience Florida®.
NEW HOTEL OPENINGS
Since June 2014, Palm Beach County has added 635 new hotel rooms, and another 708 rooms are under construction and are expected to be completed between October and March of 2017.
The Boca Raton Mandarin Oriental is set to debut in downtown Boca Raton in late 2017. The 158-room property will include two adjacent towers that will form part of an upscale mixed-use development featuring 65,000 square feet of luxury lifestyle retail, as well as a world-class private club, which will offer social, fitness, spa and championship golf amenities. The property will also offer extensive banqueting and meeting space, including an expansive 4,500 square-foot ballroom and a variety of adaptable conference rooms. This is Mandarin Oriental’s second property in Florida.
Another exciting development coming to downtown Boca Raton is the addition of the new 200-room Hyatt Place hotel. Located in the heart of downtown, the 13-story property will be only one mile from the blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
West Palm Beach is set to become home to one of eight new Canopy by Hilton Hotels. The brand’s concept is touted as an energized and natural extension of its neighborhood, with local design, food and drink, and culture. In 2017, ground will break for the new 150-room, 14-story hotel, which will be built two blocks from CityPlace.
Aloft Delray Beach will break ground in spring 2017 in the SofA (South of Atlantic Avenue) district. Developers expect the 122-room hotel to open in 2018.
HOTEL RENOVATIONS
In December 2016, The Breakers’ new Seafood Bar will welcome guests with spectacular vistas of the Atlantic Ocean from all angles, placing them as impossibly close to the Atlantic as one could be in an enclosed restaurant. Long regarded for its remarkably fresh and impeccably prepared seafood, phenomenal wines and cocktails, the Seafood Bar is currently undergoing a full makeover by Adam D. Tihany, design consultant to Peacock + Lewis Architects. The new design will feature a bespoke nautical theme with stunning detailing to create the sense of dining aboard a private luxury yacht. While resonating a fresh, new elegant aesthetic of modern sensibility, the Seafood Bar will not just retain but elevate its beloved, panoramic ocean view, its captivating aquarium bar, and of course, the freshest fish available.
The AAA Four Diamond-rated Palm Beach Marriott Singer Island Beach Resort & Spa has unveiled the results of its $6.8 million renovation that has infused the popular resort with a relaxed, breezy coastal style. The new design blurs the lines between indoor and out, bringing ocean-inspired colors and textures in, while encouraging guests to step out and enjoy the fresh air and beachfront setting. Renovated areas include guest suites, lobby area, dining and meeting spaces.
Waterstone Resort & Marina, an upscale, art deco, waterfront resort hotel in Boca Raton, was announced as one of the newest additions to Curio – A Collection by HiltonTM in October 2016. The 11-story boutique hotel’s 139 guest rooms and suites offer private balconies with panoramic views of the Atlantic Ocean, Lake Boca or the Intracoastal Waterway. A particularly distinguishing feature is the Waterstone Resort & Marina’s nearly 200 feet of boat docking facilities and promenade. It serves as the centerpiece for watersports, boating and sailing options, as well as enchanting waterfront dining.
The 33,000-square-foot Sports and Racquet Club facility at the PGA National Resort & Spa recently underwent an impressive $4 million comprehensive facelift. Upgrades include state-of-the-art exercise equipment, an indoor racquet ball court, three aerobics studios with new sound systems, a five-lane saltwater lap pool, a spin room with video road mapping, an indoor volleyball court, two lighted pickle/paddle ball courts, 18 Har Tru tennis courts (11 lit for night play) and one lighted hard court with a hitting wall.
TRANSPORTATION
Palm Beach International Airport’s (PBI) updated 2016–2017 fall/winter flight schedule offers more than 200 daily nonstop flights to 27 domestic and international destinations. New domestic airlift includes service from Minneapolis (MSP) by way of Sun Country and Delta Airlines as of mid-December 2016. Beginning on October 31, Frontier Airlines will offer nonstop service from Chicago (ORD), as well as its seasonal return of direct service from Denver (DEN).
Additional dates of resumed service for PBI’s 2016–2017 fall/winter seasonal flight schedule include:
- Air Canada will continue its daily, seasonal nonstop service from Montreal (YUL) and increase flights to Toronto (YYZ) effective December 16, 2016.
- American Airlines from New York (LGA) resumes December 15, 2016 and Charlotte (CLT), Chicago (ORD), Dallas (DFW), Philadelphia (PHL) and Washington (DCA) all receive an additional daily flight in November/December 2016.
- Delta Airlines from New York (JFK) returns as of December 22, 2016, Boston (BOS) service returns on December 21, 2016, and Atlanta (ATL) and New York (LGA) receive additional daily flights in December 2016.
- JetBlue Airways from Boston (BOS), New York (JFK), and Newark (EWR) resume daily flights as of December 20, 2016.
- Silver Airlines from Marsh Harbour (MHH) begins on November 19, 2016.
- Southwest Airlines from Long Island (ISP) and Philadelphia (PHL) resumes daily service on November 5, 2016, Chicago (MDW), Hartford (BDL), Pittsburgh (PIT) and Providence (PVD) begin as of March 9, 2017, and Baltimore (BWI) gains an additional daily flight as of March 9, 2017.
- Spirit Airlines from Atlantic City (ACY) and Boston (BOS) resumes daily service from November 10, 2016.
- United Airlines from Houston (IAH) service resumed on October 6, 2016 and Newark (EWR) will receive additional daily flights beginning November 3, 2016.
- WestJet from Toronto (YYZ) will resume December 9, 2016 through April 28, 2017.
Brightline, the express inter-city passenger rail service, is expected to begin in summer of 2017. The highly anticipated train will connect West Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale in 30 minutes, and to Miami in 60 minutes. Phase two of Brightline will connect West Palm Beach directly to the Orlando International Airport’s in just two hours.
NEW RESTAURANTS – NOW OPEN
James Beard Award-nominated Chef Clay Conley and his partners in Buccan Group opened Grato, a modern Italian trattoria-inspired restaurant in West Palm Beach, in early 2016. Grato, which means “grateful” in Italian, features an approachable family-style menu and a warm, welcoming atmosphere. Serving lunch, dinner and Sunday brunch, Conley showcases his mastery of ingredients and technique through rustic Italian cuisine and soulful dishes, made from the highest-quality local ingredients.
In September 2016, celebrated South Florida Chef and season nine “Top Chef” finalist Lindsay Autry, along with partner and seasoned restaurateur Thierry Beaud, opened THE REGIONAL Kitchen & Public House to critical acclaim. Located in downtown West Palm Beach’s popular dining and entertainment destination, CityPlace, Autry’s hand-crafted, soulful menu blends her Southern roots with Mediterranean flavors. Guests of The Regional will find a rather unique attribute to her kitchen: an open pantry stocked with hand-selected fresh, local ingredients from local farms to complement the American cuisine on Chef Autry’s evolving menu.
Chef Clay Carnes, winner of The Food Network’s “Cutthroat Kitchen: Time Warp Tournament,” opened his new restaurant, Cholo Soy Cocina, in September 2016. Cholo Soy Cocina is a cozy restaurant in West Palm Beach that serves a new kind of Latin street food. With an inventive menu, Chef Carnes’ concept is that of a small eatery serving a well-focused selection of fresh tacos, Andean-inspired street foods, and dishes reflecting regionally-grown ingredients, as well as tortillas made of organic, non-GMO white corn grown in Alachua County.
Che!! Restaurant, the popular international eatery from Spain, opened its first U.S. location in Delray Beach in September 2016. This casually sophisticated dining destination blends Argentine and Spanish influences, with the allure of a modern steakhouse in a grand, waterfront setting along the buzzing Atlantic Avenue.
Junior’s Restaurant & Cheesecake, a Brooklyn-based eatery famous for its old-fashioned cheesecake, opened in October 2016 at Mizner Park in Boca Raton. The popular restaurant features a full bar and takeout, as well as a section devoted to selling cheesecakes to go.
NEW RESTAURANTS – COMING SOON
The Jupiter waterfront will welcome 1000 North, a new restaurant partly-owned by NBA star Michael Jordan, in 2017. The first floor of the 340-seat restaurant, which also will have an indoor and outdoor bar, will be open to the public, while the 1,500-square-foot second floor will be dedicated to members and their guests only. The second floor will have a 450-square-foot outdoor patio for food and beverages.
A new food and drink-centric district is coming to West Palm Beach in 2017. The Warehouse District, an eclectic urban neighborhood comprised of eight vintage-style buildings, is experiencing a transformation spearheaded by local food and beverage vendors, artists, fitness enthusiasts and entrepreneurs. Boasting a New York-inspired food hall, Grange Hall Market, the 85,000-square-foot district is located southwest of the Palm Beach County Convention Center near downtown West Palm Beach.
Blake Malatesta, the awarding-winning former chef of 50 Ocean in Delray Beach, is set to open his first restaurant at the end of 2016. MIA Kitchen & Bar, a modern, adventurous restaurant focused on Floridian cuisine, will be located on West Atlantic Avenue in Delray. The name stands for the core values of the concept—Modern, Inventive, Authentic—but it’s also a play on the names of the eatery’s sister restaurants. Malatesta, now a partner with restaurateurs that own family-style Italian eateries Mamma Mia’s Trattoria and Mamma Mia’s Express, set out to open his own modern concept. The restaurant will serve inventive dishes with uncommon ingredients like gator, rabbit and frog legs.
Chef Matthew Byrne, former private chef to Tiger Woods, is launching a pop-up shop called “Prep Kitchen” that will be located next door to his existing restaurant, Kitchen. With plans to open before Christmas 2016, the intimate hangout will serve as a wine shop and tasting room, as well as a place to purchase the restaurant’s celebrated cakes and pies.
In November 2016, Rapoport’s Restaurant Group will open a new restaurant concept called Rappy’s in Boca Raton. Rappy’s will open with service for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and catering, as well as a full service bar. Additionally, there will be a 30-foot deli takeout area offering virtually every item on the menu to go.
TooJay’s, known for its piled-high sandwiches and traditional, homemade comfort foods, recently celebrated the opening of its newest West Palm Beach restaurant within the Palm Beach Outlets. The restaurant preserves familiar elements of its New York deli heritage in the contemporary, new décor. With signature menu items, such as made-from-scratch matzo ball soup and brisket, the newest location is TooJay’s 10th restaurant in Palm Beach County.
Culver’s Butter Burgers & Frozen Custard, a popular restaurant chain in the upper Midwest, will open its first location in The Palm Beaches in Jupiter this November. Established in 1984 in Sauk City, Wis., by dairy farmers George and Ruth Culver, the chain was built for the butter burger fans. The restaurant also serves custard, chicken, desserts and sandwiches.
NEW ORGANIC WINERY AND CRAFT BREWERY UPDATE
Newly opened in April 2016, Sons & Daughters Farm & Winery is an organic farm that also produces organic wines, most notably from Hibiscus Sabdariffa. Their organic wines are all grown, fermented and bottled on their 17-acre farm. Visitors can sit down and savor a glass in their communal tasting room.
In late 2016, nano-brewers Dominick Peri and Ken Gross will open Prosperity Brewers in Boca Raton. The one-barrel brew house will be located inside a 2,400-square-foot warehouse bay, 900 feet of which have been fashioned into a tasting room and lounge area. The duo will brew a number of styles and offer a diverse range of constantly-rotating recipes from 15 taps. The brewery’s core profiles are currently slated with an IPA, double IPA, hefeweizen, wit, English mild and saison. With more than a dozen wine and liquor barrels already in-house, the team also plans to launch an in-house aging program.
NOBO Brewing Company, also scheduled to open in late 2016, will become the fourth brew house on tap in Boynton Beach’s NOBO (North Boynton Beach) District. Led by two brothers, the five-barrel brewery will have a neighborhood approach, serving “small batch local handcrafted beer.”
The creators behind Tequesta Brewing Company and Twisted Trunk are expanding once again – this time with Steam Horse Brewing. Plans are set to open the 6,000-square-foot brewery and tasting room in West Palm Beaches’ new Warehouse District in early 2017.
Downtown West Palm Beach will soon have its first craft brewery, tap room and wine vault, called West Palm Brewery & Wine Vault. Set to open in the first half of 2017, the brewery will be located only one block away from the West Palm Beach Brightline station.
Prosperity Brewers, NOBO Brewing and Steam Horse will join 12 existing craft and nano-breweries in The Palm Beaches, which include Due South Brewing Co., Copperpoint Brewing Co. and Devour Brewing in Boynton Beach, Accomplice Brewery & Ciderworks and Dixie Grill & Brewery in West Palm Beach, Funky Buddha Lounge & Brewery, Barrel of Monks and Brewzzi in Boca Raton, Saltwater Brewery in Delray Beach, Civil Society Brewing in Jupiter, Tequesta Brewing in Tequesta and Twisted Trunk in Palm Beach Gardens.
In other exciting brew news, Due South Brewing Company is on track to brew 7,000 barrels in 2016, making it one of the largest production breweries in South Florida. In addition to an expanded distribution territory, Due South is also expanding their production facility, almost doubling in size for a total of 27,000 square feet. The added space will allow for an indoor beer garden, a large air conditioned tap room, a dedicated area for barrel aging and a sour program.
On December 3, the new Palm Beach Winter Beer Festival will commence at the South Florida Fairgrounds in West Palm Beach. Guests will have the chance to sample more than 100 beers and ciders from local producers, as well as mainstream favorites.
NEW SPORT AND ECO ADVENTURES
The Ballpark of The Palm Beaches will open for Spring Training 2017, welcoming the Washington Nationals and the Houston Astros, along with their many fans. The state-of-the-art, two-team facility offers a fan-friendly layout with a 6,500-seat stadium as its centerpiece. The Astros and Nationals training areas each feature a six-field layout that is inviting and easily navigated by fans.
In November 2016, the long-awaited 10-mile Bluegill Trail will celebrate its completion. The multiuse trail for pedestrians, hikers, cyclists and equestrians connects Riverbend Park in Jupiter to Grassy Waters Preserve in West Palm Beach, and offers spectacular views of the Loxahatchee Slough Natural Area.
The Ana Cecilia, a 170-foot Halter Marine general cargo ship built in 1972, was sunk 1.25 miles off the Lake Worth Inlet in 85-feet of water in July 2016, where it is in the natural process of becoming a marine habitat as part of the artificial reef system managed by the Palm Beach County Department of Environmental Resources Management (ERM). It is the 45th ship to be scuttled in Palm Beach County (PBC) in recent decades, drawing divers away from natural reefs, ensuring their sustainability.
NEW AND REFRESHED CULTURAL EXPERIENCES
The award-winning Maltz Jupiter Theatre has announced its plans for an approximately $25-$30 million expansion to begin following its 2017-2018 season. Construction for the regional not-for-profit Theatre is expected to be fully by November 2019. Under the current plan, the Theatre’s improved stage will be ten feet deeper and six feet wider on either side, enabling the Theatre to qualify for Pre-Broadway and National Tours. A third-floor rehearsal studio will provide actors with a view, and residents will have the opportunity to see actors working and rehearsing. A proposed second space will provide the opportunity for audience diversity. The Theatre’s Goldner Conservatory of Performing Arts will double in size, allowing students the opportunity to receive a high-quality, dynamic arts education in state-of-the-art facilities.
In February 2016, The Norton Museum of Art began its dramatic transformation to “The New Norton.” The Museum, a cultural icon in the destination since its founding in 1941, is set to debut its new facilities in 2018. The expansion and renovation will further serve visitors by enhancing its 6.3-acre campus with an additional 12,000-square-feet of gallery space for exhibitions, an education center with two new classrooms and student gallery, a 210-seat, state-of-the-art auditorium, an adjoining 9,000-square-foot sculpture garden, a 4,000-square-foot soaring Great Hall, a versatile dining pavilion with garden terrace, and six restored historic-houses to accommodate an artists-in-residence program and the Director’s home.
In summer 2016, the interactive Silverball Museum in Delray Beach opened to great delight. Featuring more than 150 video games and pinball machines dating as far back as the 1930s, this unique museum brings a bit of nostalgia to visitors. Evoking childhood memories for adults while creating new memories for younger generations, the 9,000-square-foot museum offers classic videogames such as Atari, Asteroid and Baby Pac-Man, two-floors of pinball machines, arcade games and even the original skee ball alleys from New York’s Coney Island – Eldorado Arcade.
Mounts Botanical Garden has begun construction on a new permanent exhibit, Windows on the Floating World, a series of see-through walkways and permanent and moveable aquatic plants that will allow visitors to feel and connect to the tropical wetlands around them. Windows on the Floating World will feature transparent, open-gridded, 3-foot wide walkways on the surface of the wetlands to give visitors the feeling of walking on water.
NEW SPA & WELLNESS EXPERIENCES
Celebrated for its award-winning spas and wellness offerings, The Palm Beaches hosted its inaugural Spa & Wellness Month in October 2016. The month-long promotion provided exclusive savings at more than 20 of the destination’s most prominent spa and wellness facilities. The success of the Spa & Wellness Month will continue in 2017, when it celebrates its second year.
Realizing the importance of ongoing R&R for its male guests, SiSpa at the Palm Beach Marriott Singer Island Beach Resort & Spa has rolled out a new selection of “Admiral Services of the Si” to help men stay in shipshape condition. Designed to improve skin health and overall wellbeing, the “Admiral Services of the Si” treatments – ranging from scrubs to facials and hand and foot care – make an ideal addition to a guy’s getaway or a couple’s retreat. The “Admiral’s Services of the Si” menu includes a Bourbon Body Scrub, a Sailor’s Healing Facial, and a Captain’s Manicure and Pedicure.
About Discover The Palm Beaches
Discover The Palm Beaches, formerly the Palm Beach County Convention and Visitors Bureau, is the official tourism marketing corporation that promotes the collection of 39 cities and towns and 15 tourism districts spanning more than 2,200 square miles and 47 miles of pristine beaches from Boca Raton to Jupiter and Tequesta, commonly referred to as “The Palm Beaches.” Tourism is among Palm Beach County’s major industries, generating $4.55 billion in direct visitor spending and supporting more than 60,000 jobs. Once recognized as a tropical escape for elite travelers in the late 1800s, America’s First Resort Destination® is making its resurgence as The Best Way To Experience Florida®, welcoming a record-breaking 6.9 million people in 2015. The Palm Beaches are home to nearly 17,000 hotel rooms, ranging from historic resorts to boutique inns. The destination features more than 100 family-friendly attractions, world-class luxury and antique shopping experiences, 125 miles of peaceful waterways for on- or in-the-water activities, more than 150 artificial reefs that line the Atlantic Ocean’s Gulf Stream current, 160 golf courses, award-winning restaurants, and a thriving entertainment scene boasting more than 200 art and culture organizations. For more information about The Palm Beaches, visit www.ThePalmBeaches.com and connect on social media via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @PalmBeachesFL, YouTube at Discover The Palm Beaches and the hashtag, #ThePalmBeaches.
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