If you live in Bay Village, you already know the appeal of a no-fixed-bridge address. Your dock leads straight to the Intracoastal, no waiting on a tender to clear a bascule bridge, no timing your run around a scheduled opening. So when word got around this year that a celebrity chef had opened his first Florida restaurant a short run south, at the foot of Silver Beach Road in Lake Park, it read like exactly the kind of addition a boating neighborhood hopes for.
It is a real restaurant, and it is open. But the marina project that was supposed to surround it, the piece that would have made this a normal tie-up-and-eat stop rather than a special trip, remains subject to litigation between the developer and the Town of Lake Park as of this month. If you are planning to point your boat south this fall, it helps to know which part of that story is finished and which part is not.
What Actually Opened This Year
The restaurants sit on the ground floor of Nautilus 220, the twin 24-story condo towers at 220 Lake Shore Drive. SeaHawk Prime, chef David Burke's first Florida restaurant, opened for dinner in mid-January 2026, with Sunday brunch starting January 18. The Birdie Dockside Bar and Grill, Burke's more casual sports-bar concept with its own kitchen and golf simulator bays, followed in February. The building itself held its official grand opening on March 25, 2026, marking the completion of the two towers and their retail and restaurant space along the Lake Park Harbor Marina.
Burke has described SeaHawk Prime as built around the setting itself. "The waterfront inspired us to balance the menu between land and sea," he told Palm Beach Illustrated around the restaurant's debut, describing a steakhouse menu that leans on Prime cuts alongside local seafood. The dining room and bar look out over the marina, and the building's developers, Forest Development and Royal Palm Companies, have said the project is already generating meaningful tax revenue for a town of about 9,000 residents.
None of that is in dispute. What is still unresolved is everything the marina itself was supposed to become.
The Marina Plan Is Still Pending
The lease behind this project covers more than a restaurant. It gives Forest Development the right to build a hotel, a boat storage facility, and to take over operation of the town's marina, a 99-year arrangement that calls for the company to pay the Town of Lake Park $1.2 million up front and roughly $300,000 a year for a decade. That lease is the part still working its way through court.
A Lake Park resident sued the town in early 2026, arguing that closed-door meetings leading to the marina deal violated Florida's Sunshine Law. A circuit court judge has since confirmed that a Sunshine Law violation did occur during those closed meetings, a finding that puts the underlying marina agreement itself in question. Separately, Forest sued the town at the end of December 2025, claiming Lake Park had failed to pursue the state permits needed to use the underwater land the marina expansion depends on. Some of those marina-related permits remain on hold as a result.
There are also construction-related disputes. In May 2026, general contractor Kast Construction placed an $11.4 million lien on the project over a dispute about the final contract amount and change orders. Forest countered in July with its own lawsuit against Kast, alleging defective work and a fraudulent lien, and at least two condo buyers have separately sued seeking their deposits back over unfinished amenities. None of this affects whether SeaHawk Prime is serving dinner. It affects whether the boat storage facility, the expanded public dockage, and the hotel that were bundled into the original marina lease will show up on any predictable timeline.
Before You Plan a Boat Trip Down There
For a Bay Village boater weighing whether this is now a routine stop, a few things are worth confirming before you leave the dock:
- The existing Lake Park town marina is still operating under the town, not yet under Forest's expanded plan, so confirm slip availability before you go.
- The promised boat storage facility and any new guest dockage tied to the lease are part of what's paused, not what's finished.
- Park Ave Cafe Coffee Counter and General Store, a smaller retail piece of the same ground floor, is expected to open this fall, which is one signal of how the project is rolling out in stages rather than all at once.
- Calling ahead to confirm dockside seating or slip access before a trip is a reasonable habit here for at least the next season, given how much of the marina buildout is still contested.
None of this makes the restaurant a poor choice. It makes it a trip worth a phone call first, at least until the marina side of the project catches up to the dining side.
A Separate Lake Park Project
Forest Development also sued the town in December 2025 over delays to a 595-unit apartment proposal called The Residences at 10th and Park. According to Lake Park's own local coverage, as of this month the project had not advanced to a Town Commission vote. It is a separate project on different land from the marina proposal.
Lake Park's waterfront has been underused for years, and a $300 million private investment landing there is a meaningful shift for a small town's tax base. The parts of the plan that depend on the town and the developer finishing their negotiations, the marina especially, are moving on a different clock than the parts that only required a certificate of occupancy and a chef.
What This Means If You Live on Prosperity Bay Court
Bay Village's whole identity rests on unrestricted water access. That is precisely why this story matters more here than it would in a neighborhood where boating is a hobby rather than the reason people bought in. A new dining option a short run down the Intracoastal is a genuine improvement to how a boat day works, and it is fair to be glad it exists.
That story also includes the marina still being in court. If you go by water this season, call ahead to confirm dockage. The restaurant part of this story is settled. The marina part is still being written, and it is worth checking back on before you make it a habit rather than an occasion.
For more on what makes Bay Village and the rest of the Prosperity Farms Road corridor worth paying attention to, Chris Moody tracks these local shifts as part of covering Bay Village and the surrounding waterfront communities. Let's Achieve Your Real Estate Goals.
