The easiest place on the Dinner Key waterfront to sit by the bay for free, with no reservation or membership, is the City of Miami's lawn at Regatta Park, 3500 Pan American Drive. It is open from sunrise to sunset and has picnic tables, a boat ramp, bike racks and room for leashed dogs. The city lists no admission charge. Parking fees for the lot are collected by the Miami Parking Authority.
Next door, the privately operated Regatta Harbour holds the restaurants, the event hall and the boat racks. In 2013, voters approved its lease partly on the strength of public amenities, and several of those were never built. More than a decade later, the dividing line on Dinner Key is fairly clear. The pieces that bring in revenue were built and then grew. Most of the pieces meant to be free and open stayed on paper. That history now matters beyond the Grove, because on November 3, five days after this post appears, Miami voters decide a similar lease on Virginia Key.
What stood here before, and what voters approved
The seven acres on the bay used to hold a working boatyard and Scotty's Landing, an open-air spot known for cold beer, inexpensive seafood and wide views of Biscayne Bay. That account comes from the Coconut Grove Spotlight's October 22 report. Voters approved the redevelopment in 2013. Grove Bay Investment Group signed an 80-year lease in 2014. It runs through 2063 and has an option to extend through 2093. In its bid documents, the city called public access to the waterfront "paramount."
The ledger, item by item
Here is how the main commitments compare with what stands on the site, according to the Spotlight's October 2025 investigation and its October 2026 follow-up.
| Original commitment | What is there now |
|---|---|
| Working boatyard | Not on the site |
| Fixed public pedestrian pier | Not completed as of October 2025 |
| Floating tourist dock open to passing boaters | A floating dock was built, but a 2023 report described access as controlled by the complex, with space offered for a fee by advance reservation |
| Additional public boat launches | Not built |
| Free, open-air public terrace above the formal restaurant | Not built; the formal restaurant was never built either |
| Seaplane hangar filled with bait, fishing gear and boating supplies | The Hangar, an event venue for concerts, fairs and private parties |
| Moderately priced Shula's Steakhouse | Regatta Grove, an open-air food and nightlife venue |
| Dry racks for at least 400 small boats | Built capacity about half that, with the racks holding much larger boats |
The boat-rack row shows how a lease term can drift. According to the Spotlight, the 2013 agreement limited the dry racks to boats under 28 feet. The aim was to serve less affluent boaters. Storage rates are set by boat length, so bigger boats pay more each month. The paper reports that the limit was never enforced and that the racks now hold mostly much larger boats. The 2025 article gave the ceiling as under 29 feet. Whichever figure is used, the racks today were built for a different kind of boater than the one in the original plan.
The public pier and the extra launches are a different case. The Spotlight reports that lease language excused construction when permits could not be obtained. That clause, the paper says, let the developers skip the public pier, a second boat launch, a park and the rooftop terrace. A December 2023 Spotlight account found that some planned green space had become surface parking. It also described the designated "Banyan Tree Park" as mostly a landscaped berm that people could not really use. That berm sits inside the leased site. It is separate from the city's Regatta Park next door.
From the city's budget point of view, the deal worked. Regatta Harbour paid nearly $3 million in lease payments to Miami in the 2024-25 fiscal year, more than any other single city-owned property.
What the leased side offers on a given evening
The commercial side of Dinner Key offers dining, events and boating services, each with its own way in.
Regatta Grove took the restaurant site first pitched as Shula's. A 2022 amendment approved by the City Commission let it operate for an initial seven-year term in place of the promised formal restaurant, and the Spotlight's October 2026 report describes the arrangement as running, at least temporarily, through 2031. According to Regatta Grove's own site, it has five chef-led kitchens under one roof:
- Phuc Yea, Chef Cesar Zapata
- Tackle Box, Chef Jeff McInnis
- The Piefather, Chef José Mendín
- House of Birds, Chef Kenny Gilbert
- JJ's, Chef Jeremy Ford
The venue is open Thursday through Sunday. It offers communal seating and free RSVPs for its weekly events. Table reservations and private bookings are handled separately. The Spotlight has described a "coastal chic" dress code with entry at the doorman's discretion. In its December 2023 account, the same paper reported free entry on most nights and a $75 cover on New Year's Eve, so special nights can carry their own terms.
Bayshore Club operates as a sit-down restaurant in the complex.
The Hangar runs on bookings. Some events are ticketed and some are private. In its October 2025 report, the Spotlight listed three-day Montreux Jazz Festival passes from $399 to $1,199.
Regatta Harbour Marina is a dry-storage operation that gives its members unlimited launches. Its Rec-90 fuel dock is open to members and the public, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, according to the marina's site.
The Hangar's calendar has a deadline
Of all the Dinner Key items, The Hangar has the nearest deadline. Event venues in this setting normally face a cap of ten events a year. This spring the City Commission approved a waiver that lets The Hangar go past that cap through the end of 2026, the Spotlight reported in April. A separate historic-preservation ordinance could give event venues a lasting zoning path. It was set for a first reading in July, according to the Spotlight, and its final outcome has not been reported. Neighbors who track noise and traffic around Pan American Drive should watch what happens to the 2027 schedule.
On the city's side of the water, the Dinner Key Marina improvements page lists a new dinghy dock, a shuttle boat, mooring improvements, bay-walk lights, seawall work and piling replacements as upcoming. It gives no construction schedule for any of them.
Why Grove voters will recognize the Virginia Key ballot question
Dinner Key's history bears directly on the Tuesday, November 3 ballot. Voters will decide whether to approve a long-term lease, potentially 75 years, for about 10 acres of city-owned upland on Virginia Key plus roughly 17 acres of bay bottom. That site includes the Rickenbacker Marina, which has operated there for more than four decades, and Gramps Getaway, the open-air bar that has become a rallying point for opponents.
The proposed developer is Virginia Key LLC, a partnership of Suntex Marinas and RCI Group. Its plan includes a renovated public boat ramp, launches for kayaks, paddleboards and rowing shells, 750 dry-storage slips and 202 wet slips across three phases, and a 2,600-foot landscaped baywalk. The developer calls the baywalk the project's largest public amenity and says it would be free and open year-round. Robert Christoph, a vice president of RCI Group, told the Spotlight that about 90 percent of the slips would fit boats 45 feet or shorter and that the project would require no dredging. He also spoke to the concern Dinner Key raises:
"You're going to get what you think you're going to get."
He said the city's zoning and approval process, along with the lease itself, would help make sure the promised improvements are delivered. He made those remarks in the Spotlight's October 22 report.
The proposed lease sets base rent at $2.2 million a year to start, with yearly increases generally between 3 and 5 percent, plus 6 percent of gross revenue from the marina, restaurants and shops. Over the first 45-year term, that comes to nearly $204 million in base rent. The Spotlight also points to the same kinds of terms that shaped Dinner Key. The lease requires only that marine services be "included" in about 8,000 square feet of commercial space. Under Sections 5.2 and 5.3, the conceptual plans remain subject to engineering, permitting and later city approvals. Rent can be adjusted if permits cannot be obtained despite "diligent" efforts. The lease sets construction timelines for each of the three phases, but it has no separate completion milestone for the full baywalk. The ballot asks voters to weigh those terms. Dinner Key shows how terms like these have played out in practice.
The weekend when the whole waterfront opens up
At least once a year, the line between public and leased Dinner Key becomes hard to see. The 63rd Coconut Grove Arts Festival is scheduled for February 13 to 15, 2027, on the Grove waterfront around Regatta Park and Dinner Key Marina, according to the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau listing. On the other weekends, the free bayfront is still the city's lawn at 3500 Pan American Drive, open until sunset, with the boat ramp at its edge.
At Swann Realty, we follow how the leases on Miami's publicly owned waterfront shape the parks, marinas and bayfront that sit beside the homes we help clients buy and hold. If you would like to talk through how projects at Dinner Key or Virginia Key affect a Coconut Grove property you own or are considering, we would be glad to schedule a consultation.
