Singer Island Says Yes to New Restaurants, No to a New Skyline

Two very different arguments are playing out on Singer Island this summer, and they are happening at opposite ends of the same four-mile strip of sand. On the ocean side, a restaurant that sat empty and half-forgotten has come back to life under new ownership, and the reviews are already calling it overdue. On the bridge side, at the one road that connects the island to the mainland, a developer's 25-story tower has drawn more than 15,000 petition signatures and packed a Riviera Beach church for a two-hour public grilling.

Put those two stories side by side and a pattern shows up that neither one tells on its own. Singer Island residents are not against change. They are against a specific kind of change happening in a specific place, and the reason has almost nothing to do with height for its own sake.

The Beach Side Got Its Appetite Back

For years, the space at 2551 N Ocean Ave sat as the old Mulligan's Beach House, a name longtime residents mention with a kind of resigned nostalgia. It has now reopened as Ocean Ave Bar & Kitchen, built out to seat roughly 260 guests with an event space, full lunch and dinner service seven days a week, and a menu built around fresh seafood and a heavy craft cocktail program, according to reporting from Business Debut. Owners Donna Qvarnstro and Antonio Huerta, who also run Little Jim Bait and Tackle and Cobb's Landing in Fort Pierce, targeted a mid-January opening when construction was underway. By this summer it was open and drawing the kind of review that only comes from genuine local demand: one Yelp reviewer put it plainly, "Singer island has been starving for a place like this."

That reopening fits a broader pattern of hospitality investment on the ocean side of the island. The Singer Oceanfront Resort, now part of Curio Collection by Hilton after a multimillion-dollar renovation, is home to Top Shell, described as the island's only beachfront bar, open to guests and locals from sunrise to sunset with a menu of shareable plates and a rum cocktail called The Singer served in a whole coconut, according to Lifestyle Media Group. The resort's restaurant, Caretta Caretta, opened in August 2024 and takes its name from the Loggerhead sea turtles that nest on the surrounding beaches. General manager Stuart Levy told FSR Magazine he expects the restaurant to become "a go-to dining destination on Singer Island for both resort guests and locals alike." Down at the Palm Beach Marriott, ONA Coastal Cuisine has added a Mediterranean-leaning option to the same stretch, with a menu built on fresh, locally sourced ingredients, per Modern Luxury.

None of this required a public hearing. None of it drew a petition. It is reinvestment inside existing footprints, and the island has welcomed it without a fight.

The Bridge Side Is Where the Line Gets Drawn

Cross to the west side of the island, where Blue Heron Boulevard carries every car onto Singer Island over a bridge that residents describe with real affection. There, New York-based Continuum Company has proposed Singer Island Gateway, a residential tower designed by Arquitectonica at 2525 Lake Drive, assembled from a group of parcels the developer began buying in 2019 and 2021 for a combined $20.3 million, according to Stet News.

The numbers have moved as the project has worked through city review. Early filings described a 25-story tower with 298 residences rising roughly 350 feet, per reporting from Traded. By the time Continuum faced residents at a June meeting, the plans on the table showed 304 condominiums and townhouses, along with restaurant and commercial space and a marina, according to Stet News. The developer has also floated a workforce housing component on nearby church-owned land, which under city rules could unlock additional height, and Continuum has said it would direct the rent from that project, an estimated $300,000 to $400,000 a year, to a consortium of Riviera Beach churches and nonprofits.

At a June meeting held in a Riviera Beach church, the tone from residents was not subtle.

"This is the best bridge on the east coast of America with the amount of inspiration it gives people as they cross from the west to the east."

That was Gary Heiser, a Riviera Beach resident who told WLRN he has snorkeled the waters near the bridge since he was a boy. Susan Melamud, another resident, called the potential shadow impact from the tower irreversible when she spoke at a March City Council meeting, per Stet News.

What's Actually Under That Bridge

Here is the detail that separates this fight from a routine height dispute. The water surrounding the Blue Heron Boulevard Bridge, adjacent to Phil Foster Park, is a nationally recognized shore dive, meaning visitors can walk in from a public park and encounter tropical fish, seahorses, and stingrays without ever taking a boat offshore, according to CBS12. That kind of no-boat-required access is genuinely uncommon, and it is a large part of why the site draws snorkelers and divers from well beyond South Florida. WFLX spoke with visitors on a recent dive, including one who described spotting "a few stingrays, some like rainbow fish" in water most people assume you need a charter to reach.

More than 15,000 people have signed a petition asking the city to protect that reef from the shadow and marina impacts of the proposed tower, per CBS12. Susan Bryan, who started the petition, told the outlet her main concern is the marina rather than the building itself. "We realize that something has to be built on the lot," she said. "But the docks would intrude into the recreational space that everyone is enjoying and has enjoyed for many years."

Continuum has pushed back on the idea that the project ignores those concerns. Arquitectonica vice president Sherri Gutierrez told residents at the June meeting that the design exceeds the city's open space requirement, with 25,000 square feet of public space facing the dive site, and that the team has taken steps to protect the coral, seagrass, and marine life nearby, according to WLRN. The developer has separately pegged the civic plaza portion of the project at around $14 million, a figure reported by Floridian Development.

Where the Approval Process Actually Stands

As of the most recent public reporting, Singer Island Gateway has not been approved. The project still needs sign-off from three separate bodies before anything gets built, per CBS12:

1. The Riviera Beach Planning and Zoning Board
2. The Community Redevelopment Agency
3. The City Council

The June meeting at the church was a public comment session, not a vote, and no Planning and Zoning Board recommendation had been issued as of that meeting. Palm Beach Shores Commissioner Anastasia Karloutsos used her time that night to appeal for a smaller building that could still pencil out financially for the developer, according to Stet News. Whether that compromise finds traction, or whether Continuum pursues additional height under Florida's Live Local Act if the current proposal stalls, is still an open question with no resolution as of this writing.

Phil Foster Park itself remains open to the public and is managed by Palm Beach County, with current facility updates posted on the county's parks page.

Two Doors, One Island

The version of Singer Island that shows up in these two stories is more specific than "growing" or "changing." It is an island willing to absorb reinvestment inside its existing hospitality footprint, evidenced by how quickly Ocean Ave Bar & Kitchen filled a hole that had sat empty for years, and just as willing to organize hard against a project that changes what happens at its only entrance and above a reef that took decades to earn its reputation. Both instincts come from the same place. Residents know what makes this stretch of coastline work, and they are drawing a distinction between adding to it and altering it.

That distinction will keep playing out over the coming months as the Gateway proposal moves, or doesn't move, through Riviera Beach's approval process. Anyone watching Singer Island's character take shape in real time would do well to keep an eye on both ends of the island, not just the one with a dinner reservation attached.

If you are thinking about what any of this means for property values, timing, or simply understanding a neighborhood before you commit to it, Kukla Partners Real Estate Group knows this stretch of coast block by block. Contact us anytime to talk through what's actually happening on the ground here.