Bay Harbor Islands: From Mangroves to Easy-Living
Bay Harbor Islands was born from mangroves.
It's true. In the mid-1940s, developer Shepard Broad, a Russian immigrant to the United States, purchased two mangrove-covered sandbars just off the coast of North Miami, filled them in until they became legitimate islands, and started a town. Bay Harbor Islands was born.
Now, the town that shares these two man-made landmasses — connected to both Miami's barrier beach to the east and the western mainland by the Broad Causeway — is home to some 5,100 people, a luxurious waterfront hotel, shops, galleries and a vibrant residential community.
On the western island, measuring 103 acres, one finds single-family homes, with a median value hovering at around $299,000. On the 150-acre eastern island are the businesses and multi-family housing that helps keep Bay Harbor Islands dynamic.
Community
Represented in the residential mix: Columbian, Cuban, Peruvian, Venezuelan, even Romanian and Turkish communities. People from all over have found work and a life to live in the community, surrounded by the emerald waters of the Biscayne Bay.
Living in such proximity to water and natural beauty, Bar Harbor Islands is eco-conscious, too. Recent environmental initiatives in town have included free town swap-outs of old showerheads for newer high-efficiency models.
Children go to school right in Bay Harbor Islands, staying close to home until graduating from grade 8 at the Ruth K. Broad K–8 Center. After that students attend classes at the nearby Nautilus Middle School in Miami Beach, and then the Miami Beach Senior High School.
A manager-council government runs the town, and it helps organize whole-community events like story hours at the children's park and outdoor movies along the Kane Concourse shopping district.
Those kinds of activities help keep Bay Harbor Islands vibrant between January and May — months that remain comfortable, this far south, with lows in the 60s — but come the summer months, the beachside nature of the place really heats up.
Visiting
If you aren't already a resident, the place to stay is the four-star Daddy O Hotel, on East Bay Harbor Drive. From there, after a complimentary hot breakfast, you're ready to take in some island living.
Kane Concourse, named after Bay Harbor Islands' co-founder Benjamin N. Kane — who joined Broad after he started filling in the sandbars — is home to boutique clothing and couture, jewelry shops, spas, and activities for the kids such as a family-friendly clay and ceramics studio. It’s also home base for the locals, with groceries, tailors, tutoring and an auto dealership.
Food is a big deal in Bay Harbor Islands. From Thai and sushi, to French kosher (!) and the classic American steakhouse, options for travelers and full-timers abound. For lunch, or a bite of lighter fare, there's a French bakery and an Italian pizza shop. There's even a gourmet grocer if you have some culinary chops of your own.
If you'd like to stay close to the Inn, at the end of your day, The Palm restaurant is right inside. Hailed as one of the greater Miami area's oldest dining establishments, it offers fine dining along the lines of Italian-American inflected seafood, steaks and old country specialties such as linguine with white clam sauce and veal scallopine.
Once you've got all these options down, the sophistication and glamor of South Beach is just a few miles further down the main stretch of the barrier island, and the stratospherically exclusive village of Indian Creek is just west of Surfside. Miami hangs on the horizon, always, a jewel of daytime and nightlife options — from museums and theater, to clubs, concerts, world-class dining and history.
Getting around Bay Harbor Islands is part of the easy-living package, too. A free bus takes riders west to Miami and east to Surfside. With connections to the Bal Harbour Shuttle in town and in neighboring Surfside, you can use public transportation all the way to Haulover Beach Park to the north, or south to Sunny Isles and Aventura. The point is, while there's municipal parking in Bay Harbor Islands, you don't need to bring the car, but you will want to move around.
All this from mangroves. Broad's vision of a town on two islands — one residential, one commercial — has come to pass, and while Bay Harbor Islands' visionary passed away in 2001, his imagination of how South Floridians live is very much alive and ready to be discovered.
