Tonight, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., Bal Harbour Village rededicates Founders Circle at 9650 Collins Avenue and buries a time capsule meant to be opened in 2046, when the Village turns 100. The date on the capsule is fixed. The start date of the largest public waterfront project on the Village's books is not.
The Village's capital program runs on two kinds of schedule. The new Village Hall has dates for each phase out to March 2030. The Harbourfront Park, Jetty and Cutwalk project, budgeted at $39.175 million, has a budget target and no confirmed groundbreaking. Village staff explained why at the August retreat. On the shoreline, turtles, shorebirds, dredges, seaweed and storms set the construction calendar.
What goes into the ground at 9650 Collins Avenue
Founders Circle was first dedicated on January 7, 1990. Its original plaque honored Robert C. Graham, Sol M. Taplin and Stanley F. Whitman. For the 80th anniversary, Public Works renovated the site with a new sidewalk, landscaping, lighting and a new monument.
One name joins the plaque tonight. At its August 28 retreat, the Village Council unanimously agreed to add Rabbi Sholom Dovber Lipskar, and Mayor Salver called him a fitting individual to be honored at the Circle. The Council's September 15 resolution recognizes him as the founder of The Shul of Bal Harbour, which he and his wife Chani started in 1981, as the longtime Village Police Chaplain, and as the founder of the Aleph Institute.
The Village's event listing describes the evening this way:
"The ceremony will also look toward the future with the sealing and burial of an 80th Anniversary time capsule, to be opened in 2046 as Bal Harbour celebrates its Centennial."
The ceremony is open to Bal Harbour residents. It follows the adults-only 80th Anniversary Celebration held Sunday at Bal Harbour Waterfront Park, 18 Bal Bay Drive.
A Village that was planned before it was built
The capsule continues a long habit of planning ahead. The Village's history page dates Bal Harbour to 1929, when Miami Beach Heights, a Detroit real estate corporation headed by Robert Graham with associates Carl Fisher and Walter O. Briggs, bought the raw land. The firm Harland Bartholomew & Associates was hired to lay out the community. During World War II, development stopped and the land was leased to the U.S. military for $1 a year. The Village incorporated in August 1946 under a name built from "bay" and "Atlantic." It was first called "Bay Harbour." In December of that year the ten-story Kenilworth-by-the-Sea opened as its first hotel.
Eighty years later, the Village is again writing plans for land it has not yet built on. The FY 2026–27 capital budget, included in the Council's September 15 packet, totals about $171.4 million across its projects. Two lines account for nearly $77.3 million of that total, and they are on very different schedules.
The project with a dated calendar
The new Village Hall will house a Village Hall, a Police Station and an Emergency Operations Center under one project. Its budget line is $38,142,923. At the August 28 retreat, staff reported that the Basis of Design Report and schematic design were complete. They then laid out the rest of the schedule:
| Milestone | Projected timing, per the August 28, 2026 update |
|---|---|
| Design development complete | September 2026 |
| Construction documents complete | January 2027 |
| Permitting | February/March 2027 |
| Contractor selection | July 2027 |
| Construction begins | September 2027 |
| Substantial completion | March 2030 |
Every step on that list is a design, permitting or contracting step. Each one depends on paperwork and a Council vote, and none depends on the ocean, so staff can assign a month to each.
The project the shoreline schedules
The Harbourfront Park, Jetty and Cutwalk project sits where Bal Harbour meets Haulover Inlet, and its budget draws on many sources. Staff told the Council the roughly $39.175 million comes from:
- Miami-Dade County GOB funds
- FIND and FDEP grants
- Florida Department of Commerce grants
- Developer contributions
- SunTrust/Truist rent
- Resort Tax
- An appropriation of fund balance
The Village's FY 2027–2031 Capital Improvement Program describes the project as raising the seawall and breakwater along Bakers Haulover Inlet above projected sea level rise and wave crest elevations. The plans add over-water platforms, a walkable path with railings and shade, and a living shoreline built from relocated coral habitat. The same document sets a target of January 2027 for construction to begin and December 2028 for completion.
The project uses a Construction Manager at Risk. Under that method, a guaranteed maximum price, or GMP, is reviewed and then sent to the Council for a decision. Staff told the Council in August that the GMP decision was expected in October or November 2026, and that the groundbreaking and substantial completion dates "remained to be determined."
Staff also explained why the dates were still open. Matilde Reyes listed the outside activities and seasonal conditions that affect when construction can start:
- Nearby construction
- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dredging
- Sargassum cleanup
- Turtle nesting season
- Shorebird nesting season
- Hurricane season
Several of these overlap on the calendar, which narrows the months when work can begin. The Village Hall can name September 2027 as its start because none of those six items applies to it. The jetty has a January 2027 target, and whether it holds depends on the GMP vote and those six conditions. The Cutwalk came up again at the Council's October 28 meeting, where the agenda included a discussion of the Cutwalk and the condition of the Ritz-Carlton frontage road.
What is already finished, and what is still being built
Less visible work is further along. Public Works Director Julio Magrisso reported at the August retreat that Utility Infrastructure Improvement Projects 6A and 6B were complete and Project 7 was about 45 percent done. Project 7's remaining work included sewer improvements, curb and gutter, and milling and paving. The current work was funded at about $1.2 million, including a $750,000 State grant.
The same capital budget includes $22,529,092 for Waterfront Park Phase A, another $6.1 million for Phase B and $12,050,000 for Collins Avenue Beautification. Waterfront Park at 18 Bal Bay Drive already hosts the Village's resident events, including Sunday's anniversary celebration.
On Collins Avenue, the private expansion of Bal Harbour Shops is still changing how drivers reach the mall. Traded reported in August that the first portion of the roughly 200,000-square-foot West Shops had signed first-time tenants L'Agence, Toteme and Peserico, and that Prada, Balenciaga, Saint Laurent and Brioni were enlarging their existing stores. A February 24 Village advisory closed the 9700 Collins Avenue vehicle entrance and the adjacent Carpaccio valet "until further notice." The Shops' expansion updates page directs drivers to the 96th Street garage or the 9800 Collins Avenue entrance, where valet is also offered.
The rest of November on the Village calendar
The anniversary season continues past tonight. On Sunday, November 15, the Bal Harbour Police Legacy Foundation holds a Thanksgiving food-basket volunteer event from 9 a.m. to noon at Waterfront Park, 18 Bal Bay Drive. That afternoon, from 3 to 5 p.m., the same park hosts a resident doormat-design workshop. The fee is $25 and the workshop is eligible under the All Access Card. The fall recreation lineup, which includes Mahjong, pickleball and adult wellness classes, runs through December.
On the Village Hall schedule, the new building should be finished about 16 years before the capsule is opened. The jetty and cutwalk will break ground once the Council has decided on the GMP and a construction window opens between dredging, nesting and hurricane seasons.
At Swann Realty, we follow Bal Harbour's capital calendar the way owners do: Waterfront Park, the jetty and cutwalk, the Collins Avenue corridor and the Shops entrances all shape everyday life on the barrier island. If you would like to talk through how these projects bear on a home you own or are considering in the Village, we would be glad to schedule a consultation.
