The fairways of the old Ocean Breeze golf course in east Boca Raton are on their way to becoming a public park. The Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District has broken ground on the 70-acre east side of North Park, which will get more than five miles of walking and riding trails, a dog park, a playground and over 1,000 native trees.

From a closed course to a public park

North Park sits in the Boca Teeca section of east Boca Raton, on land that was the Ocean Breeze golf course until the course shut down. The District bought the property in 2018. For years after that, neighbors drove past a large stretch of open green with no way to use it while the District worked out what the land should become.

That has now changed. The District held the groundbreaking for the east side on September 3 in the southeast parking lot near Boca Paddle, at the corner of NW 2nd Avenue and Jeffrey Street. Butters Construction & Development is building this part of the park.

There is a money story behind the timing too. The District paid off the bond it used for North Park in the summer of 2025, nearly seven years ahead of schedule, and has said that early payoff helped speed the park along.

The scale is worth pausing on. Seventy acres is the east side alone, and very few cities as built out as Boca Raton still get the chance to turn a former golf course into public space. The District has chosen to start with the part that most people will use most often: somewhere to walk.

What the east side will have

This phase covers about 70 acres east of NW 2nd Avenue, and it is built for people who like to be outside on their own schedule:

  • More than five miles of trails for walking and riding, with exercise equipment set along some of the routes.
  • A dog park, a welcome addition for a neighborhood full of dog walkers.
  • A playground for younger kids.
  • More than 1,000 native trees once the work is done, which will turn a former golf course into real shade and habitat.

Put together, that is a loop long enough for a real workout: five miles is roughly a ten-thousand-step walk, all inside one park. The playground and dog park give families and pet owners a reason to come back daily, and the exercise stations along the trails turn an ordinary walk into a circuit.

The District is also designing the project to the Sustainable SITES Initiative standards, a rating system for landscapes that rewards things like native planting and responsible water use.

Already open, and coming next

North Park is not starting from zero. Its Traffic Garden, a small-scale streetscape where children learn bike and scooter safety, opened in August 2025. Boca Paddle, a public-private partnership with indoor and covered outdoor courts for pickleball and padel plus a restaurant and viewing areas, is on track to open in late fall.

The District's longer list for North Park includes a skatepark with a pump track, a field house, aquatic facilities and more preserved green space. Each of those will come in its own time, but the east side is the piece that turns the land into a place to walk every day.

What it means if you live nearby

For Boca Teeca and the neighborhoods around it, this is the biggest new stretch of public green space in years, and it is coming to land that was off limits. Once the trails open, a morning loop, a dog run and a playground visit will be a short trip instead of a drive to the beach parks.

The District has not posted an opening date for the east side yet. The best place to watch for updates, and for news on Boca Paddle's opening, is the District's North Park project page. In the meantime, the Traffic Garden is the easiest way to get a first look at the park, especially if you have a young rider at home who is still learning the rules of the road.