Bal Harbour Turns 80 With a Fall Calendar Built Around a Jetty Awaiting Its Rebuild

At 6:30 on the evening of October 17, the Village is set to show Moana in its live-action version on the sand at Bal Harbour Beach North, a spot the Village calendar labels "By the Jetty." The structure behind the screen was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1927 as a breakwater protecting the inlet. That makes it 19 years older than the Village, which was incorporated on August 14, 1946, and is marking its 80th year this fall.

Much of the anniversary season is happening along that old breakwater. According to the Village Council's most recent minutes, the decision that would set its reconstruction in motion is expected in October or November 2026. So the 80th fall may turn out to be the last one planned around the Jetty as it stands today.

A Breakwater That Came Before the Town

The Village's own history shows Bal Harbour being laid out around features that already existed. Here are the dates that matter for this fall:

1. 1927. The Army Corps of Engineers builds the Jetty as a breakwater and inlet-protection measure.
2. 1929. The Detroit-based Miami Beach Heights development corporation buys the land. Robert Graham heads the group, Carl Fisher and Walter O. Briggs are among his associates, and Harland Bartholomew & Associates is hired to plan the community.
3. 1941. Development stops for World War II, and the land is leased to the U.S. military for $1 a year.
4. August 1946. The Village incorporates. It was first called Bay Harbour, and "Bal Harbour" was chosen later to evoke both the bay and the Atlantic.
5. December 1946. The ten-story, 160-room Kenilworth-by-the-Sea opens as the first hotel.
6. 1957 and 1965. Stanley Whitman buys a 16-acre site, and Bal Harbour Shops opens on it eight years later with 30 upscale tenants.
7. 1956 to 2011. The Americana opens in 1956 and is demolished in 2007, and the St. Regis Bal Harbour Resort opens on the site in 2011.

A Miami-Dade County community report also describes Bal Harbour as Florida's first planned community to put its utilities underground. The hotels on the oceanfront have changed names and owners over the decades. The Jetty is the one landmark on that list that has stayed in the same place, doing the same job, the whole time.

Where the 80th Is Being Celebrated

The Village started tying events to the anniversary well before autumn. Its Moonstruck screening on March 29, 2026, presented with the Miami Film Festival, was billed as part of the 80th celebration, and it took place at Beach North by the Jetty. Over the summer, the 12 Pentagons project with football designer Jon-Paul Wheatley moved a sculptural soccer ball from Bal Harbour Shops to the beach. The Village says the move celebrates its 80th anniversary. Wheatley's "Badly Drawn Ball" works were offered for sale through the Shops.

The Village events calendar for the next five weeks is split mainly between two venues:

The evening events on the ocean side are scheduled by the Jetty. The calendar also had Sounds by the Sea featuring The French Horn Collective there on October 11. The bay side gets the Fall Festival, which includes a train ride and a corn maze and is free for Bal Harbour residents and hotel guests. It also hosts the gala, an adults-only event for residents with black tie encouraged and an RSVP requested. The Market, run with Florida Fresh Market, is in its fifth season at Beach South.

The Gala Venue Is Less Than Three Years Old

The 80th Anniversary Gala will be held at Bal Harbour Waterfront Park, 18 Bal Bay Drive, which had its ribbon-cutting on January 14, 2024. The 1.5-acre site includes a lawn, strolling gardens, meditative spaces, exercise zones, a themed playground, a terraced garden and a splash pad. Its three-story, 24,000-square-foot community center has multipurpose event space, an indoor toddler playground and a covered rooftop deck.

The black-tie evening is in a building that opened in 2024. The free beach nights are at a breakwater from 1927, and that breakwater is the next public space the Village plans to rebuild.

What the Council Minutes Say About the Jetty

The project is called Harbourfront Park, Jetty and Cutwalk, and its design concept comes from Mikyoung Kim Design Studio. The Village's project page describes a linear waterfront park joined to a rebuilt Jetty. It mentions guardrails, turtle-friendly lighting, ADA-compliant features and a possible Living Shoreline to provide habitat for relocated coral and other marine life. The page still says construction would start in 2025 and finish in 2027. Later Council records have overtaken those dates.

In the Village's June 26, 2026 capital update, the project was close to getting its last required permit from the Village Building Department. That update also said the lighting plans had been revised to meet Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission requirements. At the July 13 Council meeting, staff explained that the Jetty no longer had to wait for beach-renourishment work. They also described a possible invitation to bid, with a bidding period estimated at two to three months.

The most recent record is the Council's August 28 mini-retreat. Its minutes, published in the September 15 Council packet, list the factors behind the schedule:

"several outside activities and seasonal conditions affect the construction schedule, including nearby construction, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dredging, sargassum cleanup, turtle and shorebird nesting seasons, and hurricane season."

According to the same minutes, the decision on the Guaranteed Maximum Price is expected in October or November 2026. The groundbreaking and substantial-completion dates "remained to be determined." Budgeted funding is about $39.175 million. It comes from Miami-Dade County GOB funds, FIND and FDEP grants, Florida Department of Commerce grants, developer contributions, SunTrust/Truist rent, Resort Tax and an appropriation of fund balance. In the final capital plan, $25,327,454 of that comes from prior-year budgets, $12,847,546 is in fiscal 2027 and $1,000,000 is set for future years.

As of October 12, the Village's records do not show a GMP approval, a named contractor, a start date or any announced closures. The project page says construction will be phased to keep the public able to get in and to keep emergency routes open. The first phase replaces the seawall from the Haulover Bridge to the beach hardpack. The list of seasonal factors in the minutes overlaps with the beach calendar residents already know. Turtle nesting and hurricane season both limit when heavy work can happen next to the inlet.

Using the Rest of the Anniversary Season

Here is how this fall's calendar fits around the Jetty's timeline:

• The beach nights by the Jetty are Moana on October 17 and Full Moon Yoga on October 26, both at Beach North.
• The bay-side gatherings are the Fall Festival on October 24 and the resident gala on November 1 at Waterfront Park. Gala RSVPs go through the Village event page.
• Off the island, the Superblue Miami art tour is on October 27. The Village has also announced free access for residents and hotel guests to the MOAD/FIFA Museum exhibition "Unidad – The World's Game" at the Freedom Tower.
• Resident stories are being collected through the Village's Portraits of Bal Harbour campaign. It accepts nominations of current or longtime residents, and selected profiles will run in a future newsletter.
• Jetty updates should come through the Council. The GMP item is the next public milestone, and it is forecast for October or November 2026.

The Village's last listed event this season is the Doormat Designers workshop at Waterfront Park, from 3 to 5 p.m. on November 15.

Waterfront projects like Harbourfront Park can change how a stretch of shoreline is used and valued for many years. At Golan Group Miami, we follow the Jetty's progress through the Council record for owners along Bal Harbour's oceanfront and bay side. If you would like to talk about what the project could mean for your residence, please schedule a confidential consultation.