A sprawling new Boys & Girls Club is set to officially open Tuesday at Dreher Park in West Palm Beach, giving the area a 31,000-square-foot facility packed with a full-size gym, a teen workforce center and a commercial kitchen just steps from the Palm Beach Zoo and Cox Science Center. The Julie and Mike Connors Boys & Girls Club is built to serve hundreds of local kids every day, and organizers say it could become a template for how the county runs its clubs going forward.
A Campus Built for Every Age Group
The club sits near the zoo and science center, according to WPBF, and was planned as the organization's 21st club in Palm Beach County, according to a Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County announcement. The facility includes an academic center, a cultural arts center, computer labs, a commercial kitchen, a sound and recording studio, a makerspace and an outdoor playground space, according to the Florida Community Loan Fund, which financed part of the project. At the center of it all is a 12,000-square-foot gym with a built-in dance studio, the station reports.
Jaene Miranda, CEO and president of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County, said the new space gives teens something they often lack. “What's important to teens is that they feel like they have their own space, that it belongs to them,” Miranda said, per the same account. She described the club as a model for future Boys & Girls Clubs in the county and possibly nationwide.
Inside the Workforce Readiness Teen Center
Middle and high schoolers will have access to a Workforce Readiness Teen Center where they can learn robotics, song production and content creation, the station notes. Students can also work toward certifications in drone piloting, healthcare, construction safety and the culinary field — training that mirrors the kind of career-prep programming other Boys & Girls Club chapters around Florida have leaned into. Boys & Girls Club St. Lucie County, for instance, describes its own workforce effort as one that bridges the gap between education and employment, equipping young people with practical know-how and real-world experience, per Boys & Girls Club St. Lucie County.
Certified teachers will be on hand to help with homework and close academic gaps, the report states. The club will also run transportation routes from Belvedere Elementary, Palmetto Elementary, Conniston Middle and Forest Hill High schools, giving families a direct pipeline from the classroom to the clubhouse.
Hours, Fees and What's Still Unsettled
During the school year, the club will stay open weekdays until 8 p.m., and it will shift to 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. hours during summer, according to the outlet. Membership figures have varied across reports: WPBF put annual membership at $30 for children ages 6 to 18, while an earlier Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County announcement listed the cost at $35 for the school year and summer combined, with scholarships available. Either way, membership includes an after-school snack and a hot dinner, and the organization says on its club page that no child is turned away for inability to pay a fee.
Jaene Miranda projected about 250 children walking through the doors daily, with 800 served over the course of a year, according to WPBF's report. That daily figure doesn't match an earlier estimate from the Palm Beach Post, which put daily attendance at around 220 children — the two outlets haven't reconciled the discrepancy. Project cost estimates have shifted just as much over time: WPBF reported a $17 million project, the Florida Community Loan Fund cited a total construction cost of approximately $21 million, and CBS12 reported at groundbreaking last year that the facility was expected to cost $28 million.
Financing and a Timeline Years in the Making
The Florida Community Loan Fund says it provided $11 million in Federal New Markets Tax Credits for the project, with that financing transaction completed in April. The fund also estimated the build would generate 78 temporary jobs and 18 permanent positions. CBS12's coverage from the March 2025 groundbreaking had organizers projecting a spring 2026 opening, while the club was set to open Tuesday, October 27, 2026.
Families interested in enrolling can sign up for membership directly at the Dreher Park location, per WPBF's report. The opening adds another large-scale youth facility to a state that has seen similar investment elsewhere recently — Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida opened a 30,000-square-foot June Family Branch in Winter Garden, according to WFTV, while a St. Petersburg workforce center highlighted by the St. Pete Catalyst extends its own services to young adults through age 24.
