For twenty-two years the walk out of Watergarden's lobby ended the same way. You crossed the fountain court, turned toward Las Olas, and picked up whatever the block gave you that day. The park at the corner of Las Olas Boulevard and SE 1st Avenue had been closed since 2023. This fall is the first season the whole route is open again, and it is not the same route.
The block finally caught up to the tower
The Fort Lauderdale Downtown Development Authority and the Huizenga Park Foundation completed a two-year, $15 million redevelopment of the 3.6-acre riverfront park, and the space reopened to the public during a two-day community celebration on January 24 and 25, 2026. If you were traveling then, or you skipped the ribbon cutting, October is when the park starts behaving like a park rather than a soft launch. The programming calendar has filled in, the concessions are running, and the plants have had a growing season.
The redesign is by Perkins&Will, built by MBR Construction. The bones matter because they will shape how you use the space:
- A central open lawn, shaded seating areas, a children's play moundscape, downtown Fort Lauderdale's first designated dog run, and expanded riverfront seating.
- The restored Spirit of Fort Lauderdale Fountain and contemporary landscaping that reinforce visual connections to the New River.
- Two new public art installations by Manolo Valdés and Cey Adams, plus more than 13,500 new plants across 58 species and 88 new shade trees.
The dog run is the single biggest quality-of-life change for tower residents. Watergarden owners with dogs have been driving to Snyder Park or hoofing it to Smoker Family Park for years. There is now a proper run inside the four-minute walk from the lobby.
Two openings that reshape the walk
The park is the anchor, but the two openings inside it are what change the evening.
Sweetwaters, a full-service waterfront restaurant developed by the team behind Miami's Rusty Pelican, is planned for the park and expected to open in fall 2026, operated by Specialty Restaurants Corporation and designed by ICRAVE with JVB Architect. The scale is the story. Seating for up to 291 guests across 6,140 square feet of indoor dining, plus 3,500 square feet of riverfront terraces and patios overlooking the water. The restaurant will first debut with dinner service, offering coastal cuisine alongside a cocktail program and happy hour, then serve lunch and eventually a café-style morning counter with coffee, juices, and grab-and-go options.
That morning counter is the piece to watch. Watergarden residents who currently walk to GreenWise for a coffee will have a river-side option roughly two blocks closer.
While Sweetwaters finishes its build-out, the park is not waiting for it. The first concession partner, Mr. Smash Burgers, is launching a branded food stand that will bring its gourmet burgers to Huizenga Park, the start of a local culinary lineup designed to activate the park throughout the day.
The park now sits at the corner of Las Olas Boulevard and SE 1st Avenue, four blocks from Watergarden's front door. For the first time since 2023, walking east out of the lobby lands you in programmed public space rather than a construction fence.
The fall event calendar, mapped to your building
Esplanade Park sits on the opposite side of the Riverwalk, roughly a five-minute walk west of Watergarden along the New River. Huizenga Park is four minutes east. Together they anchor the two ends of the Riverwalk that residents can actually reach on foot. Here is what fills that stretch through year-end.
October
- Tunes on Top runs Wednesdays and Fridays, 12:00 to 1:30 p.m. at Tunnel Top Plaza through October 9, 2026.
- The 10th Annual Riverwalk Fall Festival lands Saturday, October 17, 2026 from 12 to 4 p.m. at Esplanade Park, with food trucks, seasonal vendors, and hands-on activities.
November
- The 2nd Annual Downtown Day of the Dead is Saturday, November 7, 2026 at Esplanade Park.
- Light Up Lauderdale (Get Lit) is the same night, November 7, at Esplanade Park.
- The 5th Annual Riverwalk International Food Festival is Saturday, November 14, 2026 at Esplanade Park.
December and beyond
- The Riverwalk Holiday Lights Cruise sails from Laura Ward Riverwalk Plaza in December 2026.
- The 17th Annual Riverwalk Stone Crab & Seafood Festival returns to Esplanade Park in January 2027.
Every first Sunday
- A free jazz concert runs on the first Sunday of every month, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Esplanade Park and Riverwalk, part of a year-round activity slate that has landed Fort Lauderdale's Riverwalk on the list of top ten U.S. Riverwalks for the second consecutive year.
If you have out-of-town guests coming through this fall, that first-Sunday jazz plus a walk to Huizenga Park is a two-hour block that answers the question you always get on Saturday night about what there is to do the next morning.
Where to eat between here and there
The dining spine of the Riverwalk was reshaped before Huizenga's reopening, and the density is easy to miss when you drive rather than walk. Within a fifteen-minute stroll from Watergarden, in rough east-to-west order along the water:
Ukiah Japanese Smokehouse, led by Chef Michael Lewis, sits on the riverfront downtown with a large central bar, a waterfront terrace, and a wood-fired smoker where Japanese soul food meets American BBQ.
The House on the River is a historic waterfront restaurant located directly on the river known as the Venice of America in the heart of downtown Fort Lauderdale.
Opa Santorini by Georgios brings Greek island cooking to Las Olas Boulevard in a riverside setting, with a menu built around fresh seafood, grilled specialties, and shareable meze.
Ocean Prime sits at Las Olas Marina on the seafood-and-steakhouse end of the spectrum.
Boathouse at the Riverside serves Mediterranean and New American food in a riverside setting.
Add Sweetwaters when it opens this fall, and the number of full-service waterfront restaurants inside a ten-minute walk of Watergarden's lobby crosses a threshold. It stops being a short list you can recite and starts being a rotation.
For the times you want the block, not the boat: Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar and Lobster Bar Sea Grille sit on Las Olas within walking distance, and Louie Bossi's, Big City Tavern, and El Camino cover the two blocks between the tower and Andrews.
A note on 500 and 833 East Las Olas
Two openings farther east are worth putting on the calendar because they will pull weeknight foot traffic your direction. At 500 E. Las Olas, Amal, the Coconut Grove Lebanese concept from the Ink Entertainment group behind Byblos, is bringing its shareable-plate program north later in 2026. Two blocks east at 833 E. Las Olas, restaurateur Marc Falsetto is opening Caviar Club in fall 2026, a 1980s-inspired steakhouse and lounge designed by Garrett Singer Studio, the New York firm behind Flyfish Club and Major Food Group's Torrisi.
Neither is a five-minute walk from the tower. Both are close enough that they change what "walking down Las Olas for dinner" means in November versus what it meant in August.
The Dine Out window is still open
If you have not used it yet, Dine Out Lauderdale runs Saturday, August 1 through Wednesday, September 30, 2026, with specially priced prix fixe menus across restaurants ranging from waterfront seafood spots to Michelin-recognized rooms. The three-course menu at a place like Ocean Prime or Boathouse is the cheapest way to test-drive a room you have been meaning to try before the fall event calendar takes over the reservation book.
The Sunday you should actually plan
If you want to see what the new Riverwalk actually feels like, pick a first Sunday in October, November, or December. Start at Esplanade Park for the 11 a.m. jazz set. Walk east along the river past the House on the River, cross under the Andrews Avenue bridge, and end at Huizenga Park for lunch from Mr. Smash Burgers on the lawn. If Sweetwaters is open by the time you read this, sit on the 3,500-square-foot terrace instead.
That loop was not walkable for two years. It is now. And it is the argument for why the block around Watergarden is the block it was sold as when the building opened.
If you own at Watergarden and are curious what this shift has done to buyer interest in the tower, or you are watching the building from outside and wondering when to move, D'Angelo Realty Group has tracked the New River corridor building by building for twenty-three years. Request a free condo market valuation, and we will walk you through what the reopened front yard is doing to the numbers on your floor.
