Bryant Park: What's new and what's coming
Lake Worth Beach's downtown waterfront park is undergoing improvements as its neighbor to the west, the renovated Gulfstream Hotel, prepares to open later this year.
AS THE RENOVATED Gulfstream Hotel prepares to open later this year, improvements are being made to public facilities at Bryant Park, Lake Worth Beach’s popular downtown waterfront park east of the hotel.
Some upgrades have recently been completed. Others are on the way and in the planning stages.
Here’s a quick summary.
NEW PAVILION
A $100,000 upgrade to the pavilion and bathrooms at south Bryant Park opened to the public last week with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. New features include a roof, tables, and bathrooms.
FITNESS COURT
A $245,000 outdoor fitness court with various exercise machines will be installed later this summer between Second and Third avenues south later, with an expected fall opening. It will replace old and outdated equipment. City commissioners are scheduled to vote on the purchase order April 7.
A local artist will be chosen to paint a mural on the back of the court, with a $5,000 grant from National Fitness Campaign, the company installing the equipment.
JETTY CLOSE TO OPENING?
The jetty south of the boat launch has been closed since late October for repairs. The “goal” is to complete the repairs “by the end of April,” Interim City Manager Jamie Brown said. He did not answer a question asking what, if any, work has been done since Nov. 1, 2025. The work calls for replacing broken and warped wood deck boards, side railings and electrical lighting, along with adding new fill to stabilize each side of the walkway.
JETTY EXPANSION PLANS
City officials are working with Palm Beach County on a conceptual jetty expansion plan, including adding a second jetty parallel to the existing one, as shown in the map below. Brown said the city and county are looking for grants to help pay for the work.
NEW SHADE TREES
Later this month, 28 green buttonwoods will be planted in and around the south Bryant Park Playground and Wellness Walk. The $13,167 project is the third phase of a park-wide shade initiative led by the citizens group Neighbors Encouraging Shade Trees in partnership with the city. The 25-gallon trees will grow 30 to 45 feet in height.
JEWELL SKELETON HOUSE
The Historical Society of Lake Worth is working with the city to install a framed structure at the southwest end of Bryant Park to commemorate the original Jewell Post Office, established by Fannie and Samuel James, the first permanent American settlers and key founders of what would become the city of Lake Worth.
The so-called “skeleton house,” also known as a “ghost house,’’ would be an outline of the structure with no walls or roof on approximately the original site of the James Homestead, near the current historical marker in south Bryant Park.
It would be near the newly-renovated pavilion where the James’ are celebrated on a wall mural.
GULFSTREAM HOTEL
Bryant Park is immediately east of the Gulfstream Hotel (in video below on March 2, 2026), which is supposed to open later this year as a Marriott Bonvoy hotel with 90 rooms. Built in 1925, the hotel has been shuttered since 2005.
The Marriott website says The Gulfstream Hotel will open Sept. 2, although the earliest available booking is Nov. 4, at $475 a night.
The improvements and plans are part of an overall strategy to spruce up the waterfront park, where some visitors have been blamed for vandalizing bathrooms and pavilions.
City commissioners in February passed controversial new rules banning groups from using Bryant Park as a staging area to share food with the homeless.
Later this year, the city might create a park ranger program that would include patrols at Bryant Park.