In December 2025, the Lantana Town Council approved an 11-foot security wall for a house at 101 North Atlantic Drive, right where the Ocean Avenue bridge meets the island. Homeowner Ana Davie, who has owned the property since 2017, told the council she and her husband consider it their forever home but wanted more protection after years of people using the bridge to reach their dock uninvited.
"In those seven years, we've had to call the Police Department a couple of times, we've had items stolen off our dock, and I've had people walking on the dock."
The wall got approved taller than the town typically allows, because the Planning Commission agreed the bridge itself was the issue. It puts foot traffic within feet of a private dock that would otherwise be reachable only by boat.
That's one property, one variance, one specific complaint. But it points to something true about the rest of the island. Hypoluxo Island connects to the mainland by two bridges, one west into Lantana and a smaller one east toward South Palm Beach and the Manalapan shoreline, and which bridge you cross on a given evening ends up deciding more than your route. It decides which town's code governs your dock, which restaurant menu you're looking at for dinner, and this year, which of two very different growth stories you're standing closer to.
A Line You Cross Without Noticing You've Left One Town
Most of Hypoluxo Island sits inside Lantana town limits. But a run of docks along the island's north end, on North Atlantic Drive near where Ana Davie's wall now stands, technically sits within the Town of Palm Beach's jurisdictional waters rather than Lantana's. For years that meant anyone in that stretch needing to build, repair, or replace a dock had to go through Palm Beach's permitting office, even while living inside Lantana.
That changed on June 22, 2026, when the Lantana Town Council voted unanimously to take over permitting for those 15 properties, covering docks, piers, pilings, and boat lifts. Lantana will apply its own code when reviewing applications, and either town can end the arrangement with 180 days' notice. For the homeowners affected, it means one fewer office to call the next time a dock needs work. It's also a reminder that the island's northern tip has always technically belonged to a different town's water than the houses sitting on it.
West of the Bridge, the Kitchen Hasn't Changed Since 1889
Cross the Ocean Avenue bridge west and you land in Lantana proper, where Old Key Lime House has served the same stretch of Intracoastal since 1889, making it Florida's oldest waterfront restaurant. Owner Ryan Cordero grew up working the kitchen his parents bought in 1986, and the key lime pie on the menu today still follows the recipe his great-grandmother Agnes Cordero created in Key West in the 1840s. After a hurricane destroyed the original dining room, the restaurant rebuilt with an authentic chickee hut, constructed under the supervision of former Seminole Chief James Billie using cabbage palm fronds woven to hold against 130 mph winds.
A short walk north along the same public beach, the Dune Deck Cafe has held its open-air spot for more than three decades, serving breakfast and lunch daily with weekend brunch, the kind of place where a wait for a table is simply part of going.
Neither restaurant has expanded its footprint in that time. Neither has needed to.
East of the Point, One Restaurant Just Doubled
Head the other direction, over the bridge toward South Palm Beach and Manalapan, and the story flips. Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa, at 100 South Ocean Boulevard, opened a preview of Nobu Manalapan on October 18, 2024, taking over a space that had housed Bokēn and Stir Bar & Terrace. For a while it stayed a modest addition to the resort's dining lineup. Then in April 2026, Nobu absorbed the resort's former Polpo Palm Beach dining room as well, roughly doubling its capacity from about 65 seats to 140.
Reservations at Nobu Manalapan can only be booked up to 30 days out, and weekend evenings fill fast enough that walking in isn't really an option. Show up at Old Key Lime House on the same Friday night and the system runs the opposite way. There's no reservation line at all, just a wait by one of the indoor or outdoor bars until a table clears.
Same Island, Two Different Growth Curves
None of this comes down to which kitchen is better. It's what each side of the bridge shows about how this stretch of coast absorbs change. The Lantana side has kept its restaurant footprint essentially flat for decades, held in place as much by its own reputation as by any zoning line. The Manalapan side, anchored by a five-star resort, added roughly 75 seats to a single kitchen in one renovation cycle.
The same pattern shows up in how the two towns handle their edges. Lantana didn't ask Palm Beach to hand over its jurisdictional waters this summer. It asked for permission to administer permits inside them, a quieter kind of adjustment that shows up in a June council vote rather than a headline. Ana Davie's wall is smaller still, one property responding to one specific problem with foot traffic off a public bridge.
Put together, the island reads less like a single neighborhood and more like two systems that happen to share a strip of sand, joined by concrete and steel. One side has been serving the same pie recipe since the 1840s. The other just finished doubling its dining room in a single spring.
If you're weighing what either side of that bridge might mean for your own address on Hypoluxo Island, Christian Prakas is glad to talk it through. Schedule a private consultation whenever you're ready.
