Palm Beach has started the wheels turning on a grand facelift for its Phipps Ocean Park, an initiative fermenting in the pipeline for the past four years. The town ceremoniously broke ground on the project Friday, marking the culmination of extensive planning dedicated to restoring the historic green space, as reported by WFLX.

Donated more than seven decades ago by the Phipps family, the park sits just north of the Palm Beach Par 3 Golf Course, having not received any updates since the donation in 1948. With a budget of $30 million allocated to the venture, attendees of the groundbreaking ceremony learned the park is destined to be transformed into a verdant retreat filled with native plantings. Breaking ground four years after the fact, the much-anticipated revitalization will finally commence.

Boasting features like an outdoor classroom, a coastal restoration center, and enhanced recreational facilities, the project also promises to build a safe haven for the "Little Red Schoolhouse," which is the first schoolhouse built in Palm Beach County back in 1886. According to WFLX, rising waters and wind have threatened the historical structure, prompting its relocation within the park grounds for its protection.

Speaking to the restoration's communal ethos, Amanda Skier, president and CEO of the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach, emphasized the inclusive vision behind the park overhaul. "This park is for everyone," she told WPTV. "It's a public park which is exactly what the Phipps family intended it to be in donating the land, and so this is really a momentous project and occasion for all of our community, not just the town of Palm Beach." Palm Beach residents can look forward to the opening of the upgraded park in the fall of 2025, with construction starting in June and wrapping up the following August.