Rowell's Waterfront Park Is Fenced Off Until December. Here's What Key Largo Gets Back, and What Fell Off the 2019 Wish List

"How will we prevent it from becoming the Fills?"

That was nearly the first question at a 2019 public workshop on the future of Rowell's Waterfront Park, as the Keys Citizen reported. Residents were thinking of the Indian Key Fill in Islamorada, a state-owned stretch known for weekend traffic and trash. Assistant County Administrator Kevin Wilson answered plainly: "The Fills don't have a local owner, but we do."

Seven years later, the county is still building that park. Since Sept. 21 the 8-acre bayside lot at MM 104.5 has been closed "until further notice," and Monroe County expects Phase 2 to finish in December. A field, a parking lot and some sidewalks have taken more than a year because the project got bigger. The work running long is also the reason a dog park is in this phase. What comes back this winter and next year is the land side of what Key Largo asked for in 2019. The water-play features aren't in any announced phase.

From Marina Lot to Debris Yard to Green Space

The county bought the old Rowell's Marina property in December 2013 for $5 million. It opened to the public in June 2016, mostly as open lawn. About a year after Hurricane Irma hit in September 2017, the county used the site to process vegetative debris and damaged appliances, as the Florida Keys Free Press reported.

The 2019 concept plan came out of four public input meetings, and it was ambitious for a lot that size:

• Three restrooms and four pavilions
• Two adjoining fenced dog areas
• A shaded playground and a splash pad
• A zero-entry swim basin, with some dockage around its edge
• A walking path and fitness zone
• An entry kiosk to collect fees from non-county residents, with county residents admitted free
• Parking for 113 vehicles, plus room for about 100 more in the dog areas during special events

Jack Kardys, the park consultant and former Miami-Dade County park director, summed up what residents had told the county: walking paths, splash pads, fitness zones, a swim hole, picnic amenities, dogs, and "no Jet Skis and only non-motorized personal watercraft."

Phase 1 Was About Getting In and Out Safely

The first construction was mostly infrastructure. The $1,445,000 Phase 1 contract paid for a six-head restroom near U.S. 1, a small parking lot and a multi-use path along the north side down to the water. It also realigned the entrance with the U.S. 1 median opening and added a southbound deceleration lane so cars could turn in more safely. Parks and Beaches Director John Allen described that scope to the Free Press, which also reported that a $125,000 Florida Department of Transportation highway beautification grant helped pay for the bathroom and parking.

That 2022 story also gave a preview of Phase 2: landscaping, another bathroom and a "potentially donated shade structure." Remember that list. The Phase 2 being built now looks quite different.

Why Phase 2 Stopped and Came Back Bigger

Crews started Phase 2 on Sept. 15, 2025. Keys Weekly's report that fall described a grant-funded project worth $2.9 million: regrading and resodding the multi-use field, new sidewalks, a renovated lower parking lot, more lighting, walking paths and drainage. Some large trees came down to make room for the new lot and a required stormwater system. The county answered the criticism on Facebook: "But we promise we are not paving paradise to put up a parking lot."

The planting plan backs that up. Phase 2 calls for 112 new trees. That includes 7,243 square feet of landscaping around the parking lot, where code requires 5,905, and a buffer along the southern boundary of 23 canopy trees and 10 understory trees. The species are all native: gumbo limbo, slash pine, Jamaican dogwood, West Indian mahogany, buttonwood and wax myrtle.

Then the work stopped. In August 2026, Keys Weekly reported that construction was halted when an issue turned up that required redesigning the second phase. During the redesign, the county won more grant money, which let project managers and Parks and Beaches add improvements beyond the original plan.

"Due to unexpected delays, the project has taken longer than originally anticipated. We apologize for any inconvenience and look forward to completing these improvements for the community to enjoy." John Allen, Monroe County Parks and Beaches Director, in a Monroe County notice

The park closed completely from Aug. 18 through Sept. 1. It closed again on Sept. 21, and the county's Sept. 10 notice is still its latest word on timing: open-ended, with a December target.

The scope grew along with the schedule. Here is Phase 2 as described in fall 2025 next to the version reported in August 2026:

The two reports describe the funding differently. The 2025 article said only that the $2.9 million in work was paid for by "a grant." The 2026 article names a Community Development Block Grant for Phase 2.

The fenced dog areas were one of the more concrete requests in 2019. They weren't in the fall 2025 description of Phase 2, and they're in it now, after the delay.

Phase 3 Is Funded and Set for Early 2027

Once Phase 2 wraps up, Keys Weekly reports that a third and final phase will add new shade structures, a new playground and a large tiki hut. Construction is expected to start in early 2027, and the phase is fully funded through a Tourist Development Council brick-and-mortar grant.

So the shade structure first floated as a possible donation in 2022 now has dedicated funding, and it arrives a phase later than first described. With the playground and the tiki hut, the dry-land half of the 2019 plan is largely accounted for: restrooms, parking, paths, a field, lighting, dog areas, picnic space, shade and play equipment.

What Isn't in Any Announced Phase

Line the 2019 concept up against Phases 1 through 3 and four items don't appear in the reported scopes:

1. The splash pad. It isn't in the Phase 2 or Phase 3 descriptions.
2. The zero-entry swim basin and the dockage planned around it. Neither is listed.
3. The non-resident fee kiosk. A 2022 Keys Weekly story reported the kiosk was not part of the upcoming phases.
4. Four pavilions. Phase 3 mentions shade structures and one large tiki hut, not four pavilions by name.

None of these has been announced as canceled. They just don't appear in the work the county has funded and scheduled through 2027. In 2019 the swim basin and splash pad were the features that would have made Rowell's a place to get in the water as well as look at it.

Who Uses the Park When the Fence Is Down

Rowell's has hosted the Buccaneer Blast Regatta, Fourth of July festivities and the Key Largo Bridge Run, according to Keys Weekly. The Buccaneer Blast is the signature event of the Mark Sorensen Youth Sailing Program. Its 17th edition ran at Rowell's from Jan. 30 through Feb. 1, 2026, well before this fall's closure, as Keys Weekly reported in January. If Phase 2 finishes in December as planned, next winter's regatta would be the first big event on the regraded field. If Phase 3 starts in early 2027, crews may be back on site around the same time.

One holiday event isn't affected at all. Light Up Key Largo returns for its 17th year on Saturday, Nov. 21, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Murray E. Nelson Government Center, and admission is free. The Key Largo Community Preservation Foundation has held it at Murray Nelson in recent years, as Keys Weekly's 2025 coverage shows, so the Rowell's closure doesn't change where you'll be standing for the tree lighting.

If you need somewhere to walk in the meantime, Key Largo Community Park has a finished Native Plant Pathway that crosses its 14 acres and marks 24 native species with interpretive signs, according to Monroe County.

For questions about the closure, the county directs residents to [email protected].

Watching a bayside lot turn into a stormwater-managed, native-planted park in phases is close to the work we do on private waterfront property every week: drainage first, then canopy, then the places people gather. If you're planning a landscape, dock or outdoor-living project on your own lot and want a second set of eyes from someone who builds as well as sells, Kelsey Caputo-Frins is glad to walk it with you. Request a Valuation & Design Consult.