Who pays for a free Sunday market on the Civic Lawn, a Halloween double feature on the lawn, or a Tuesday evening run club that starts at New River Landing? In Huizenga Park, part of the answer is a riverfront dining room inside the park, and that restaurant takes its first reservations on October 12.
The reworked park at 32 E. Las Olas Blvd. reopened to the public on January 24, 2026, after a roughly $15 million rebuild. The pieces have been arriving one at a time since then. A burger kiosk came first, then a bakery, then a season of free programs on the lawn. Sweetwaters, the riverfront restaurant, is the last piece, and the park's operating plan was built around it.
A Park Funded Like a Development
The Fort Lauderdale Downtown Development Authority owns and operates Huizenga Park. City parks are usually paid for through the city's capital budget. This one was financed in layers, and the timeline shows how they fit together:
- 2022. Perkins&Will presented its design, and the State of Florida committed $950,000 toward construction.
- 2023. The Fort Lauderdale City Commission pledged $5 million, and the new Huizenga Park Foundation launched a capital campaign.
- May 2024. Construction began.
- June 2025. The adjacent Riverwalk Reimagined project was unveiled.
- November 2025. Construction started on the Sweetwaters restaurant inside the park.
- January 24, 2026. The park reopened to the public.
About $8 million of the roughly $15 million came from private donations. The park's board committed to maintaining the park permanently, with a full-time groundskeeper, dedicated security, and about 250 free public programs planned each year. It also planned an on-site restaurant meant to provide a steady stream of operating revenue.
That last item explains the rest of this post. Two hundred fifty programs a year averages out to more than four a week, and that schedule needs ongoing funding, not just a ribbon cutting. Urban Land Institute's account of the project names the restaurant as part of how that schedule is supposed to be sustained.
What the First Full Fall Looks Like
This is the first autumn the rebuilt park has had a complete calendar. Here is what the park's own listings show for October and November 2026, sorted by day of the week so the routine is easier to see:
- Tuesdays, 6:30 p.m. The Huizenga Park Weekly Two Mile Run Club meets at New River Landing. Listed dates include October 6, 13 and 20. The park describes New River Landing as a raised circular wooden deck connecting the Riverwalk to the park.
- Wednesdays, 6 p.m. Free, all-ages "Thriller" flash-mob practices led by Lily Coniglio run October 14 and 28, ahead of a performance at the October 30 movie night.
- Thursdays, 10 a.m. Mommy & Me Riverside Pilates offers gentle movement and breathwork for parents and young children on October 8 and 22 and November 5 and 19.
- Saturdays, 9 a.m. FTL Free Workout Saturdays are listed for 9 a.m. on October 10, 17 and 24. The November 7 entry shows a 7 to 8 p.m. time. On the evening of October 10, Kirk Zieser has a pop-up performance from 7 to 8 p.m.
- Alternate Sundays, noon to 4 p.m. The Community Market, presented by Sunnyside Up Market, fills the Civic Lawn with local artisans, small businesses, food vendors and a live DJ on October 11 and 25 and November 8 and 22.
- Friday, October 30. The Monthly Movie on the Lawn becomes a Halloween double feature of Toy Story of Terror and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Activities start at 5:30 p.m., and the films begin at 7 p.m.
A couple of listings show conflicting times on their own pages. The November 3 Run Club entry shows a 7 p.m. start in its main time field, and the November 7 workout entry shows an evening time. The park calendar has the current details for each event, including any RSVP requirement. Entry to the park is free.
Three Counters Covering Three Parts of the Day
The food in the park comes in an order that lines up with the calendar above, and with each new tenant the park covers more of the day.
Mr. Smash Burgers came first. It operates from a kiosk in Legacy Terrace at 32-A E. Las Olas Blvd. and serves smash burgers, fries, milkshakes and premium ice cream. The DDA's reporting confirms it was open by February 11, 2026. The park describes Legacy Terrace as its concessions area with shaded café seating.
Ophelia added mornings. Husband-and-wife chefs Ana De Sa Martins and Juan Vieira started the bakery last year by serving customers through the window of a converted RV in a Coconut Grove parking lot. Their Huizenga Park location serves scratch-made pastries and specialty coffee, including a bacon, egg and cheese on a house-made English muffin, coffee-glazed cinnamon rolls and a guava kouign-amann. Miami New Times listed it as open in its September 30 roundup. For anyone at the Saturday 9 a.m. workout or the Thursday Pilates session, breakfast is now in the same park.
Sweetwaters adds evenings. The family-owned hospitality group behind Miami's Rusty Pelican is opening a nearly 300-seat waterfront restaurant at 58 E. Las Olas Blvd., with coastal cooking, cocktails, outdoor patios and views of the New River. Reservations begin October 12. Dinner comes first, followed by breakfast and lunch. As of today, October 4, it has not opened.
Sweetwaters is the tenant the operating plan depends on most. A kiosk and a bakery give people reasons to stay in the park longer. A full-service restaurant of that size on the river is the kind of business ULI's account refers to when it describes an on-site restaurant meant to produce steady revenue for the park.
The timing also fits the local calendar. Tim Petrillo of The Restaurant People, who is opening Naia a few blocks east at 904 E. Las Olas Blvd., described the city's year this way to New Times:
"Our season in Fort Lauderdale is pre-boat show and post-boat show. That's the real marker of season kickoff."
The Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show arrives in late October. That gives Sweetwaters roughly two weeks of dinner service before the season starts, and it gives the park a restaurant in operation just as the city's busiest months begin.
What the Design Was Meant to Do
James Phillips, the Perkins&Will senior landscape architect who managed the project, said the team pictured Huizenga Park as downtown's "front porch, backyard, and living room." The goal was a place built into everyday downtown life, not an occasional destination. The fall calendar puts that goal into practice. A Tuesday run, a Thursday morning class, a Saturday workout and an alternate-Sunday market give people a reason to come back several times a week, not just once a season.
The site map supports that kind of repeat use. The 3.6-acre park is laid out as a series of named outdoor spaces. They include the Civic Lawn at the center, Las Olas Plaza, Whit's Way, The Nook, Legacy Terrace and the restored Spirit of Fort Lauderdale Fountain. Farther along are the LOVE Mural, the Head with Butterflies Sculpture, Liberty Circle, River View and Riverwalk Terrace, a palm-shaded seating area. Dogs can run off leash inside The Dog Spot, and Poppy's Play Patch is a play area of low mounds for children. The Park Pavilion has public restrooms during park hours. For anyone arriving by water, the park is Water Trolley Stop #2.
Part of the engineering sits under the lawn. Instead of letting rainwater run into the New River, the DDA installed a deep injection well that sends it down to the aquifer. The ground rises about three feet from one end of the park to the other to steer stormwater toward that well. That gentle slope across the Civic Lawn is part of the drainage system.
The Same Approach, Six Blocks Away
The DDA treats Huizenga Park as a test case. Its leaders told Urban Land that the agency has limited control over downtown's wider park network, so it focused on the one site it owns and runs as an example for others. The DDA has since signed a memorandum of understanding with the city to start conceptual design and public engagement on another site of about 3.5 acres, roughly six blocks from Huizenga Park. The parcel is vacant and has never been public open space. DDA leaders said it will not be a copy of Huizenga Park because the setting is different.
That makes this fall a working test of whether the funding approach succeeds. Donors and public money covered construction, and about 250 free programs a year keep the lawn in use. Starting October 12, a riverfront restaurant joins the burger kiosk and the bakery as the park's food tenants. If Sweetwaters does well, the free calendar has a steady source of support, and the DDA has a stronger case for its next site.
Downtown residents often weigh what a neighborhood's public spaces add to daily life, whether they are deciding to stay or wondering what their own place is worth. Hasnaa Boutros follows changes like the Huizenga Park opening closely, and she's glad to talk through what they mean for your building or your block. You can also request a free home valuation that accounts for what's new along the river.
