For a long time, the stretch of downtown Fort Lauderdale running along the New River functioned as a backdrop — a place visitors photographed and residents passed through on the way somewhere else. The Riverwalk existed, the museums existed, the boats moved. But the daily-use infrastructure that would make someone actually organize their weekend around this corridor was thin.
That has changed in 2026. And the change is not just cosmetic.
Three of the largest investments in the New River corridor's recent history — a $15 million public park, a multibillion-dollar resort rebuild, and a new signature restaurant scheduled to open this fall — are all aimed at the same person: someone who lives downtown and comes back every week. The tourist infrastructure is still here. But the city is now building on top of it for residents.
Huizenga Park Opened in January. Here Is What Is Different Now.
Huizenga Park at Las Olas Boulevard and Andrews Avenue closed for a two-year, $15 million redesign and reopened on January 24 and 25, 2026, with a two-day community celebration. The redesign was led by global architecture and landscape firm Perkins&Will, with construction by MBR Construction, and funded through a public-private-philanthropic partnership involving the City of Fort Lauderdale, the State of Florida, the Downtown Development Authority, and private donors.
The physical change is not subtle. The 3.6-acre site has been reconfigured as a riverfront civic space with water promenades, new gathering areas, and a programming calendar built around weekly use — not annual festivals. Ongoing programming launched January 27: the Sunny Side Up Market runs the last Sunday of every month on-site, and a rotating local food vendor concession keeps the space active between events.
The anchor dining concept breaks ground now and opens later. Sweetwaters — a full-service restaurant from Specialty Restaurants Corporation, the team behind Miami's Rusty Pelican — will seat 291 guests across 6,140 square feet of indoor dining and a 3,500-square-foot riverfront patio when it opens in fall 2026. Architecture by JVB Architect and interiors by ICRAVE are designed to face the water and the downtown skyline. The Fort Lauderdale Downtown Development Authority's president, Jenni Morejon, described Sweetwaters as the piece that brings people to the park outside of programmed events — the reason to go on a Tuesday.
What Is Still Arriving Before Year's End
The spring and summer of 2026 complete the picture that January started. Three additions worth marking:
| Concept | Location | Expected Opening |
|---|---|---|
| Pelican Landing | Pier Sixty-Six, 2301 SE 17th St | Spring / Summer 2026 |
| Sweetwaters | Huizenga Park, 32 E. Las Olas Blvd | Fall 2026 |
| Mangos | 9 E. Las Olas Blvd | Late Summer 2026 |
Pelican Landing is the dockside bar on the Intracoastal Waterway that predated Pier Sixty-Six's closure and is returning as part of the resort's rebuilt lineup of twelve dining concepts. The original was described by South Florida food writers as "a piece of quintessential Old Fort Lauderdale" — a low-key spot framed by megayachts where the point was not a tasting menu. That character is reportedly intact in the new version.
Mangos, the beloved Las Olas lounge that closed in 2017 after a quarter-century run, is being rebooted by Tim Petrillo of The Restaurant People — the operator behind S3, Nubé, and YOLO — at its original address. Petrillo has described the new version as health-conscious Mediterranean-Asian while keeping the loungy register of the original.
These are not destination restaurants drawing visitors from elsewhere. They are neighborhood anchors designed for the people who walk Las Olas on a Saturday and want more than one reliable option at the end of it.
The Free Programming Most Residents Haven't Built Into Their Routine Yet
The physical infrastructure gets the attention, but the recurring calendar is where the daily-use logic of this corridor actually lives.
The Sunday Jazz Brunch runs on the first Sunday of every month, 11am to 2pm, at Esplanade Park along the Riverwalk — free, outdoors, and bookable around a walk or a coffee without planning in advance. The free LauderGO! Water Trolley operates eight stops along both banks of the New River and functions as a practical connector between the park, the Broward Center, and Las Olas, not just a sightseeing ride.
The NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale offers free admission to Fort Lauderdale residents on the last Sunday of every month as part of Fort Lauderdale Neighbor Days — which means the same weekend as the Sunny Side Up Market at Huizenga Park, two blocks away, produces a walkable Sunday afternoon without spending anything.
The programming assumes you live here. It is designed for return visits, not a single pass-through.
What the #8 Ranking Actually Signals
In April 2026, Riverwalk Fort Lauderdale was named one of the ten best riverwalks in the country by USA TODAY's 10Best Readers' Choice Awards — its second consecutive year in the ranking, placing at number eight. The recognition landed during what the organization called a milestone year, citing the Huizenga Park reopening and the continued growth of downtown Fort Lauderdale's residential population. The Riverwalk district is now home to more than 10,000 new downtown residents.
That number matters because it explains the investment logic. When a corridor serves 10,000 residents in addition to visitors, the business case for free recurring programming, a full-service riverfront restaurant, and a dockside bar returning from a decade-long absence changes. It is no longer about drawing people in from outside. It is about giving the people already there a reason to stay on this side of the bridge.
The three major additions of 2025 and 2026 — Pier Sixty-Six's January 2025 reopening, Huizenga Park's January 2026 reopening, and the fall 2026 arrival of Sweetwaters — were not planned as a coordinated campaign. But they landed within eighteen months of each other on the same corridor, and they are all oriented the same direction: toward the people who live here year-round rather than the visitors who show up for the boat show.
Most of this corridor's best daily uses are still a few months away. Pelican Landing has not opened yet. Sweetwaters is still a construction site. Mangos is still being rebuilt. The infrastructure, though, is already in place — and the Sunday calendar is running now.
If you are thinking about what life along this corridor looks like as a homeowner or as someone weighing a move into this part of Fort Lauderdale, the picture looks different in 2026 than it did eighteen months ago. Priscilla Gonsalves works with buyers and sellers throughout the Fort Lauderdale market and brings a design-forward perspective to every search. Schedule a consultation to talk through what the current inventory looks like and where the best opportunities sit within this market right now.
