The island most Miamians used to drive across on their way somewhere else has quietly stopped being a pass-through. Between a music-driven hotel takeover at the old Shuckers site, a 24-story tower rising with the first Publix ever built on the island, and a Miami Spice roster that finally includes a bayfront table on 79th Street, residents can plan a full weekend without crossing back to Miami Beach or the mainland.
The Thesis, Stated Plainly
For roughly a decade, North Bay Village was a place you lived and shopped elsewhere. That gap is closing this year. The evidence sits along a half-mile stretch of the John F. Kennedy Causeway: a reimagined waterfront restaurant with a working marina, a citywide dining program that now reaches the island, and a mixed-use tower whose grocery anchor solves the errand problem residents have complained about for years. Read the rest of this post as three linked developments, not three unrelated headlines.
Palm Tree Club, One Year In
The Shuckers Waterfront Grill closed after more than 40 years in late 2024. In its place, Palm Tree Crew, the entertainment company founded by Kygo and Myles Shear, opened Palm Tree Club Miami on the North Bay Village waterfront on December 21, 2024, in collaboration with Think Hospitality and Continuum Company, converting the former Shuckers Waterfront Grill and Best Western into a 115-room hotel and restaurant on Biscayne Bay. The address is the same one you already know: 1819 79th Street Causeway.
What is genuinely different from Shuckers, beyond the paint job:
- A 20-slip marina with dine-and-dock service, which means residents in nearby condos with tenders or center consoles can arrive by water.
- A rotating live-music calendar programmed by Palm Tree Crew's talent buyer.
- A restaurant menu that revisits Shuckers classics alongside new coastal-American dishes.
The transition has not been frictionless for neighbors. Soft-launch parties in December 2024 featured DJs including Jamie Jones and Blondish and drew guests including Leonardo DiCaprio, Ivanka Trump and Diplo, and the events produced noise complaints from residential neighbors and new restrictions limiting live DJs to Saturdays until 10 p.m. If you live on Treasure Island or Harbor Island and wondered why the bass suddenly stops on Saturday nights, that is why.
Miami Spice Without Leaving the Island
The 25th edition of Miami Spice began the day before this post published. The Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau's Miami Spice Restaurant Months runs August 1 through September 30, 2026, with three-course prix-fixe menus at a minimum of 30% savings at more than 300 participating restaurants, alongside new Miami Spice Reserve experiences. Brunch and lunch menus are priced at $40, and dinner menus range from $50 to $65, with a new Miami Spice Reserve tier featuring elevated prix-fixe and tasting menu experiences beginning at $95.
What matters for a North Bay Village resident is not the citywide count. It is that you can now book a Miami Spice table on the causeway. Palm Tree Club is running a waterfront dock-and-dine Miami Spice menu at $35 lunch and $45 dinner, revisiting Shuckers classics alongside new fine-dining items and welcoming walk-ins.
That closes a small gap most residents will recognize. In prior summers, a Miami Spice night meant a bridge crossing to Sunny Isles, South Beach, Brickell, or Coral Gables. This August, it can mean a fifteen-minute walk or a dinghy ride.
For anyone building a fuller Spice itinerary, the surrounding neighborhoods have participants inside a short drive: the Aventura/Bal Harbour/Sunny Isles list this year includes Abbale Modern Mediterranean Kitchen, Amalfi Llama, Avra Estiatorio Miami, BALEENkitchen, China Grill Bal Harbour, Il Mulino New York, Makoto, Novecento Aventura and Toku Modern Asian, among others. Nothing in Miami Spice is uniform, though. Read each restaurant's day and time restrictions before booking.
The Bench of Non-Spice Options Worth Knowing
The rest of the island's independent restaurants are not part of the promotion, which is useful information in itself: these are the places to book when Miami Spice tables are gone or when you want the everyday menu. Named entities on the causeway and adjacent Treasure Drive worth naming out loud:
- Yaya Coastal Cuisine. Situated on the bay with panoramic water and skyline views, YAYA is Mediterranean-leaning, with dishes ranging from crudo and grilled head-on prawns to hot mezze, plus signatures like Uni in Seawater, Maine Lobster Cobb Salad, Bone-in Ribeye Buttero, and a whole Spanish dorade.
- Sushi Erika. A neighborhood sushi room that Yelp users consistently flag for its Nikkei-leaning menu and presentation.
- Petralunga, Pizza D'Light, Silverlake Bistro, Sumak, Rasoi Indian Kitchen, CAO Bakery & Cafe. The everyday roster, ranging from Italian to Turkish to Indian to Cuban pastry.
- Maison Ostrow. Chef Olivia's dining room, which recent reviews describe as having taken a step up from its predecessor concept on the same site.
One more addition is on the way. Acai by the Sea is preparing to open at 7601 E Treasure Drive, Suite CU14, per plan review paperwork submitted by Vals Enterprise LLC, joining a restaurant community that includes Petralunga, Pizza D'Light, Sushi Erika, and Osteria Teatro.
What Shoma Bay Actually Changes for Residents
The single biggest daily-life change on the island is not a restaurant. It is a grocery store attached to a condominium tower. Shoma Bay sits at 1850 John F. Kennedy Causeway, at the intersection of 79th Street Causeway and East Treasure Drive, with an anticipated completion date at the end of 2026. The project, along with Publix, is slated to open either late 2026 or early 2027.
The numbers worth holding in your head:
- A 35,037-square-foot Publix supermarket and 15,628 square feet of retail space, including a rooftop lounge.
- The approximately 35,000-square-foot store will be the first Publix location for North Bay Village residents.
- Shoma Group is aiming to fill a significant gap in North Bay Village, a community that has been virtually untouched from a development standpoint for approximately a decade.
- Residences range from $750,000 to $5.3 million, in a 24-story tower with 333 units.
The interesting question for a current resident is not the residential price band. It is what a full-line Publix on the causeway does to the trip you currently make to the Publix on 71st Street in Normandy Isle or the one in North Bay Village's absence up in Sunny Isles. Ten minutes each way, twice a week, on a bridge that closes for openings. Multiply out a year and the change is meaningful, even before you count the rooftop program and the additional retail bays.
The tower will also add amenities aimed at residents that spill into the neighborhood's edges. Development plans include a resident lounge and bar, a spa with a hammam, a golf simulator, a two-story fitness center, a wine cellar, a cigar lounge, a Zen Garden with fire pits, and a 6,030-square-foot pool deck with panoramic Biscayne Bay views. A Rolls-Royce house car is part of the marketing narrative rather than a public amenity, but it hints at the target buyer profile: a resident who wants to be on the island but rarely wants to drive off it.
The Small Stuff That Only Locals Track
A few practical notes for people who already live here and are planning the next month:
On live music at Palm Tree Club. The Saturday 10 p.m. DJ cutoff is a real one. If you want the loud night, that is the night. Any other evening, expect a restaurant with ambient programming rather than a club posture.
On dock-and-dine. With a 20-slip marina, weekend arrivals fill fast during Miami Spice weeks. Call ahead, do not assume walk-up dockage.
On the Shoma Bay construction fence. The site sits at the corner of 79th and East Treasure. Expect staged deliveries and lane shifts through the fall.
For residents used to routing through Dr. Paul Vogel Community Park and Philip Schonberger Memorial Playground on morning walks, the tempo will shift as more retail comes online. Neither park is going anywhere. The pedestrian experience along the causeway edge is what changes.
Reading the Three Developments Together
The Palm Tree Club opening, the arrival of Miami Spice at a table on 79th Street, and the Shoma Bay Publix are not separate stories. They are three signals of the same trend: the island is becoming a self-contained neighborhood rather than a residential strip you leave for dinner and errands. That is the piece of information most short posts about North Bay Village miss. A weekend visitor sees three unrelated openings. A resident feels the compounding effect on daily routine.
The next twelve months are the interesting stretch. Palm Tree Club's programming will settle into a rhythm the neighbors can predict. Shoma Bay will move from crane to occupancy. Small operators like Acai by the Sea will fill the ground-floor bays along East Treasure. If you already own here, the version of the island you will describe to a friend next summer will not be the one you moved to.
If you are thinking about how these changes affect the value of what you own on the island or the timing of a move within the community, Maruja Gil Properties advises buyers, sellers, and long-term owners across North Bay Village and greater Miami with a data-forward, boutique approach in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Request your complimentary home valuation to see how the current cycle reads for your specific address.
