Late Summer at The Dunes: The Mid-Island Seam Where Two Wild Coastlines Meet
Most of Singer Island's marketing photography looks the same in July as it does in January. The address at 5480 North Ocean Drive does not. From the Dunes Towers, the walkable radius shifts with the season, and the late-summer version has quietly become the most interesting one on the island. The parking lots down the street thin out. The reef is calmer. The state park to the north runs its full weekend program without a wait. And after eighteen months of restaurant turnover, the dining spine that runs south from the building finally has two anchors worth planning an evening around.
This is the case for staying home in August and September. Not the version written for a visitor, and not the one written for someone deciding whether to move. The one written for a resident who already lives at 5480 and wants a better map of the mile in either direction.
The Dunes sits on a stretch of North Ocean Drive that most residents underestimate. Ocean Reef Park is roughly a mile and a half south at 3860 North Ocean Drive. John D. MacArthur Beach State Park is roughly a mile and a half north on the same road. Between them, the building is closer to two genuinely different coastal ecosystems than any other tower on the island.
The southern end is a reef park in the literal sense. Ocean Reef Park sits at 3860 North Ocean Drive on a 12.6-acre parcel with free parking, palms, and boardwalks over the dunes. At low tide the reef pokes out from the ocean, and at high tide the waves break against the shoreline rocks and burst into a natural splash fountain. The practical detail residents care about is the swim rule: a dive flag is not required as long as you stay in the guarded area between the buoy and shore. For a weekday snorkel before dinner, that is the entire difference between grabbing a mask and staging a full trip.
The northern end is not a reef, it is an estuary. The barrier island there mixes coastal hammock and mangrove forest, sheltering rare tropical and coastal plant species, and the park's nature center exists to show visitors why the place is a biological treasure. Across 348 acres of maritime hammock, mangrove, and underwater reef, the park runs on a rhythm closer to a preserve than a beach. The beach itself is a nesting ground for loggerhead, green, and the rare leatherback sea turtle, and in June and July the park runs evening tours to view a nesting loggerhead from 8 p.m. until about midnight on selected dates. By August that program has closed for the season, which is exactly why the park becomes usable again for a resident who wants a quiet Saturday morning.
The Dunes is the rare Singer Island address where a MacArthur morning is a fifteen-minute logistical exercise rather than a half-day commitment. The park is open 365 days a year from 8 a.m. until sundown, and the Nature Center opens daily at 10 a.m. Kayak rentals run 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. from the south paddle launch. The tram across the boardwalk shortens the walk from the parking lot to the sand, which matters in August humidity more than any brochure will admit.
The fall program is worth putting on a calendar now rather than checking the week of. The state parks system has published the following free-with-admission talks in the park's amphitheater:
Beyond the calendar, the park runs daily nature walks, recreational skills lessons, and MacArthur Under Moonlight concerts through the year, and the Friends of MacArthur Beach post cleanups and folk performances on a rolling basis. For residents with grandchildren visiting over the fall break, the two half-hour slots slot neatly into a longer morning that begins with a kayak launch and ends with lunch back at the building.
The eighteen months between spring 2025 and today have quietly reset Singer Island's short list of restaurants worth walking or driving to from The Dunes. Two openings account for most of the change.
The Palm Beach Marriott Singer Island Beach Resort & Spa spent most of the last decade running a competent but forgettable signature restaurant. That changed on May 9, 2025. ONA Coastal Cuisine hosted a grand opening celebration at the resort that brought together the North Palm Beach Chamber of Commerce, City of Riviera Beach officials, and local residents. The ribbon-cutting featured chamber president Noel Martinez, resort general manager Rudy Sharp, and Riviera Beach Mayor Ronnie Feldman. The restaurant sits beachside at the resort, and its menu leans on locally sourced ingredients with Mediterranean influence.
The operational detail that residents will actually use: happy hour runs Sunday through Thursday, 4 to 6 p.m., with 50 percent off bar bites, house wines, well drinks, and domestic beer at the 3800 Ocean Bar. That is a five-minute drive south from The Dunes and a rare weeknight room on the island where a resident can eat well without a reservation strategy.
The second change is still in progress. Ocean Ave Kitchen & Bar is under construction at 2551 North Ocean Avenue, taking over the former Mulligan's Beach House space, with owners Donna Qvarnstro and Antonio Huerta targeting a mid-January opening. The buildout will accommodate about 260 seats including an event space, with plans for full-service lunch and dinner seven days a week and closures only on major holidays. The concept is fresh seafood with a heavy craft cocktail program in a bright, modern beachfront setting.
For residents at 5480, this matters as a leading indicator more than a lunch option. The Mulligan's corner had been in a slow decline for years, and its replacement with a serious operator is the first signal that the mid-island dining stretch is being taken seriously by capital again. The team is targeting mid-January, and the exact date will shift with construction and inspections. Plan accordingly.
Around those two, the reliable names have not moved. The Sailfish Marina remains the go-to for waterfront Florida seafood, and Johnny Longboats runs a lively menu of American classics from burgers to seafood platters. Caretta Caretta, the coastal-inspired room named for the loggerhead sea turtle, continues to draw a steady dinner crowd. Top Shell inside The Singer Oceanfront Resort holds down the casual-bar corner from morning through night.
The point of the map above is that a resident of The Dunes can put together a full week without ever crossing the Blue Heron Bridge. A working template:
None of this is exotic. It is the version of Singer Island that residents at the mid-island towers stop noticing after a year. The two-park geometry is the reason The Dunes address holds up better in the off-season than in the season everyone photographs.
If you are weighing what your unit at The Dunes is worth against the market that is now forming around ONA and the incoming Ocean Ave Kitchen & Bar, or you are considering a purchase in the building and want a candid read on how the mid-island stretch is trading this fall, Kathy Lewellen is available for a private valuation and market consultation. Request Your Home Valuation & Market Consultation.
Get assistance in determining current property value, crafting a competitive offer, writing and negotiating a contract, and much more. Contact her today.