Castaways Point Park — Palm Bay, Florida

Castaways Point Park is a City of Palm Bay riverfront park at 2990 Bay Blvd NE, Palm Bay, FL 32905, open from 7 a.m. until sunset on the Indian River Lagoon shore (City of Palm Bay Facility Directory).

The park sits on Bay Boulevard in northeast Palm Bay, on the city's lagoon edge. The City of Palm Bay describes its northeastern city limits as lying along the Indian River Lagoon, which it calls the most biologically diverse estuary in North America, with approximately 4,000 species documented (Discover Palm Bay). The phone number on the Castaways listing, (321) 952-3443, is the same one the city lists for the Captain's House at 1300 Bianca Dr NE (City Parks directory) and gives for the Tony Rosa Community Center on its rentals page (Palm Bay Recreation rentals). For questions about the park itself, the city's January 2025 reopening notice gives the Palm Bay Parks and Facilities Department at (321) 726-2777 (City of Palm Bay news).

The spelling varies in official records. The city's directory and news releases use Castaways Point Park, while state grant abstracts from 2008-09 and 2022-23 and a 2021 city flood report use Castaway Point Park. A 2006-07 state abstract describes a City of Palm Bay project at Castaways Cove Beach, which included removing the road base of the now-closed Bay Blvd, without naming Castaways Point Park (FDEP abstracts, 2006-07).

Castaways Point Park is set up for fishing, paddling and picnics: the City of Palm Bay lists a fishing pier, a fish cleaning station, a kayak and canoe launch, a boardwalk, overlooks, pavilions, grills and restrooms.

The directory groups all of these under one Castaways Point Park entry (Facility Directory). The park has two piers, north and south: the 2025 renovation added a wooden boardwalk connecting the north and south piers and a new observation deck near the north pier (City of Palm Bay news, January 15, 2025). Neither city page lists a motorboat ramp at Castaways; the kayak and canoe launch is the listed water entry, while the same directory lists a boat ramp and dock at Goode Park, 1300 Bianca Dr NE on Turkey Creek (City Parks directory).

Anglers on the Castaways Point pier need a Florida saltwater license unless exempt. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission sells a Saltwater Shoreline-Only Fishing License that is valid for saltwater fishing from the shoreline or a structure affixed to shore, which covers a pier like the one at Castaways, and the resident annual shoreline license is no-cost (FWC saltwater licenses). It is not valid when fishing from a vessel, so a kayak angler launching from Castaways Point needs a regular saltwater license, which costs $17.00 a year for Florida residents.

Castaways Point Park closed in July 2024 for a shoreline stabilization project and reopened on January 15, 2025, with the shoreline hardened, a new observation deck and boardwalk added and other renovations finished (City of Palm Bay news).

The City of Palm Bay paid for the shoreline work with a state loan. In 2024 the city secured a $2 million zero-interest loan from the state to harden the shorelines at Castaways Point Park and Stearns Point Park, 4295 Dixie Hwy, and the Castaways portion was complete by the January 2025 reopening (City of Palm Bay news, January 15, 2025). The city's FY2024 financial report named two Parks and Facilities jobs at the site: shoreline revetment and improvements at Castaways Point, paired with Stearns Park, and a boardwalk replacement at Castaways, paired with Goode Park (Palm Bay ACFR FY2024, page 15).

Palm Bay Parks and Facilities crews used the closure for other work at Castaways Point. The city lists updated landscaping, fresh paint and stain on structures, new parking stops, refurbished north stairs to the beach, the new observation deck near the north pier, the boardwalk joining the two piers and a new grill at the north pavilion (City of Palm Bay news). The south observation deck was refurbished with salvaged wood from a 2024 project at Goode Park, which the city lists on Turkey Creek.

Castaways Point Park has been improved in stages with Florida Coastal Management Program money awarded to the City of Palm Bay, in 2008-09 and 2022-23 under the Castaway Point Park name, after a 2006-07 award for a project the state called Castaways Cove Beach.

The earliest abstract, for Castaways Cove Beach, described a damaged shore. The 2006-07 abstract says the City of Palm Bay would restore Castaways Cove, where unmanaged and uncontrolled public access had degraded the cove's shorelands, and that the city's Public Works Department would remove the remaining road base of the now-closed Bay Blvd (FDEP CPI abstracts 2006-07, page 3).

The second round aimed at runoff into the lagoon. The 2008-09 abstract describes Castaway Point Park as adjacent to the Indian River Lagoon, part of the National Estuary Program, and says the city would relocate vehicle access ways and pedestrian walkways to prevent erosion and stormwater runoff, with access ways stabilized with pervious coquina pavement to improve filtration (FDEP CPI abstracts 2008-09, page 3).

The 2022-23 award of $60,000 went to the Palm Bay Castaway Point Park Restoration and Enhancement Project, to repair the North and South Pier boardwalks, upgrade lighting and restrooms and add educational signage about the site's historical significance and the estuary (FDEP CPI abstracts 2022-23, page 1). The Coastal Partnership Initiative passes on federal funds from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to Florida's coastal local governments (page 2).

Yes: the City of Palm Bay rents two pavilions at Castaways Point Park, Castaways #1 with electricity at $65 a day plus tax and Castaways #2 without amenities at $50 a day plus tax (Palm Bay Recreation rentals).

Palm Bay pavilions, including the two at Castaways Point, are available seven days a week from dawn to dusk and can be rented on all holidays, according to the city rentals page (rentals page). Reservations are first come, first served and are generally accepted up to one year in advance. All renters are subject to pre-approval and contracts are required; for more information the page lists the Tony Rosa Community Center at (321) 952-3443 and the Ted Whitlock Community Center at (321) 952-3231, and it also offers online pavilion rental.

One Castaways pavilion is crossed by a mapped coastal flood line. The City of Palm Bay's 2021 floodplain progress report says the Limited Wave Action (LiMWA) line on the new flood maps crosses two parcels at Castaway Point, one of them the city-owned park, and that the line goes through a small picnic pavilion in the park, but no renovations are required (Palm Bay Floodplain Management Plan progress report 2021, page 3).

Castaways Point Park lies in the city that began as Tillman: the City of Palm Bay's timeline says homesteaders settled a town called Tillman at the mouth of Turkey Creek in 1887 (City of Palm Bay history).

The same Palm Bay timeline records that in 1925 the 200 residents of Tillman petitioned to change the town's name to Palm Bay, that Palm Bay was incorporated as a city with 2,808 residents in 1960 and that scenic U.S. 1 was completed in 1963 (Palm Bay Through The Years). The city's history page does not tie a specific event to the Castaways site, and the 2022-23 state grant abstract speaks only of the site's historical significance without detail. The grant's educational signage was proposed to provide public education on that history (FDEP CPI abstracts 2022-23).

What the official record does show is a long effort to keep the Castaways shore usable. Between the coquina walkways of 2008-09, the $60,000 pier and restroom grant of 2022-23 and the shoreline hardening finished in January 2025, the City of Palm Bay has worked on this stretch of Indian River Lagoon frontage on Bay Boulevard in at least three separate rounds since 2008. Last verified: October 12, 2026, on the City of Palm Bay website and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection grant abstracts.