For years, East Atlantic Boulevard felt like two separate places connected by a car ride. Old Town on one end. The pier on the other. A mile of half-used parking lots and dated office facades in between. If you live in Pompano, you already know the drive. What you may not have registered yet is that the drive is optional now. The stretch from Bailey Contemporary Arts down to the Fisher Family Pier has quietly turned into a coherent walk, and the piece that closed the gap opened its front doors this year.
That piece is Mayla Pompano, and the corridor it created is the reason your Friday nights are about to look different.
The Mile That Wasn't Walkable Until It Was
The 355-unit Mayla Pompano was built on parking lots behind the former Bank of America and Chase Bank buildings on East Atlantic Boulevard, on opposite sides of NE 24th Avenue just west of Publix. Two eight-story buildings, connected by a covered pedestrian bridge over NE 24th Avenue at the third floor, the first pedestrian bridge over a city street in Pompano Beach.
The point is not the apartments. The point is what the apartments did to the sidewalk. The developer built a 6,932-square-foot public pedestrian plaza on the east side of the former Bank of America building where parking used to be, added glazing to the ground floor, and opened it up for restaurant or retail use. A stretch of Atlantic that residents used to cross by car now has a plaza, an active ground floor, and steady foot traffic from the 355-unit community, which received its temporary certificate of occupancy and reached 40 percent leased within its first month of leasing.
The first tenant to commit to that new ground floor tells you where the corridor is headed. Calaveras Cantina, which already operates in Boca and Jupiter, is opening a 6,402-square-foot Mexican restaurant at the Mayla Pompano development on East Atlantic Boulevard in 2026. That is a Boca-and-Jupiter operator picking Pompano, not the other way around.
The Beach End Has Been Ready for a While
The Fishing Village finished its build-out before the middle of the corridor caught up, which is why it can sometimes feel like a resort dropped onto our beach. It is not. It is ours, and the tenant list is worth memorizing because you will end up at each of them.
| Spot | Character |
|---|---|
| Beach House Pompano | Wood-burning grill, ocean views, dressier |
| Oceanic Pompano | Modern seafood, event-friendly private dining |
| Lucky Fish | Tiki, toes in the sand, sunrise breakfast |
| Baresco | Mexican, private-event capable |
| Pier 6 Rooftop | Six stories up, at the Home2/TRU Hilton |
| Burger Fi, Kilwins, Cannoli Kitchen, How You Brewin | Grab-and-go, coffee, sweets |
The Fishing Village currently houses Beach House Pompano, Oceanic Pompano, Lucky Fish Pompano, Alvin's Island, Burger Fi, Kilwins, Cannoli Kitchen, Baresco, How You Brewin Coffee Company, and the dual-branded Hilton Tru/Home2 Suites hotel. If you have not been up to Pier 6 Rooftop, an oceanfront dining destination perched six stories above the Atlantic, its Saturday programming is the easiest reintroduction. Tropic Nights runs every Saturday with a live DJ spinning Latin hits and open-format beats.
One more addition worth knowing about before you plan a beach day this spring. Construction on the new beach concession kiosk and public restrooms is underway, with completion anticipated in Spring 2026. Once open, the concession will serve coffee, pastries, and breakfast sandwiches in the morning, then shift into Greek-themed food, hamburgers, and hot dogs through the day. Coffee at the sand without walking to the pier is a small thing that changes how you use the beach.
The Pier Is Still the Best Free Afternoon in the City
If you have not walked the Fisher Family Pier since it reopened, do that first. The 900-foot pier was rebuilt with an elevated structure to withstand sea-level rise, nearly doubled in width to allow fishing and leisure strolling side by side, shaded with large overhead sails, and finished with a design at the foot shaped like a pompano fish. The end of the pier is shaped like a pompano fish complete with a fisheye hole, an open window to spotting sea life below.
If you want to fish and do not own gear, the math is friendly. For $27 the bait shop at the entrance sets you up with a rod, gear, bait, a bucket, a knife, a one-day license, and parking validation. A day on the pier costs less than parking downtown in most cities.
Getting between the corridor and the beach without moving your car is the other underused resource. The free Circuit shuttle connects the beach hotels and lodging to the Fishing Village. Locals use it too. You can leave the car near Old Town, spend the morning at the pier, and be back for dinner without hunting parking twice.
First Friday Is the Anchor
The single event that pulled Old Town back into rhythm is Old Town Untapped, held at NE 1st Street and N. Flagler Avenue from 6 to 10 pm, free for all ages. Each event features live music, a DJ, craft beer, food trucks, arts and crafts vendors, and gallery tours at Bailey Contemporary Arts. If you have not been in a while, the season lineup is already booked out.
2025-26 Old Town Untapped headliners at BaCA (41 NE 1st Street)
- Jan 2, 2026: The Somethings
- Feb 6, 2026: Stryder
- Mar 6, 2026: MUN
- Apr 3, 2026: Crazy Fingers
- May 1, 2026: Rubixx
- Jun 5, 2026: Making Faces
The 2026 performers include January 2 The Somethings, February 6 Stryder, March 6 MUN, April 3 Crazy Fingers, and May 1 Rubixx. Making Faces closes the season on June 5, 2026 with a blend of rock, reggae, and funk.
While you are already in Old Town, walk past 61 NE 1st Street. The Vault is under construction in the old bank building at 61 NE 1st Street, designed in a 1920s speakeasy style that will display the original bank vault and feature murals depicting the era and the Ashley Gang, who robbed the bank in 1924. Whether or not it is open by the time you read this, the storyline is the reason to walk by. Bank robbery lore inside a functioning cocktail bar is not a thing most Broward downtowns can offer.
Building One Saturday Out of All of This
The corridor rewards a sequence, not a single stop. Here is how a resident actually uses it.
Start on the pier around sunrise. Lucky Fish Beach Bar and Grill serves an oceanfront breakfast with toes in the sand at the base of the Fisher Family Pier. Rent a rod for a couple of hours if the fish are moving. Walk the promenade. When the sun gets serious, take the Circuit inland.
Spend the middle of the day off Atlantic. Recurring events include Old Town Untapped every first Friday, and the Green Market Pompano Beach runs bi-monthly between November and April. The green market is the daytime companion to the first-Friday party, and the Saturday timing pairs well with a slow lunch in Old Town before you drift back east.
Anchor your evening at the beach end. Beach House for a proper dinner, Oceanic if you want the private-dining option for a group, Pier 6 upstairs if you want the DJ. Nobody moves the car after 10 a.m.
The move here is not any one restaurant or event. It is that Old Town, the Mayla plaza, and the Fishing Village now function as a single strip. That is new. Six years ago it was three disconnected zones.
Why This Matters If You Live Here
Corridors like this are the reason certain neighborhoods age well and others do not. A pier gets rebuilt. A first-Friday event finds a groove. A luxury multifamily project fills its middle stretch with a plaza and pulls a Boca operator across county lines. Each move on its own is a headline. Stacked together over five years, they rewrite what a Saturday in Pompano feels like.
You do not need to be shopping for a home to notice the shift. You just need to walk it. The next time someone from out of town visits, park once near BaCA, and let the mile do the work.
If you have been living the older version of this corridor and want an inspection-minded read on how the newer construction along East Atlantic and the beachfront actually holds up, or on how the shift is affecting the streets around your own block, the team at Jared Nelson is happy to talk through it. Schedule a Consultation whenever you are ready.
