Boca Paddle Opens Nov. 18, and North Park Is Taking Shape Around It

Boca Paddle by CityPickle is scheduled to open Wednesday, Nov. 18, at 50 W. Jeffery St. in Boca Teeca. The 100,000-square-foot club is the newest part of North Park, which the Greater Boca Raton Beach & Park District is building on the former Ocean Breeze golf course. The District bought the closed course in 2018. Once the club opens, it will be only the second part of the park people can actually use. The first was a Traffic Garden for young bike and scooter riders, which opened last year.

That order shapes what the park will be like in the near term. North Park is filling in from its southeast corner. The first large building there is a membership club on public land. The trails, dog park and playground on the east side are still under construction, and the new railroad crossing that will connect the park to the east is reported to be finished in late 2027. Once the club opens, the simplest way to see the old Ocean Breeze grounds will be a table at its restaurant, which will take walk-ins.

The corner of NW 2nd Avenue and Jeffery Street, in order

North Park's pieces are arriving one at a time. Here is where each one stands ahead of the club's opening:

Butters Construction is a co-founder of Boca Paddle, and in 2026 District commissioners also chose Butters Construction & Development to develop the 70 acres on North Park's east side. The District held the east-side groundbreaking in the southeast parking lot next to Boca Paddle, at NW 2nd Avenue and Jeffery Street. Guests toured the club building after the ceremony, Boca Post reported.

Three ways in without a membership

Boca Post called Boca Paddle "a private club on public property." The club calls itself membership-based, but it has also published several ways for non-members to get in. In order of cost:

1. Farmer's Kitchen by Farmer's Table. This full-service restaurant and bar is led by Chef Michael Schenk. According to TAPinto Boca Raton, it will be open to the public without a membership or day pass.
2. A free guest visit. Each person can visit once every 60 days as a member's guest. Court rentals and programming during that visit are charged at member rates.
3. A paid day pass. The 2026 rate is $35 for Boca Raton residents with proof of residence and $40 for everyone else. You can buy one as often as you like. Day-pass holders can book pickleball and padel courts during any available hours and join intro clinics at member rates. Other club programming is for members only.

The $5 resident discount follows from how the club came about. In 2023, during the District's review of the proposal, a commissioner pushed for District residents to get the best rates and time slots. At that same meeting, members of the public asked for free outdoor pickleball courts and for family-friendly activities at North Park.

A membership does not include court time. Boca Post reported that the club's FAQ describes Boca Paddle as pay-to-play at member rates, with court rentals, open play, clinics and leagues billed separately. Individual memberships currently start at $49 a month for Community, $149 for Standard and $299 for Plus. There is no initiation fee, and couple and family options are also offered. Plus is the only tier with play built in: 12 open-play passes a month. The club plans to cap membership at 1,000 members through 2026.

Set the tiers next to the day pass. A resident who plays twice a month on day passes spends $70. The Community tier costs $49 a month, but court time is still extra. Which one costs less depends on how often you play.

What the building holds besides courts

The club has 25 courts: 19 cushioned pickleball courts, one of them a stadium court built for tournaments, and six high-clearance padel courts. Sixteen courts are indoors and climate-controlled, 14 for pickleball and two for padel. The other nine are outdoors. Five are under a canopy and four are open.

The stadium court has a professional tenant. Boca Paddle will be the official home of Major League Pickleball's Palm Beach Royals. The club's investors include professional players Anna Bright, Ben Johns, JW Johnson, Jorja Johnson and Gabriel Tardio, as well as the fitness operator Life Time.

Beyond the courts, the building has The Zone for warm-up, recovery equipment and physical therapy services. It also has locker rooms with showers, saunas, cold plunge pools, a pro shop, and coworking space with free Wi-Fi and phone booths. The club has hired 80 employees.

One feature serves the wider community. The building is hurricane-resistant and designed to meet FEMA standards, so it can serve as a public shelter. Noise came up during approval. In 2023, the Boca Raton Tribune reported a commissioner's concern about sound reaching nearby homes. The architect answered that the building itself would buffer it.

The east side is most of the park

The club sits on North Park's southeast corner. The phase now under construction covers 70 acres east of NW 2nd Avenue. According to the District's groundbreaking notice, it will add more than five miles of walking and riding trails, a dog park, a playground, exercise equipment along some trails, and more than 1,000 native trees.

Most of the current work is in the ground. Crews have been removing invasive trees and plants, as code requires. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is overseeing cleanup of soil left contaminated by chemicals from the golf course years. The whole project is being built to Sustainable SITES Initiative standards.

The skatepark and pump track are planned for the same side of the property. Commissioners unanimously approved a design for a 42,000-square-foot skatepark in January. The District's North Park project page says design, permitting and City reviews must be finished before construction starts.

The crossing that will connect it from the east

For now, the club lists access from Federal Highway and I-95. A more direct route is under construction. On Oct. 30, the City of Boca Raton announced a recent groundbreaking for the Jeffery Street railroad crossing, just east of NW 2nd Avenue where Clint Moore Road ends. The new crossing replaces the former NW 28th Street crossing, and the City names access to North Park as one of its purposes. A $2 million Congressional Community Project Funding award is helping pay for it, and the work is coordinated with Florida East Coast Railway and the Florida Department of Transportation.

The crossing has been planned for years. Boca Daily News reported that the City's 2022 Comprehensive Plan named the extension of Clint Moore Road and Jeffery Street east to Federal Highway a key transportation initiative. The extension creates a continuous corridor from U.S. 441 to Federal Highway. The same report says construction and activation of the crossing will take about a year, running into the last quarter of 2027, with the project fully closed out by the end of 2027. The City keeps project updates on its Jeffery Street page.

For the next year, then, the old Ocean Breeze course will have the Traffic Garden, a new club on its southeast corner, construction crews on the 70 acres beside it, and a rail crossing still being built to the east. Starting Nov. 18, the restaurant tables at Farmer's Kitchen are scheduled to join the Traffic Garden as the parts of the property anyone can use without a pass.

When a park, a club or a new road is coming to a part of Boca Raton, I like to know what each step changes for the homes and streets around it. If you'd like to talk about Boca Teeca, North Park or this corner of northeast Boca, Ashley Washburn would be glad to hear from you. Let's Connect.